Prayer Letter August 2012: Supplication
May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you! ...... May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans! May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! - Psalm 20:1, 4-5
Oh gracious and tender God, thank you for these encouraging words spoken by the Psalmist. In these verses of God-breathed scripture, I hear You urging us to bring our desires and our needs to You. What an invitation! That we, a bunch of sin-covered wretches, could ask YOU, a holy and perfect God for anything, is astounding.
And the sad truth is, that I waste this great opportunity on a daily basis. Forgive me Father. Forgive me for not bringing all things to You. And forgive me for not believing that You can and will answer all prayers. Forgive me for all of my “safe prayers”, prayers that are vague, prayers that betray my lack of faith in a God who hears and who acts. As You teach me, and our church to become a praying church, give us confidence to pray specific prayers, and to pray big prayers. And then let us rejoice as we watch You, in all Your sovereign might answer these prayers.
And Father, as I grow in my faith and in my knowledge and understanding of You, please make my petitions those that will glorify You. Teach me to submit all my plans to You, resting in the countless promises that You will guide my steps. Please Lord, align my desires with Your desires ... and then fulfill all my petitions!
Amen.
Please be in prayer for the following:
- That as college students return to Bellingham, that they would meet Jesus, early in the Autumn.
- For our resident missionaries focused on Western, that God would grant them opportunities to witness to those He is pursuing.
- For 40 baptisms by the end of this year.
- For our upcoming Perspectives course, that God would be glorified through the course and be worshipped all the more by those involved in it - that they would be more captivated by God’s glory and delight in Him making a name for himself in all the earth.
- That Redeemer would become a praying church.