When this pastor began asking folks outside his church to pray for Jesus to change him, and the church he had months earlier begun to pastor, and to open doors to friendships with pre-believers, he had no pre-believing friends, the church was going downhill and unresponsive to his preaching, and he battled daily discouragement, freely admitting that Jesus wasn’t enough for him. Today, the church is beginning to turn around, and he now has a number of pre-believing friends outside the church, including this couple mentioned below in his weekly prayer update from Saturday. –WeakDave, trying to get believers to hang out with pre-believers, and pastors to recruit prayer for themselves
Praying friends,
This is a quick call to prayer. This morning I am meeting with the young unbelieving (for the moment) couple who are coming for pre-marital counseling. Pray for the Spirit to come powerfully in our time together. Pray that the openness that they have displayed so far will grow. Pray that I would be sensitive to know when to push and when to simply step back and wait. Pray that through this process that this couple would embrace Jesus, and that this would start a faith movement throughout their families. You might also pray for me that I would believe that the Spirit could/would do such a thing. I’m not very believing in that regard.
Also, I am playing golf with the prospective bride’s father Monday morning, just the two of us. He basically thinks he is good enough for God’s acceptance, and I’ll have to admit he is a pretty good guy in most ways. Yet, it is all up to him. He is master of his own world. Pray for good conversations. Pray for boldness on my part to testify to what Jesus is doing in me, and pray that what Jesus is doing in me will naturally come out without me having to force it. So, pray for the Spirit’s work in me, and also pray that the Spirit would open his heart to something much greater than what he can achieve on his own.
Thanks for your prayers. I love knowing that when I go into battle for men’s/women’s hearts, I don’t go alone.
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