Just thoughts on prayer today...
I hope you all pray publicly out-loud in the world, we should be unashamed.
Today in a Denny's for men's fellowship the C.O. (Corps Officer - pastor for those of you in other denominations) stopped to pray for our food, we were at 2 different tables and not all facing one another, but he prayed loud enough to be heard by the table behind us. Not only did the other table of men quiet for the prayer, but the whole (rather noisy) room, brought the volume down almost to complete silence for the prayer over our food, our fellowship, and the blessings of the new corps we will be moving into soon. No one in the room was offended, in fact the sight of seeing men stop to give thanks and recognize God in prayer caused others to offer silence in respect. In America it is still a right to speak of our faith and pray in the Name of Jesus (at least it is right now), so while others risk their lives for His Name in the midst of persecution, let's be bold enough to stand for Jesus in times of "reasonable tolerance".
Another thought was we went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate one of my daughters birthday party today, so when the food got there we huddled up our group (virtually all believers) and in the midst of it being way too loud I prayed to be heard by our group. I said a short prayer of thanks for Crystal's life and for that fact that Jesus loved her so much that He died on the cross for her sins so she'd go to heaven some day, thanked God for friends, fun, and the food, and said Amen. There's no way the room heard it, but I knew the table next to us (also with a party) had a man watching and listening (I believe with a look of curiosity) like he didn't get what we were doing.
When praying in a public setting especially among believers, mention salvation through Christ.
The best example I have of his is that at one volunteer recognition dinner for volunteer bell ringers when I was in Homer, we had people come to the corps (Church) for a meal and to let us give them a simple gift, brag about the season, I prayed before the meal and mentioned that I thanked Jesus most of all that He died on the cross for our sins, so that we who would repent of our sins and live for Him on His terms, would be saved from hell to heaven, and be blessed in the here and now with His presence. It was almost a year later that one of my saved friends from another church mentioned that he was "impressed" that in a room with volunteers (of many faiths, some contrary to us) that in a short prayer I had mentioned the way of Salvation through Jesus, planted the seed, said amen, and got on with the dinner without any conflict at all.
People respect others with enough faith to stand and speak out what they believe in. Why not preach and pray at the same time!
This week...
Pray for others to receive Jesus.
Pray for yourself to proclaim the gospel boldly as you should.
and Pray proud, out-loud, and mention the Savior Jesus Christ by Name.... HE IS WORTH IT!
Live holy, preach Jesus!
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