January 16, 2010

• prayer for the seekers here

  Gracious and loving Father,

  There are so many people out there who need to know you, but they don't even know how to find you. They don't even know You need to You. We see them pouring out their hearts to you right here in their blogs. There are others we don't even see. They are pouring out their hearts sometimes behind their pictures and their words; they hide their pain. They hide away in their bedrooms and in the dark places. They hide behind their addictions and destructive behaviors. There are so many whose hearts and souls are screaming and groaning. They are so poor and needy. (O, yes, Lord, we have to say it too about ourselves. We are always poor, always needy, we are nothing, we have nothing apart what You have given to us in Yourself through Your Son Jesus Christ. You are are all in all. You have richly blessed us for His sake. We are totally unworthy of Your blessing. Where would we be without You and Your gracious love and tender mercies showered on us in Christ?)

  But You, O Lord God, You cannot be found by seeking. We know this. We know You opened our eyes to the light of Your glorious Gospel. Once we were blind, but now we see. Not because of our own ability or our own will but because of Your gracious mercies. We have been in the place these many souls are today. They have cried and cried and they sought and sought and they have tried and tried to find You ... but they continue to try but they continue to come up empty. Be gracious to them. Illumine their hearts and minds. O, they are blind to Your goodness and grace, apart from Your Spirit breathing on them. Breathe life into them. Open their blind eyes, may the scales fall off. Lead them to Your house and Your presence. May Your kindness lead them to repentance. They keep seeking joy and peace and life and happiness any and everywhere but You. There is no true joy, no true peace, no true life, no true happiness apart from You, O Lord. (O, we know, there are times we wander, we continue to pursue happiness everywhere else, then Your kindness leads us back to repentance. You draw us back to Yourself again and bring us to our senses when we forget You alone are our life and when we seek anywhere else we are headed on the road to death.) You have created us to know You and to worship You. Apart from knowing You and apart from worshiping You, we are empty and lifeless, and life is hopeless and meaningless.

  Help us to continue to lift these souls to You in prayer. Open our eyes so we might see them. Open our ears so we might hear them. Open our hearts to love them. Give us Your wisdom and discernment to know when to speak and to know when to listen. Impart to us Your words of life by Your living Spirit so men and women who are seeking might come to seek You. We agonize with their cries. We know You do as well. We know these are matters for which we are incapable apart from Your power and strength. We have no resources but what You provide us. We have no life to show them or to tell them of but the life of Christ in us. Keep us abiding in You, so we might bear fruits of grace and truth, so our offering of our lips might bear fruit in their lives. We have no food to give them but the true Bread. We have no drink to give them but the living Water. We ask You to keep us eating and drinking of You and provide for us so we might provide for these hungry and thirsty souls. Give them a hunger and thirst for You so they might come and eat and drink of You and be satisfied. May You fill us to the uttermost with Your Spirit so we might bubble up and overflow with rivers of living water here in this dry and thirsty land, where many dry and thirsty people are lost and wandering and seeking now.

  Chief Shepherd, Your eyes are looking with compassion on the sheep scattered, weary and helpless without a Shepherd here. There are many false shepherds, but they will never lead to abundant life and true and lasting joy and peace that passes understanding. O, Good Shepherd, draw them to Yourself. Help us to be ready and willing to be used in the process of gathering and feeding and nurturing and nourishing here. You have promised not one of Your sheep will be lost. Help us to have Your shepherd heart as we look at the sheep here. Help us to have harvesters' hearts as we look at the fields here. It is too easy for us to become complacent and lukewarm. We get wound up and absorbed in ourselves and do not have eyes to see the fields white for harvest. Stir our hearts with a passion for You and Your Name and a compassionate and deep love for lost souls. How will they come to know You if they have not heard of You? May we speak with boldness and assurance as Your Holy Spirit carries us along. May You open stopped ears to hear Your words of eternal life and may many come to repentance and life in Jesus Christ, who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

  You know we often sin and often wander, but in the end You turn us back to You. We humbly bow before You and say thank You. That is not our doing but Your grace. We cannot imagine life without You; it would be unlivable and unbearable and intolerable. We pray you might bear these souls on Your eagles' wings now and give them Your new life. They are dying on the vine here. They are tired of eating in the pig sty, but they do not yet have a hunger for You. They are desperate. They have nowhere to turn. Have mercy on them. Be gracious to them. Turn them to You. Carry those who have fallen and are homeless. Lift up the heads of those today who are desperate and have nowhere else to turn. Help them to come to their senses and turn them and cause them to run home to Your house so they might seek You and find mercy, grace, love and goodness in Your arms. Help them to come and see, to taste and see that You are good.

  Show them the Christ they have mocked and cursed is their only means of salvation. Show them His beauty and glory. Show them His love that sent Him to the cross to die for helpless sinners. Show them that You will not cast out any who come to You. May we be faithful to lift up Christ and Him crucified, for there is no other salvation, no other way to be saved but through Your Son. There is no other hope we have to offer to hopeless souls but the sure hope we have in Jesus Christ. There is no other life we have to offer to dead souls but His life.

  We ask these things in the name of Jesus. It is by His blood we come to You now, knowing we were not deserving and not even seeking You, but You sought us, bought us with Your blood and sealed us with Your Spirit and made us Your children. May You use us to bring many souls to You right here in this place for Your glory. May Your Kingdom come here in a greater way now through us. Use us as You wish. May we be consumed with Your Kingdom and Your will in our lives. Keep us seeking hard after You. Fill us so with Your Spirit so we cannot help but speak of Jesus Christ, our Savior. May we never quench, grieve or limit Him. Unloose our tongues to speak and animate our fingers to type of You. May You alone get the glory, honor and praise.

  Amen.

  • 3:14 PM
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