As we plan for the future of BBC’s ministries of discipleship and outreach, please be in prayer fo us. We desire above all else to have God’s wisdom and guidance.
1. Pray for BBC to Have a Strong Devotion to God
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73:25-26).
> Pray that God would give us a desire for God.
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:1-2).
From the outset, before we consider programs, before we think of ministry or serving others, before anything else, we must be devoted to God. He must be first in our lives. Only then will everything else be rightly oriented.
> Pray that we would delight in God
In the old and new testaments, we are commanded to delight in God (Ps 37:4). More than just following a command, we to be satisfied in God.
Jonathan Edwards said, “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean. Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labour for, or set our hearts on, any thing else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?”
> Pray that our relationship with God would be characterized by sacrifice and joy
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab 3:17-18).
Such a devotion to God is not natural, we have to pray for it. John Piper says, “[The prophet affirms that] when all the supports of human life and earthly happiness are taken away, God will be our delight, our joy. This experience is humanly impossible. No ordinary person can speak in truth like this. If God alone is enough to support joy when all else is lost, it is a miracle of grace.”
2. Pray for BBC to be a Loving Community
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph 4:15-16).
> Pray that we would be committed to one another, desiring community
We should see our fellowship as essential to our spiritual growth. 1 John 1 says, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
C. J. Mahaney says, “We should not … think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.”
> Pray for God to give us wisdom in planning how to achieve community
This goes back to our plan for incorporating community groups and reorganizing our gathering times. We want to meet our needs, think missionally, and do everything we can to create a loving, Christian community at BBC. We need God’s wisdom to accomplish this.
3. Pray for BBC to Display Passionate Evangelism
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh . . . . Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Rom 9:1-3; 10:1).
Do we have this kind of passion for the lost? Do we weep for those who don’t know Christ? If not, what do we do?
> Pray to have a passion for evangelism
We need to ask God to break our hearts for the lost. C. H. Spurgeon said, “The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. If you can rest without their being saved, they will rest too. But if you are filled with an agony for them, if you cannot bear that they should be lost, you will soon find that they are uneasy too. I hope you will get into such a state that you will dream about your child or your hearer perishing for lack of Christ, and start up at once and begin to cry, ‘O God, give me converts or I die.’ Then you will have converts.”
> Pray that individually and corporately we will be work hard at sharing Christ; that we will be committed to a missional lifestyle.
It is not enough to simply believe the lost must have Christ shared with them; we must be active in sharing Christ. Again, Spurgeon is helpful – “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
> Pray that when we are not sharing Christ, we need to be praying for the lost.
We need to be praying that God would open their hearts to the gospel; that God would draw them to himself. Another inspiring Spurgeon quote – “Those who are short of breath in soul winning will never be successful. If they are not saved after twenty years of prayer, follow them up to the gates of hell! If they once pass those gates, your prayers are unallowable and unavailing, but to the very verge of the infernal pit follow them with your prayers. If they will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to him, and he will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications.”
4. Pray that BBC Would Seek and Display the Glory of God
“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom 11:36). “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).
> Pray that we would desire the glory of God in all things
If Paul is right that “from him and through him and to him are all things,” then he is also right when he says, “to him be glory forever.” He is the only one who deserves glory.
> Pray that our ministries will build God’s kingdom, not our own.
This is where John the Baptist’s words come into play. Speaking of Jesus, he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). It is easy to try to draw attention to ourselves in ministry, but we should seek God’s glory in what we do. What we say, how we live, should serve as a sign-post to Christ.
