Thank you, John Barry! *smile*

Milford Charles Murray

Peace to my Logos Forums Brothers and Sisters!       *smile*

     Since this past Sunday my wife and myself have been visiting my daughter here at George Town, Grand Cayman.  Having a wonderful  time and heading back to snowy Canada this coming Sunday.

      While here I have access to my Logos resources on my iPad2, using all four of the Logos apps for various purposes.  On my daughter's laptop I have access to the Logos Forums.  Also Biblia.com and Bible.FaithLife.Com.  The only resources that I DO NOT have access to are those that some publishers in their lack of generosity do not permit "mobile access."  These are fewer in number than they used to be and I've gotten accustomed to the lack of access.

 

       What I DO NOT have access to, unfortunately, is my numerous prayer lists on my desktop at home.  I am praying for well over 300 people and my aging brain needs some help!    *smile*      Will be back to my prayerlists soon and will do the best I can in the meantime.

       I was very grateful to John Barry for his Connect the Testaments devotion of two days ago which was very, very helpful to me in the re-thinking of my praying for others. (Rebecca also does some great writing for these devotions!)

 Thank you, John, for the Psalm 20 approach to prayers for others!     Indeed very helpful and will be helpful to me in the future as I "adopt" some of these principles.

For those of you who did not "catch" this particular devotion from John, here it is .....

March 20: We Don’t (Really) Mean It

Psalm 20:1–9

“I’ll pray for you.”

We say it often, but how many times do we actually remember to do it? Our biggest downfall might not be a lack of compassion—it’s probably just not taking time to write down the request and not having a model of praying for others.

Some of us might feel like we’ve mastered the art of the task list, but it can still be difficult to keep up with praying for our friends. It’s easy to think, “God knows their needs, so it’s fine.” But that’s not the New Testament view of prayer: we’re meant to pray always (Luke 18:1; 1 Thess 5:16). And Paul himself regularly asks for prayers. If they weren’t important, he wouldn’t ask (Col 4:3). For this reason, it would be helpful to develop a system to track what people need prayer for, like a prayer journal. But what about the model?

When I pray for God’s will in my life, I’ve found that using the Lord’s Prayer works well when I’m having trouble praying.

But I haven’t adopted a model for praying for others. Psalm 20 contains such a model, and the psalmist offers some beautiful words for others:

“May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble.… May he send you help … May he remember all your offerings … May he give to you your heart’s desire … May we shout for you over your victory” (Psa 20:1–5). And then the psalmist goes on to proclaim God’s goodness and that He will answer (Psa 20:6). And this is the line I think I love the most: “Some boast in chariots, and others in horses, but we boast in the name of Yahweh, our God.

They will collapse and fall, and we will rise and stand firm” (Psa 20:7–8).

“They will … fall … and we will rise.” We must pray for our friends with this kind of confidence. And then the greatest challenge of all: we must pray for our enemies as well.

How can you hold yourself accountable to pray for others? How can you use Psa 20 as a model for prayer?

John D. Barry

Bruce Dunning

I was taught by a friend of mine to take time to immediately pray for someone when I say that I will pray for them. I have learned by experience that it is easy to forget so doing it immediately has helped me a lot. If they come to my mind after that then that is a bonus. But also having helpful reminders is good too.