Prayer has been on my mind since the beginning of the year. The importance of prayer never left my heart, but it’s one thing to know and another thing to apply. But there’s something about adding urgency to the need for prayer that can make an individual sacrifice so many comforts in order to pray. An example I find in my own life is when I came to the decision to commit my life to the work in EA.
One of my goals when I left to EA in 2006 was to pray and ask the Lord for guidance with my life. I just finished college, was serving at my local church and a with parachurch ministry. While I learned and experienced a lot, I have to admit that I was tired. But regardless of my physical fatigue, I knew spiritually I wanted more. So the question I prayed over was this: What did God want me to do with my life? Ever since I set foot in EA, I wanted to know with clarity and conviction what direction I should go.
Options were available and, as I prayed, I kept wondering which option would best glorify His Name. Was it being a teacher? A real estate agent? The notion of being a pastor or missionary was rejected in my mind because of James 3:1. Why would I want to live to a higher standard of judgment?
Urgency kicked in when the Spring of 2007 hit. Knowing that living in EA was temporary, I knew I needed to pray and ask the Lord for wisdom. There wasn’t a voice that spoke to me, but there were words from Scripture that plucked at my heart and compelled me to make the third most important decision of my life (coming behind accepting Christ and marrying my wife). Isaiah 25:6-9 was a pretty clear picture that God always had a salvation plan for the nations. And for whatever reason, it was compelling me to join in that effort. So I decided during that morning prayer in the Spring of 2007 to come back to EA as a missionary.
There are other elements to this story that I can delve into at a later time. Whether it be the affirmation of my local church in this decision or when I shared this news with my parents, the point is that all of this started with urgent prayers to God.
I don’t believe my experience with urgent prayer can be communicated through my words, but I do believe that something like this can encourage and point others to pray urgently for certain decisions in their lives. Urgency can be a sanctifying force in the Christian life.
While at T4G, I was blessed to hear a sermon by David Platt on urgent prayers. Throughout the sermon, I was affirmed of the importance of this discipline and this fueled by my own experience.