Night Watch

Jesus,

You will not allow me to sleep and it is my turn to take my watch on the wall. I lift up my friend to You. With all my heart I ask You to penetrate his heart and mind with Your truth. I ask You to minister to Him even now while he sleeps. You love him. You pursue him. I ask You to penetrate his heart with You reviving Holy Spirit. I ask You to call Him to repentance and break through like a jack hammer on his heart. I ask You to relentlessly pursue him like a man being chased by rabid dogs nipping at his heels. I pray for this one You love to have no peace until he is fully aligned with You and Your purposes for his life. Until that day, I ask You to keep me up during the night watches to keep watch over his soul. May the burden You have given me for him never lighten or lessen. I pray it will only intensify until You win the victory.

I lift up the one overwhelmed this morning. As they battle despair, grief, sorrow, and doubt today I ask You to show up in their situations and manifest Your power and Your glory. I ask You to lift the heavy loads they bear and press them down. I ask You to come to their rescue and give them some relief, hope, and brighten their day with some good news for a change. I ask You to hold them firmly in Your hand and reassure them You have not forgotten them nor forsaken them in these painful days. I ask You to show Yourself to them as they struggle through the miry clay of confusion. You are the Lord of the universe. Nothing is impossible with You. I ask You to prove that today. Not that You have to or that we deserve for You to. You know we are frail. You know how often our faith is fragile. For everyone suffering today through overwhelming circumstances I ask You to step in and help. I ask You to turn the tide from bad to good, from loss to gain, from sorrow to rejoicing, and from doubt to faith. As if You personally came in the flesh to comfort and reassure, Holy Spirit, I ask You to come comfort, to console, and to encourage Your broken ones.

I lift up those battling cancer today. Jesus, I still believe You are healer.Not just You were healer or You will be healer in the future. You are healer today and in this hour.  Cancer is not bigger than You. Cancer is not an immovable mountain. You know the ones who need Your healing touch. I ask You to drive out every single cell  of cancer from their bodies for the glory of Your name. I ask You to minister to these in their excruciating pain. I ask You to supply hope to those facing hopeless diagnosis. I ask You to help those who have no other place to turn to for help but You because they have exhausted every other resource to no avail.

I lift up ailing churches. I lift up weary members who are tired of pleading for You to turn their church around but see conditions worsen. I lift up those who serve, give, labor, and plan but none of it has turned their church around. I lift up broken hearted people who recall the former glory days of their church home. I lift up those who sit in the pews brokenhearted over the spirit of apathy among members and the irreverence among worshipers. I lift up those who've devoted their lives to serving You in their local church but have seen the church fall on some hard and lean times. Jesus, I ask You to call the dead bones back to life. I ask You to breathe life into these daed churches again.

I lift up our sin sick nation. We continue to defy You and Your laws. We flaunt sin publicly. People openly mock You. We have legalized sin and called it a right. We have glorified Satan and the occult. We have murdered close to 200 million babies denying them the right to live and serve Your purposes in their generation. We have become obsessed with pleasure no matter how obscene or immoral it might be. We have defiantly ignored Your warnings and rejected the gospel in large part as a nation. I plead with You to send a tsunami wave of conviction all across this land. I ask You to bring this nation to our knees in repentance and submission to You. I ask You to start with pastors. I ask You to convict those going through the motions mechanically just to get a paycheck. I ask You to stir fresh fire in their souls and call them into account with You. I ask You to call them back to the prayer closet as they intercede for their congregations and communities. I ask You to rebuke the hypocrites in the pews and call them to repentance and holiness. I ask You to break the silence with the sounds of weeping and wailing of church members repenting of sin and getting right with You. I ask You to send another Great Awakening. I ask You to start pockets of revival fire in every corner of this nation and let the flames spread until the entire nation has been engulfed in revival flames.

None of us truly know what You will do today. Whether today is a day of blessing and rejoicing or a day of sorrow and trials, we want to trust You. We have nowhere else to turn. We have nobody else who can help us. YOU are our only hope as people, as families, as churches, and as a country. We know politicians will never save us. We know scholars will never solve all the problems. We know doctors and researchers cannot cure every disease. We know financial planners cannot save us from every financial disaster. In all these situations we only have You. And we sate that You are sufficient. You are enough. You are all we need.

So with all our hearts we turn to You. We cry out to You. We seek You. We submit to You. This is the day You have made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. We declare great is Your faithfulness and Your mercies are new every morning including this one. In Jesus name I pray, amen and amen.