For many years, I’ve loved reading about the lives of George Mueller and Brother Andrew – men whose ministries were built on prayer and whose hearts were brimming over with confidence in God’s faithfulness.
Take Mueller, for example. According to Donald Whitney, professor of biblical spirituality at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mueller founded orphanages in 19th-century England that ultimately cared for more than 10,000 children. “Yet,” Whitney writes, “he never made the needs of his ministries known to anyone except to God in prayer.”
But God showed himself faithful to this prayer warrior and the children he was caring for, Whitney adds. “Mueller,” he wrote, “had over fifty thousand specific recorded answers to prayers in his journals, thirty thousand of which he said were answered the same day or the same hour that he prayed them. Think of it: that’s five hundred definite answers to prayer each year – more than one per day – every single day for sixty years!”
Last fall, Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Wes Fowler outlined his vision for the MBC, highlighting above all a need for intentional and fervent prayer among Missouri Baptists. Prayer is foundational to all we hope and strive to do for Christ in Missouri and across the globe.
“Nothing is well done without prayer,” E.M. Bounds once wrote, “for the simple reason that [prayerlessness] leaves God out of account.” In this light, don’t leave God out of account this year, and consider the following matters as you pray:
Pray for life
With the unfortunate passage of pro-abortion Amendment 3 last fall, it is extremely important that Missouri Baptists pray for pre-born babies, as well as for their mothers and fathers. On Jan. 19, Southern Baptists across the nation will observe Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, giving all of us an opportunity to oppose our society’s culture of death by collectively praying to the divine author of human life.
The SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has released a free prayer guide and bulletin insert that churches can use in connection with Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. These materials can be accessed here: https://erlc.com/sanctity-of-life-sunday/.
Pray for elected officials
Missouri Baptists gathered with other Christians, Jan. 8, to pray for their elected officials. Last fall, Concord and the MBC’s Christian Life Commission (CLC) also announced a related, and non-partisan, prayer initiative that aims to connect every state lawmaker with a Missouri Baptist church that is committed to pray consistently for that lawmaker and his or her family. (See photo gallery below this article.)
The prayer event and prayer initiative are based on 1 Tim 2:1-2, which commands that “petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority.” The apostle adds, in verses 3-4, that such prayer pleases “God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Praying for elected officials, therefore, isn’t ultimately about politics. Rather, it’s about seeing people come to salvation through faith in Christ.
So, as newly elected officials enter office both on state and national levels this month, let’s pray that they soon find salvation and truth in “God our Savior.”
Pray for the nations
“Intercessory prayer is an essential part of completing the Great Commission,” International Mission Board staff wrote late last year, reporting on the ways that God answered prayers in 2024. “God works through the prayers of Southern Baptists to impact lostness.”
Last year, the IMB reported, persecuted Christians among the Kyrgyz people group found courage to proclaim their faith; a witch doctor in Uganda turned from her ways to follow Christ; and the New Testament was finally translated for the Sparrow people group in the Horn of Africa. To read more about how God answered prayer in 2024, visit https://www.imb.org/2024/12/18/7-ways-god-answered-your-prayers-in-2024/.
The IMB also offers a free prayer guide and other resources that can help Missouri Baptists pray for the nations this year. Access the prayer guide online here: https://www.imb.org/loving-the-lost/#request.
Missouri Baptist churches can also make an impact on the nations by working with international partners in Mexico and by ministering to people from across the globe who now reside in Missouri. Missouri Baptists can access a prayer guide on the MBC website to help them pray for the people from among the nations who are now their neighbors: https://mobaptist.org/nations/.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – Concord Baptist Church Pastor John King (left) and Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Wes Fowler (center) speak with Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (right) after the legislative prayer service hosted by Concord and the MBC’s Christian Life Commission here, Jan. 8. As the keynote speaker for the prayer service, the MBC’s Fowler urged elected officials to find God’s blessing in Christ by hungering and thirsting after righteousness. His message was based on Matt 5:6. (Pathway photos)
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- JEFFERSON CITY – Immediately after the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) President Wesley Vance (center) and MBC Executive Director Wes Fowler (right) speak with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (left).
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Concord’s worship minister Brad Newbold, along with members of the church’s praise team, choir and orchestra, lead in the singing of God Bless America.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Pastor John King welcomes elected officials and other guests.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Director Wes Fowler urges elected officials to find God’s blessing in Christ by hungering and thirsting after righteousness. His message was based on Matt 5:6.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Minister John Battaglia of Missouri Capitol Commission leads a prayer for state elected officials.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, University of Missouri Director of Athletics Laird Veatch (left) welcomes elected officials.
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- JEFFERSON CITY – During the Jan. 8 legislative prayer service at Concord Baptist Church here, Missouri Baptist Christian Life Commission (CLC) chairman Willie Isaacson speaks about the initiative of the CLC and Concord Baptist Church to partner churches from across the state with Missouri lawmakers for the purpose of prayer.
