Today's Passage - Luke 11:5-8

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Luke 11:5-8   "Then he said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him."  Then the one inside answers, "Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything." I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs."   Lord has taught us the principle of intercession in the Kingdom of God.  First of all, we must see the urgency of the need.  If you don't see the need, you won't get up to pray.  There are many churches that are locked inside their own ivory tower, they can't see the needs of the world nor hear the crying of the souls.  In this parable, the Lord described a friend who came to ask for bread in the midnight because of hunger.  We must see the needs before us, and then we will rise up and pray for the needs.   We must not only care about church activities, but we must enter the community, and care for the needs of the community.  Besides seeing the need, we also need to see that we are powerless; otherwise, we will try to solve the problems without praying.  Power can only come from God; prophet Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because he saw the disobedience of the Israelites and his own lack of power, he felt tremendous sympathy and compassion for them.  We ask God to place a compassionate heart inside us, so that on the one hand we see the need of the world, but on the other hand recognize that we cannot do anything.  We will come before God and eagerly cry out for the world.  Also, we need to love willingly others, because we can only see the needs when we have true love in us.  We won't try to push away our responsibilities, but to willingly sacrifice unselfishly.  Continuous prayer must come from the zeal, love and compassion from God, because otherwise it will just become a duty.   Lord has mentioned, in another parable, that the prayer of the Pharisees is merely talking to themselves, because they only focus on how they have sacrificed themselves for God.  Thus, it is not prayer, but just fulfilling a duty.  If your prayer doesn't come from a heart that loves the souls, the church, brothers and sisters, then your prayer will sooner or later become a report, or even accusation.  May God help us, let us recognize that we need fire of prayer inside us, and when God places us on a broken wall, we need to stand on the broken wall and pray until something happens.   In the ministry of prayer, God has given every different gift.  Some are called to pray for the whole world, some for the social issues, some for the church, some for families, and some specifically for Israel.  When God places a specific burden inside us, we need to rise up to work with Him, and to experience the victory of God through prayer.      Pray with Pastor Tong           Dear Lord, I thank you because you are the victorious Lord and because you have chosen us to collaborate with you through prayer.  Please call us to become prayer warriors all our life, so that you may bring down revival through us.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!