Well, what a great prayer (originally framed by Dr Frank Laubach) - which I’ll repeat here – it needs no additional comments.
“Lord, end this wishy-washy, lukewarm, mumbling religion and set us on fire. Put the divine fire in us before the demonic fires destroy us and our world. Take away our small thoughts and our small loves. Make us big as the world in vision. Take away our weaknesses. Fill us with the strength of Jesus Christ. Help the sleeping might of the nation in which I live to be awakened into glorious action by the Holy Spirit. We are sick of our disgusting indifference and we know that You are sick of us.
Do not spew us out of Your mouth, but set us on fire. God of courage, sweep aside our pitiful timidity. Make us divinely unafraid. Help Christendom to rise, not in fine sounding words but in deeds and in fire and in truth; change our defeat, in this battle for freedom and for Christ, into glorious victory. Give us a Pentecost at any cost. Send a Pentecost right now and begin it in me. Keep Your promise, Lord Jesus Christ, and baptise us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The altar is ready, the offering is laid. Now, Lord, send the fire.’
The verses (below) set for reading and meditation are also inspirational – could we too, catch on fire and act in the same way?
Acts 4:23-31 (NIV): “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ” ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Today, will you boldly speak the word of God?
A prayer for power
Well, what a great prayer (originally framed by Dr Frank Laubach) - which I’ll repeat here – it needs no additional comments.
“Lord, end this wishy-washy, lukewarm, mumbling religion and set us on fire. Put the divine fire in us before the demonic fires destroy us and our world. Take away our small thoughts and our small loves. Make us big as the world in vision. Take away our weaknesses. Fill us with the strength of Jesus Christ. Help the sleeping might of the nation in which I live to be awakened into glorious action by the Holy Spirit. We are sick of our disgusting indifference and we know that You are sick of us.
Do not spew us out of Your mouth, but set us on fire. God of courage, sweep aside our pitiful timidity. Make us divinely unafraid. Help Christendom to rise, not in fine sounding words but in deeds and in fire and in truth; change our defeat, in this battle for freedom and for Christ, into glorious victory. Give us a Pentecost at any cost. Send a Pentecost right now and begin it in me. Keep Your promise, Lord Jesus Christ, and baptise us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The altar is ready, the offering is laid. Now, Lord, send the fire.’
The verses (below) set for reading and meditation are also inspirational – could we too, catch on fire and act in the same way?
Acts 4:23-31 (NIV): “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ” ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Today, will you boldly speak the word of God?