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PROGRAM D-8477
I’m challenging you to consider this question: What would happen if all your prayers were answered? I have emphasized that we can and should pray about everything in our lives, but the focus of our prayers should primarily be on things that will matter for eternity.
I’d like to focus on how we pray for the world—that huge world we live in. In the Bible, God’s people are urged to engage with the world around them and not to withdraw from it. This means we should always pray for things and people outside of our own personal circle.
I intentionally reviewed the content of my recent prayers, and I realized that I often pray for health issues for people I know; I pray for increased financial support for this ministry; I pray for pastors at my church and my ministry there. But it became rather clear that my prayers were often limited to my world. How about you? Review what you’ve prayed for over the past few days. Have your prayers primarily revolved around you and people you know?
God wants us to pray about the world around us. How do you do that? First you become educated and aware of what’s happening outside your world. A few years ago, along with a co-worker in my church, I became aware for the first time of the scourge of sex trafficking in our country and our city. I never knew how many women and girls were trapped in this horrific lifestyle. Once I began to see beyond my world to this tragic situation all around me, I started to pray about it, and that led to doing something about it—establishing a residential home for trafficked women.
Someone has said to pray through the newspaper each day. Well, not many of us read newspapers anymore, but we should be informed about the world around us, and then pray specifically for that world. The hurricane in the Bahamas, the fire on a boat in California, the murders that happen in our cities—we should not only be informed but that information should lead us to pray for those situations and those people involved.
I challenge you to examine your prayer boundaries and to start pushing them further and further out into the world. When you hear or read about some tragic situation somewhere in the world, even though you have no personal connection with it, stop and pray about it. When you see evil being promoted in our country—such as abortion and same-sex marriage—pray about it. When you know of corruption in our government and among our leaders, instead of complaining, pray about it.
Pray for the world in which you live. It is no accident that God determined you to live at this time in this world. You can fulfill Jesus’ command to be salt and light in this world through prayer.