Prayer inside the Church
Last time we ended with talking about prayer being a conformation of the armour being on. Eph.6 "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints"
For all the saint or the Lord's people, is going to be the focus. More than that let's narrow it alittle more (or alot), to the your local Church. The local Church is complex. It consist of people who follow our Lord Jesus Christ... It consist of men, of women of all ages, of children. These men, women and children are all different, let's say personalities to start in a good way. They all can think, make decisions.. They all have been raised (starting to focus on adults) in various ways; good, bad, horrific and every which way. They all have been influence by that 'raising' and they all have been influenced by the social environment around us. We can even been influenced by evil powers... described in Eph.6.
Now we are Christians in a local Church; with new believers being added; some young, some old, some staring a family, some single; but all repenting from the grip of sin. The point being that we all come from a back ground in various degrees of sin and influence..
Let' look at Ps. 32:1, 2
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” three word's are used transgression,sin and iniquity. Transgression: trespass crossing the line(breaking God's rule), sin is missing the mark/ stumble( go astray- from God and His ways), iniquity is bending/curving(compromising of God's word for ourselves). Now look at yourself, myself this is where we have all come from and I wish that when I made my profession of Faith in Christ that all of that,'bad" was gone. But we all know it still with us read Romans 7:15-20 The point is we need to be praying for all the Saint's even if they are strong! You see not one of us has arrived to perfection
Phil. 1:6
So let me share a true story. A ministry in the local Church just had a devastating day. They were sharing a meal ( this was the ministry inviting people for Sunday lunch an outreach) and a heated topic was brought up, it was not good. I was not there but heard about it. The coordinator is perplexed... it has happened before and it is has happened in other 'places' in the Church. I was made aware of this for prayer at prayer night; here's the thing a ministry in my Church I did not lift up in prayer not even once and I encourage this ministry, it's good. Prayer for all the Saints. It is so vital for the Church!
