Requesting Prayer

…Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints–and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel… Ephesians 6:18-19

Pray That I Will Speak Boldly For the Lord

This is an awesome prayer request from Paul, but there is something that is missing that makes his appeal remarkable. Paul never writes in any of his Epistles, “Oh yea…and please remember to pray that I be released from this awful jail.”

Maybe God Wants Me Here

I am so quick to assume God doesn’t want me in a difficult situation that I mistakenly pray to be released from it, when in reality the Lord has put me there ~or~ has allowed me to wallow in it for a purpose I have yet to realize. Paul understood this, referring to himself as an ‘ambassador in chains’ considering it an honor to be in such a predicament.

Shining Opportunities

Regardless of what we are going through, there is always in opportunity to glorify the Father. Paul could have curled up and died in that jail, but instead he prayed for boldness in his ministry and wrote much of the New Testament (keeping in mind that he wasn’t aware of that last little bit of information). Certainly we have opportunities to shine as well and my prayer for you is that you would speak boldly the Gospel truths in your rotten health, in your financial dept, in your failed marriage, in the losing of your job, or whatever ugly thing you find yourself in.

Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

Our Hope Is In Christ

I submit to you whatever your situation it is not as grim as what these children go through daily; while our struggles are real, they are likely temporary and/or incomparable to those ensnared in abject poverty. Boldly share what you have been freely given—share the hope of Christ with a child in desperate need.

COMPASSION dave