Today is the National Day of Prayer. All across the nation there will be prayer events held. Some will gather at city halls, fire houses, in front of court houses, in football stadiums, and churches to pray. Important officials will make speeches and lead crowds in prayer. Beautiful worship will be lifted to the Lord. Influential pastors will be invited to breakfast at the Whitehouse. Prayer rallies will be held in little never heard of communities
I have participated in and lead such events in the past. Today, I turn to my attention to a different group. I salute the men and women who will pray alone. They will not assemble with crowds. There are no crowds who want to pray to be found. They will not stand in the spotlight. These faithful prayer warriors will once again take up the gauntlet to stand in the gap for their nation, their community, their church, and their family and friends as they have done tirelessly for decades.
I salute the prayer warriors who make their bedsides or living rooms a prayer altar day in and day out. Many hold up the torch of intercession alone in churches that have long ago seen better days. They pray more than their pastors pray. Many tenaciously intercede for this nation with broken hearts knowing how far we have drifted from God.
I salute the prayer warriors who make every day a day of prayer without the fanfare. I salute the prayer warriors who often pray in tears more than with words. I think of faithful pastors in obscure places serving small churches but who pray with fervor. They intercede for their flock, pray for the lost, and cry out to God for healing of the land. I think of homebound people who can no longer go to the house of worship but they pray mightily for a fresh move of God. I salute the faithful man, woman, and student who will be the only one to show up today for the National Day of Prayer in their communities.
I salute the prayer warriors who prefer to keep company with God more than people. I am thankful for these backbone of our nation people who will never be noticed, recognized, or rewarded until eternity. While so many preachers, worship leaders, Bible teachers, and authors get all the notoriety we will be surprised in eternity to see prayer warriors rewarded more highly.
I salute these persevering intercessors who never give up even though some answers to their prayers have been delayed for decades. They still pray in faith tenaciously clinging to and standing on the promises of God. I celebrate the many testimonies of the mighty ways God has used their lives of prayer.
I am humbled when I consider the depth of their prayer lives and see the shallowness of my own. I am thankful for people God has used in history to change things through prayer. Such people as John Hyde, Reese Howells, George Mueller, Leonard Ravenhill, E.M. Bounds, Jim and Carol Cymbala, Beth Moore, Amy Carmichael, Shirley Dobson, Lottie Moon, and Bertha Smith. What legacies of faith they left behind or are still leaving. We are still reaping answers to their great prayer lives.
I think of modern day intercessors. I am now thinking of two ladies who have faithfully held up the torch of prayer for revival and awakening in Seminole, TX early each morning. They have been doing this since 2010. I am thinking of the group of senior adult women at FBC Paradise, TX who have been gathering to pray for their community and church for over two decades. I am thankful to have been the recipient of the prayers from both groups over the years.
I am thankful for the intercessors at Faith Community Church. I am thankful for the three men and two students I gather with each Sunday morning to lift our church, our services, and community in prayer. I am thankful for the intercessions of my wife who often lays her hands on me and prays over me in the middle of the night to receive inspiration for messages and anointing to preach them.
Prayer warriors do not draw attention to themselves. Often they are quiet and unassuming. They prefer their ministry to be done in the backgrounds. They like isolated prayer closets away from the hustle and bustle of life. They have faith enough to move mountains. You will not see them on the platform of some conference. You will not see them playing a role today in most National Day of Prayer activities. No. They will most likely be alone somewhere taking their watch in prayer alone with God. It is to these people I salute and give God praise for you.
On a personal level, I can without reservation say I was saved in part due to the faithful intercessions of a pastor's wife named Doris Roberts. She often saw me running around the neighborhood and received a burden to pray for me. She did so and years later God used the student minister at her church to lead to faith in Jesus Christ. How could she have known as she prayed for me, God would call me to preach, to write books, and write these blogs. Mrs Doris Roberts, I salute you and thank you for intercessions on my behalf.
Praise be to God for the intercessors and the true prayer warriors who tirelessly stand in the gap.
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