Most classes each Sunday take time to share prayer requests. Many of these are organ recitals: i.e. “Pray for my Kidneys, pray for my liver, pray for my cousin’s heart, pray for my sister’s cousin who is having a hip replacement, etc.”.
I often think we pray harder to keep people out of heaven than to pray for the lost to get them into heaven.
One youth minister had the audacity to have his youth write the names of lost people they wanted to see be saved on the white board and start praying for them by name each week. One Friday night, the father of one youth came to his son’s fifth-quarter youth activity after the local football game. He was very persistent that he had to talk to the youth minister right then. He had been restless and troubled for two weeks and had to get some answers.
As they went off to one of the youth classrooms, they sat down and the father asked why his name was written on the white board. The youth minister said that for the last three weeks, the students in his son’s class had been praying for the father by name that he might come to know Jesus.
The man exploded. “That explains it. I have not been able to sleep or concentrate on anything the last couple of weeks.” In that room that night, the man gave his heart to Jesus. Prayer changes things. We are in a spiritual battle over the souls of men.
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Dr. Mark Yoakum, Director of Church Ministries, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention
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