Pray to the Lord...

"I prayed to the Lord and said 'O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand."--Deuteronomy 9:26.  Moses, reminding the people of the events 32:1-9 and the reaction of God desiring to destroy the people instantly for the golden calf incident.  Moses reminds the people that He prayed and God relented from destroying the people for their sin.

Pray to the Lord.  Moses prayed to the Lord that He might forgive the people of their sin.  Let me ask you, when is the last time you prayed to God on behalf of someone you know is living in sin?

Pray to the Lord.  One of my instructors at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver stated in class the other day that too often we spend too much time praying for physical needs as opposed to spiritual needs.  Of course he did not discourage praying for physical needs but he also encouraged us to pray for spiritual needs as well.

Pray to the Lord.  As we look through the Scriptures, the majority of what is addressed in prayer is of a spiritual nature as opposed to physical.  I was at a Bible study last night dealing with Colossians and the comment was made that in Colossians and in Paul's other letters, a running theme we see is that Paul prayed for the spiritual needs of the people he was writing to.

Pray to the Lord.  Even Jesus, when instructing the disciples how to pray in Luke 11:1-4 makes mention of the physical in only one line of the Lord's Prayer aka the Disciples Prayer.  The rest of this prayer praises God and addresses the spiritual needs such as forgiveness of sins and furthermore a request that God would not lead us into temptation.

Pray to the Lord.  So Moses prayed for the spiritual needs of the people, Paul prayed for the spiritual needs of the churches in the New Testament.  And most importantly, Jesus taught us to pray for not just the physical but also for the spiritual needs of others and ourselves.

Pray to the Lord.  My encouragement to you this morning is this. Next time you go to God in prayer, try something.  If you know of someone who is living a sinful lifestyle and there is a good chance you do, pray specifically for that person or those persons in regard to their sin and additionally pray for all the spiritual needs of Christians everywhere.  Furthermore, if there is something you can do about helping that person repent of that sin and if need be also be baptized for the forgiveness of that sin(s), go to that person.

Pray to the Lord.  Whatever you do, remember it begins with prayer.  Moses prayed to the Lord before going before the people to correct them during the golden calf incident.  We need to do the same when concerning ourselves with the sins of our brethren.  This is a serious matter that is not prayed for enough. So that being said PRAY TO THE LORD.

PRAY ABOUT IT! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!