|
|
Prayer 24/7We want to cover First Baptist Church with prayer 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Prayer watchers commit to one hour of prayer per month for one year. To volunteer for 24/7 prayer: First, be a member of First Baptist Church. Check the schedule and pick your hour to pray. Did you know ... the words watchmen, watchman, watch, watching, watchful, watcher and watches are mentioned about 165 times in the Bible. When similar words like see or observe are included, that count rises to over 300! Pray, prayer, praying, prayerful and prayers are also mentioned about 300 times. "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36). We want to watch and pray and stay alert. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" He asked Peter. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak" (Matthew 26:40-41). We need to watch and pray so that we are not unprepared because of sin and/or the cares of the world. "Then I heard a loud voice in Heaven say: 'Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death'" (Revelation 12:10-11). Think of it this way: we know that Satan keeps a 24-hour watch over our world. He never sleeps. We who are Christ's body must stand watch, vigilant and faithful. Remember these biblical examples of watching? "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain" (Psalm 127:1). "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn" (Mark 13:35). The watch in the Old Testament was based on the Hebrew calendar. There were three four-hour watches of the night, and three four-hour watches of the day. Then, based on the Roman calendar, New Testament watches were four three-hour watches of the night and four three-hour watches of the day. The minimum watch mentioned in the Bible is one hour (Matthew 26:41). So First Baptist Church prayer watches begin at midnight, in accordance with our culture's calendar. |
|
|
|
|
|
