DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT - THURSDAY: Principles For Praying That Pleases Our Saviour

"It is in the field of prayer that life's critical battles are lost or won. We must conquer all our circumstances there. We must first of all bring them there. We must survey them there. We must master them there. In prayer we bring our spiritual enemies into the Presence of God and we fight them there. Have you tried that? Or have you been satisfied to meet and fight your foes in the open spaces of the world?" -- J. H. Jowett.
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First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. -- 1Tim 2:1-4. (ESV)

As we come to the conclusion of our prayer series, we remind ourselves that we are in a battle with the enemy, and that prayer is the key! Paul seen the need to encourage Timothy in the matter of prayer, there is a power in prayer that will defeat the enemy and change our lives in a style we really desire. So the purpose of this series was to encourage all of us to pray more!

He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. -- John Bunyan.

The battle that we are in now is this; more souls need to be won for Christ, the Church needs to be strengthened and encouraged! We need to learn to pray in specifics rather than generalities - to pray retail rather than wholesale. Our Third Principle is…

Pray That God Will Set Them Free
Pray That their eyes will be opened… And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. -- 2 Cor 4:3-4.

If the gospel is obscured, it is only to those who are perishing. Because they wilfully refuse to believe, Satan by his power has blinded their thoughts from being illuminated by the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the exact reflection of the Father.

Pray that we will be wise in speech and God will set them free… And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. -- 2 Tim 2:24-26.

Our opponents of Christ’s gospel will try and get us involved in arguing about it, we must not get trapped into this, but be kind to them and patiently keep teaching the word with gentleness during all of this! It is up to the Father to turn them around from their evil and that they may be freed from the trap of the devil, and this is what we must fervently pray for!

Pray! Because they cannot come unless God moves them… No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. -- John 6:44.

When they realise that they are sinners by the Holy Spirit, they will be willing and glad to give up anything that will hinder them from God’s salvation! And Jesus will forgive them, grant them a new life and they will be with Him on the last day! Our prayers are very important to the sinner; it is not the father’s will that any of them should perish!

Bob Woods tells the story of a couple who took their son, 11, and daughter, 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point in the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earth's surface. The little girl, suddenly enveloped in utter darkness, was frightened and began to cry.

Immediately was heard the voice of her brother: "Don't cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights." In a real sense, that is the message of the gospel: light is available, even when darkness seems overwhelming. -- Bob Woods.

Pray that God will give them eyes to see, faith to believe and the will to respond… But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. -- Rom 10:8-10.

"It will not do for us to go to Heaven by ourselves. We must be on fire, friends for saving others. To be workers will draw heaven down and will draw others to heaven . Without a readiness to work, the Spirit of prayer will not come." - Evan Roberts.

We are surrounded with a large number of people who have never heard and understood, they need us to really enter into prayer that they may be saved. We need to pray that our lives will be salt and light to them, we need to pray that Holy Spirit will move on their behalf to help them see and to call them to Himself, we need to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send out workers to bring them in and then be willing to be those workers.

Loving Father, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to be a prayer warrior for you, that I might please you! Help me to pray for building relationships, for opportunities to witness and for boldness to speak your word! Help me Lord to pray fervently for the lost, for their salvation! In Jesus name I pray! Amen.