From our International Director

Posted on 30 November 2009.

In Ephesians 6:18-20, Paul asked for prayer for all the church and for himself: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints - and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Paul tells us that prayer:
1. Is hard and specific work - "being watchful... with all perseverance".
2. Therefore we need the Holy Spirit's help - "all prayer and supplication in the Spirit".
3. It needs to be broad in scope - "and supplication for all the saints." The six days of prayer for China above give plenty of scope for that!
4. It also needs to be particular and very specific - "and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly." I hear the mighty apostle Paul saying there that he could not fulfil his God-given mandate in the gospel without the prayers of the Ephesian saints.

Day One gives such a lovely and powerful example of what happens when we pray like that. It is so special that I am going to repeat it again here in Day Seven!

"I recall the days of hardship during the Cultural Revolution. At that time, a group of devoted brothers and sisters were already gathering on a desolate hill and praying fervently for the Blessed Harvest on the land. They took turns and prayed round the clock. These groups had to run great risks of being branded as counter-revolutionaries during those tumultuous years. In the early hours of the dawn, their prayers spread all across the land. Those years of seed sowing amidst tears have brought about the joy of harvests that we are witnessing today." (FEBC)

What a challenge to me and to you. Those Chinese believers in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s faced great personal danger and also personal privation praying on a "desolate hill". That was no warm worship meeting in a great sanctuary. Yet out of it God answered with the greatest revival and winning of souls in human history. I am challenged about my prayer life. Are you?

For Day Seven topics, let me just repeat that wonderful list from Day One!

Pray for unity in the church.

Pray for purity of teaching.

Pray for the spiritual growth of younger Christian leaders.

Pray for strength for older Christian leaders.

Pray for single believers under pressure to get married.

Pray for couples feeling pressure from the one-child policy.

Pray for our children to grow up in the Lord.

Pray for the church to know how to give, to sacrifice and to walk by faith.

Pray for believers to be able to act out the love of God in our communities.