Attending church in Kentucky, we watched an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father's arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow -- until the child captured everyone's attention by crying out in a charming Southern accent, "Ya'll pray for me now!" - Jean McMahon (Dyer, Ind.) in Reader's Digest, April 1980.
I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men. - Mary, Queen of Scotland
The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. - Thomas Watson
Psalm 55:22 (KJV)
22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
We must be able to discern and accept the burdens of the Lord. “Thy burdens” are they which we are not designed to carry which he has already borne. Just like a wagon designed to carry 100lbs and we put 200lbs on it… what happens? If we attempt the same fate, of carrying more than we are designed to, we will break down. These burdens consist of
- trying to live someone else’s life for them
- carrying someone else’s responsibilities
- worry about tomorrow
- worrying about things you can’t physically change
However, there is a “burden of the Lord” we must ALL carry.
A. Ezekiel 22:30 (KJV)
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
He’s looking for co-laborers to carry His burdens.True God assigned prayer begins in the heart of God and is transferred to you. His burden in prayer will not promote worry or anxiousness. If I am worried in prayer, then it’s my burden and not God’s burden. God’s burden will promote zeal to accomplish change in someone or further the plan of God with passion. Some call it a spirit of prayer. Have you ever had a person laid on your heart to pray for and it was strong? It wasn’t the result of just thinking about them, but it happened suddenly, and with it came a surge of inward boldness to pray. This is what we call the “burden of the Lord.”
Prayer is so powerful that as we exercise this privilege, it not only changes things and people, but it changes our own perspective. We go from impossible to a convincing that all things are possible.
Let’s accept the transfer of God’s burden of seeing souls saved. Allow the spirit of prayer to envelop your life with a sacrificial anguish of soul for the lives of people who know not the Lord. The rewards are out of this world!!!!
Remember – Prayer changes things and people!!!!
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