Preparing
Preparing for a secular event is a year long endeavor
We went once to the National Prayer Breakfast, maybe 35 years ago, guests of Congressman J.J. Pickle. I was new in the Christian faith, and I regret I don’t remember much about it.
Since then, the event seems to be diminishing in popularity. No surprise, alas. I try to watch it on Cspan, usually this time in February, listening for uplifting moments. (Sometimes Cspan carries the church service before the breakfast. )
One Prayer Breakfast to which I return is February 5, 2015 and read Dr. Kent Brantly’s prayer. I hope you will click the link and read – pray through it. It’s good preparation!
Last year, the speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast Chaplain Barry Black, U.S. Senate delivered a message worth revisiting: How to Make Our Voices Heard in Heaven.
A year later, his words goaded me, reminding me that preparing for a secular event should be year-round preparation. He expanded on four points on prayer.
Four Suggestions for Preparing Year Round
- Pray for all people. How often I forget.
- Pray out of my need. Has my need for contact with God increased this year past? Have I prayed faithfully for closer contact with my Redeemer?
- Pray with intimacy – Christ said He calls us friends. Oh, how I have needed His friendship this year! Have I prayed fervently to be a good friend to Him and His people?
- Pray for those who govern. See 1 Timothy 2:2.
After one crazy year, how faithful have I been praying for the President, and other folks in authority?
Squirm . . . it’s easier to criticize and complain!
Now, one remedy Chaplain Black commended, and one I have not mastered, is memorization of God’s word. (1 Peter 1:18-20) What a remedy for low self-esteem! He said: No one has ever intimated him since he understood his purchase price. Then, he recited the names of God in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, so we might better know Who is this Man?
Knowing His names, we will have a resting place for our troubled minds and hearts.
Hearing again last year’s message from the National Prayer Breakfast, I have two prayers to keep me preparing for a secular event:
- May all who heard Chaplain Black remember and seek the Lord while He may be found.
- May God fill this year’s speakers, who name God as Lord Jesus Christ, with loving power and wise words.
Amen?
PS: Update on Dr. Brantly