Prayer requests

Today, I would like to allow us all a chance to leave comments with prayer requests, and to assure others that we are contending for them as prayer warriors . . .

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;    be merciful to me and answer me.
 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”    Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Psalm 27:7-8)

These verses inspired my thoughts recently and I wanted to share them with you.

Perhaps people are over-dramatic sometimes, but we often hear them say, "We are living in perilous times." Perhaps each generation has looked around themselves and said that.  In our world, today, we have turmoil over elections, radical terrorism, and natural disasters like Hurricane Dorian. Volcanoes have recently erupted, earthquakes shake our earth. I believe that the earth is showing the pangs of rebirth; the evidences of the Lord's coming again are getting stronger.
I think that as prayer warriors, we need to ask for and to contend for His presence. The Bible tells us that He is looking throughout the earth for those who are praying and seeking His face:

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (II Chronicles 16:9a)

Let's look at our own lives and evaluate our time spent with the Lord each day.
Are our hearts totally His?
Sometimes we are not aware of where we are in our spiritual lives. We are "too busy" to appropriate what is available to us. We've talked recently about putting the blessing of God on our lives as a top priority....if our hearts are not seeking God, we are settling for lesser things. We can tap into His power and His presence, for we are heirs with Christ.
Wait a minute.
Let's say that again, because it is not something we should read quickly, or take for granted.
We can tap into His power and His presence, for we are heirs with Christ.
He wants to take us deeper into His presence, to show His power and salvation to everyone that we come in contact with! He is a God of compassion:

The Lord is gracious and righteous;    our God is full of compassion. (Psalm 116:5)

He is the answer to all of our problems and our pain. He is longing to take the pain and brokenness of the peoples of this world, and show the light of Jesus into their souls:

The people walking in darkness    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness    a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you    as people rejoice at the harvest, (Isaiah 9:2-3)

It's His presence that can stir hearts and break down barriers. He can bring strident voices to be stilled, and intolerance can turn to understanding.
How can they hear?
God is looking for us to partner with Him. We can speak words of hope and restoration; we can pray for His help and encouragement in the midst of these turbulent times. We can pray as the psalmist did, in the verse posted at the top of this page -- we can seek His face.
We can cultivate His presence in our lives.
We can contend for our neighbors, our country's leaders, and others, in our prayers.
We can repent of any distractions or idols in our own lives, and ask for Him to "set us on fire" for Him.
We can ask for forgiveness of our sins and be a clean vessel, carrying salt and light to our world.

As the gospel spreads, we can pray that His mercy and power would change our country:

 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it. (Jeremiah 33:8-9)

Will you join me in prayer today?
Will you seek His face?
Are there prayer requests that we can add today, and all of the prayer warriors who pause here can lift up the requests to Him?
Let's worship Him in prayer, and wait to hear His voice.