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Praying For Spiritual Renewal

Friday, June 20, 2014 View Comments Comments (0)
Praying for Spiritual Renewal
A personal message from our GBC President
 
 

As Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, He asked His disciples to watch and pray. He went to the interior of the garden and poured out His heart to the Father. When He returned, He found His disciples were asleep. Even after He awakened them and renewed His appeal for them to pray so they would not enter into temptation, again they fell asleep. Upon His final return, once more, He found them sleeping. When Jesus needed His disciples the most, they were of little help because they were asleep.

 

This story illustrates the problem we have in the Church today. We are spiritually asleep when we should be watching and praying. Throughout the Scriptures we are told to pray. Even so, prayer is the most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines because it requires humility and self-control. I am convinced that the spiritual weakness in the Church today is first and foremost because of a lack of prayer.

 

As the prophet Isaiah discovered when he went to the temple to pray after the death of King Uzziah, prayer enables us to see who we are in light of God’s holiness. Like Isaiah, genuine prayer should cause us to address the sin in our lives and enable us to effectively fulfill His missionary call.

 

Throughout the state, I am finding a growing number of people who are realizing the need to cry out to God in prayer. Perhaps we are beginning to realize that our programs and plans are pointless apart from the power of God. Recently, I met with associational missionaries who are developing a prayer network across Georgia. They will be connecting monthly to pray for a spiritual renewal in our convention. Also, they will be encouraging pastors in their associations to partner with other pastors for the purpose of praying for spiritual renewal.

 

My vision is for a grassroots prayer movement to grow throughout Georgia. I want to encourage all Georgia Baptists to connect with a prayer network and regularly cry out to God for spiritual renewal. This momentum of prayer will usher Georgia Baptists into Revive2014, our annual meeting to be held at Ingleside Baptist Church in Macon. The focus of Revive2014 will be to cry out to God for a spiritual renewal in our convention.

 

Considering the over 7 million lost people in Georgia and the spiritual apathy in many of our churches, we must awake from our spiritual sleep. Just like Jesus’ disciples in the garden, we need to watch and pray because we are in a spiritual battle.

 

Please join me and others as we pray for God to send a spiritual renewal throughout the Georgia Baptist Convention.

 
Praying for Renewal,

Don Hattaway, Tabernacle Baptist, Cartersville


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