We are in the middle of a week of fasting and prayer for America called for by Australian believers. Because of that, I am recycling a blog series that I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed for the US. In short,\u00a0He showed me these four things\u00a0about which\u00a0to pray:<\/p>\n
Originally posted last year (seventh in series):<\/em><\/p>\n Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.<\/em> Joshua 1:9<\/p>\n \u2026and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. <\/em>Ephesians 6:19-20<\/p>\n When I heard the Lord direct me to pray for people to know what to do<\/em>, I understood that He was referring to everyone<\/em> with a role to play in this hour. However, I also knew that He was speaking in<\/em> particular<\/em> of leaders, both in the secular world and in the church.<\/p>\n He let me know that vast amounts of insight, information, revelation, and truth had been made known\u2014and would continue to be revealed\u2014to people in all realms of the nation; but they needed to know what to do<\/em> with it. They needed prayer to be able to effectively navigate the data and respond with wisdom and all discernment so that the Lord’s will\u00a0could be fully accomplished.<\/p>\n I believe the body of Christ is equipped to\u00a0engage in such a prayer task.<\/p>\n However, there is something else that the people for whom we pray will\u00a0need as well. They will need boldness.<\/p>\n Think about your own experience. Have you ever been in a situation in which you knew<\/em> the right thing to do, but you didn\u2019t do it? That\u2019s something all of us have grappled with.<\/p>\n It\u2019s my opinion that when Paul wrote to the Ephesians to pray for him that he \u201cmay speak boldly, as <\/em>[he] ought to<\/em><\/strong> speak<\/em>\u201d, he had likely experienced the difference between his “ought to” and his “do” at some point. Most of us have experienced that, and this is one reason why I believe Paul so urgently requested prayer from his friends for boldness. He knew his own human frailties.<\/p>\n The people for whom you and I will pray in the days, weeks, and months to come will have an ongoing need to know what to do; they will need wisdom to envelope their \u201cknowing\u201d; and they will need boldness in order to step out in what they are directed to do. After all, they are human, just like you and me, and some of the things God will lead them to do will require courage beyond their human capacity. And\u00a0you and I\u00a0get to pray for that boldness to rise up within them so they can<\/em> do what they know to do.<\/p>\n Listen\u00a0for the promptings of the Holy Spirit; those for whom you pray will need to be girded up in His knowledge and wisdom, and they will also\u00a0need boldness in order to step out. And as you pray for them, you can trust God to work it all out in<\/em> them and for<\/em> them.<\/p>\n Dorothy<\/p>\n Only be strong and very courageous<\/em>. Joshua 1:7a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are in the middle of a week of fasting and prayer for America called for by Australian believers. Because of that, I am recycling a blog series that I wrote last year. At that time, God prompted me to shift my focus as I prayed for the US. In short,\u00a0He showed me these four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-praying-for-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6500,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6499\/revisions\/6500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}