“When I left this country, my prayer life
really diminished. The things we used to pray for had been removed! Here you
would pray for electricity, pray for the roads, pray that the vehicles come in
on time for you, pray for a good vehicle on your journey that will not break
down on the way,” a brother said something like this in a meeting last
year. During a lecture last month, a
sister commented, “In Nigeria, we pray when we get to the hospital to meet a
doctor who knows what he is doing, not to meet quacks or a midwife who will
beat you and say, 'Madam. Push!” I am all for praying, but these prayers are
not done when we leave the shores of the country, and there our prayers are
less.” Something like that.
In essence, our prayer needs are far less in
a well-ordered society down to the point that we sometimes see little need for
prayer. I believe this is because we are looking at a narrow aspect of
necessary prayer. Lk 11:2, 3(ESV ) And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be
your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread," is the pattern for prayer. If our
prayers are fewer and we hardly find things to pray when we are in well-ordered
societies with vibrant, fully functioning social services, then it means we
have missed God’s own prayer needs when our body’s needs were sorted out. No, I
don’t mean God is not a partner in our needs. No. Whatever good anyone does to
us is received by Him as having been done to Him. But God has peculiar issues
He commands us to pray for, which are encapsulated in “Father, hallowed be
your name. Your kingdom come.” and they come first. And they abound in every nation.
Mt 9:37, 38(ESV) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus has commanded us to pray for labourers; people who will love others, proclaim the message, and nurture new believers. Among church-goers, among Muslims, among kidnappers and bandits, among the LGBTQ community, and so many other fields He has. How exactly does God want us to pray for ourselves, the labourers? Act 4:29(ESV) And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, Col 4:3, 4(ERV) Also pray for us. Pray that God will give us an opportunity to tell people his message. I am in prison for doing this. But pray that we can continue to tell people the secret truth that God has made known about Christ. Pray that I will say what is necessary to make this truth clear to everyone. I am convinced we need to be praying this way per institution, per people group, and even for persons.
What of God’s commands to pray for revival? Ps 2:8(ISV) Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,
the ends of the earth as your possession. 1Tm 2:1, 4 (ERV) First of all,
I ask that you pray for all people. God wants everyone to be saved and to fully
understand the truth. There are aspects of prayers that actually
increase when we leave the country. Justin Welby, the immediate past Archbishop
of Canterbury, revealed in 2023 that he was twice summoned to parliament and
the church of England threatened in a bid to force same-sex marriage on her. If
that is not persecution, we are simply hiding our faces in the sand. Pray
for our leaders. Perhaps transformation and true revival have tarried
because our requests focused almost exclusively on Give us each day our daily bread
