Lorie and I have found ourselves praying a lot recently. Our family has always had a pattern of praying, typically falling within the context of meals and bedtime. However, we have found those times of prayer with more depth and concern recently. I am not sure on the particular reason but I do know that Lorie and I have felt more compelled to pray for more things than we had in the past weeks. We recently sent out a newsletter for the month of August and included two prayer requests that have been heavy on our hearts. David Hantla fighting Leukemia and our teammates the Dodds making a decision on the best way to care for their families reoccurring strep throat.
Prayer is one of those things that cannot flourish if a proud heart is present. Prayer is a believer in Christ placing his confidence in someone other than himself. He/she is admitting an inability to control a situation or people involved in a situation. It is an act of continual trust in God through Jesus Christ that God will work everything out. Scripture continually speaks about it: Matthew 5:44, Matthew 6:7, Matthew 26:41, Mark 11:24, John 17:15, James 5:13 is just a sampling.
John Piper has a great statement on how we should think about life. He says, “Life is war because the maintenance of our faith and the laying hold on eternal life is a constant fight”.1 He goes on to say that we should view prayer like our walkie talkie. Communicating with God asking for help in the midst of the war. He goes on to say, “But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den.”
So I would ask you to consider taking up John Piper’s statement Life is war and let it shape your need for prayer. I know it has been a continual benefit for our family!
Here are some prayer requests that we have been bringing before the Lord and would love it if you had the opportunity to pray for them as well.
- The Hardaway family. They are missionaries training with Finisterre Vision – desiring to come to PNG at the end of 2017 or the start of 2018. Pray they would finish training and raise their support.
- The people of Mareroro. Pray that God would speed the language learning process for the Canns and Dodds so they are able to learn the local language quickly and preach the gospel to the people of Mareroro.
- David Hantla is the son of an elder at Grace Bible Church. He is enduring continual pain, discomfort and sickness from the continued chemotherapy treatments. Pray that God would be glorified in healing him! Also pray that his parents and siblings would be encouraged and built up in God’s good care of their son – regardless of the outcome.
- Evangelism with our guards. I continue to meet with our guards, working through a chronological teaching program. It has been a great time with these men and I am praying that the Lord would use it to bring salvation to some of the guards that look out after our property in Madang.
- The salvation of our children. The greatest evangelistic ministry that we have is within our home. God has given us three littles ones that need to hear about their sin before God and his free offering of salvation from those sins through belief in Jesus Christ. Pray that we would be able to communicate those truths to our kids.
1: Piper, John. http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/prayer-the-work-of-missions: Accessed 01/09/2016 at 10:33am.
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