Our theme for this year at The Bridge is PRAYER. I posted a few thoughts this week on my Facebook page about the priority of prayer even when we are incredibly busy. I have copied it below. After that I have added some specific applications to praying for our church. Please join me in praying for these things that God may receive even greater glory in our church.
Too busy to pray? Jesus didn’t think so. All through His ministry you see Him prioritizing prayer when He was exceptionally busy and when others wanted Him to do something else.
- Luke 5:15-16 – when large crowds wanted Him to preach and heal.
- Mark 1:32-35 – after an incredibly long day ministering to people until late at night, He got up “in the early morning, while it was still dark” and went to a solitary place to pray.
- Luke 6:12-13 – when faced with a critical decision of choosing who His 12 apostles would be, He went off and spent an entire night in prayer.
- Luke 9:18; 11:1 – He prayed alone and He prayed with His disciples. They ultimately said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
- John 17:1-26 – before going to the Garden of Gethsemane where He would be betrayed and arrested, He offered a long prayer out loud for His disciples to hear. He prayed for them and for future believers like you and me.
- Luke 22:40-44 – while in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed so intensely that His sweat became like drops of blood. After that He challenged His disciples, who had fallen asleep, to pray that they would not enter into temptation.
- Matthew 27:46; Luke 23:34, 46 – while on the cross, dying as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, He prayed.
Martin Luther learned that he was never too busy for prayer. He said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” He also said, “When I have a lot to do in a day, I spend more time in prayer, because more work is done by prayer than by work itself.”
John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, said it well, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”
Corrie ten Boom asked this provocative question, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”
And an anonymous quote I came across, “If you are too busy to pray, you are busier than God wants you to be.”
Do we waste time praying when we are incredibly busy? NO! According to Jesus and these others, it’s just the opposite: Iain Murray said, “We waste time when we do not pray.”
Below are some specific needs in our church. Please join me in praying about these needs and consider how you might be an answer to those prayers:
Pray for faithful laborers at The Bridge (see Mt. 9:37f; Lk. 10:2):
- Bridge Café – we need a coordinator as well as workers for setup and breakdown each week (contact Diane Brown).
- Children’s Ministry – more teachers, assistants, front desk workers on Sundays & Wednesdays (contact Xiomara Bueno). And more people to serve with Child Evangelism Fellowship in the elementary schools here in the Valley (contact Mary Ann Lapointe).
- Campus Outreach at CSUN – more people to join the outreach on the CSUN campus on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday each week (contact Pastor Joe Leinen).
- Outreach Team – more people with a heart for evangelism to help administrate and lead outreach at The Bridge (contact David Spencer).
Pray for God’s financial provision:
- Weekly offerings are currently about $4,000 per week short of budget.
- Bridging Generations Building Fund has raised @ $3 million toward the 5-year goal of $10 million. Praise God for what has been given. Ask Him to provide the rest in ways that only He can get the glory. Pray for God to grant us favor with the city so we can get needed permits to go forward with the work when funds are available.
- Praise the LORD for the money that was donated at the Shepherding The Nations banquet recently. As more and more countries ask STN to help train pastors & leaders, pray for God’s provision so we can expand the ministry and plant more churches.
Pray for new people to join us:
- We have a steady stream of members and attenders moving out-of-state; especially young families that cannot afford to live here.
- Pray about family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers that our church members can invite.
- Pray that we can reach them with the Gospel and assimilate them into our church family.
- Pray that all of our members will be faithful to make disciples (Go; Baptize; Teach to Obey – Mt. 28:18-20).
There are so many more things to pray about, but this is a good start. We are scheduling some new opportunities for corporate prayer throughout the coming year. More information will be coming soon. Please make corporate prayer a priority in your schedule. And personally invite others to join you. Prayer was a main priority of the first church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:42-47; 6:1-4) and it must be in our church as well.
Pastor Paul Brown
