Legislative Prayer Breakfast
Ruth shares her own experience of seeking a prayerful life as a politician.
There is so much good stuff on prayer out in the marketplace, that there is no way I could cover much of it in-depth this morning. Therefore, I'm going to focus on how God used prayer in my life while serving in the Gen. Assembly.
What follows are three indispensable practices or truths that He used to reveal himself to me and equip me for the task.
First, I learned that God will usually change my heart before he changes my circumstances. Therefore, if I want to see more answers to prayer I have to be willing to let him change my heart.
I usually did that by praying through the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22) and picturing what it would look like during my day if I demonstrated that fruit.
Give an example.
Second, since I really wanted God's wisdom and direction, he showed me early on that memorizing scripture and hymns was a critical tool.
Give example about defending oneself (Is 41:10 “Do not fear”, Ps 37: 4-6 “Delight yourself”, 1 Pt 3:15-16 “In your heart”,
Add a lighthearted touch with the "do not rebuke a mocker" (Prv 9:8) example but tie it to the legislature.
- Part of getting that wisdom and knowledge from God also includes using scripture to; help us praise him as we recognize his ability to grant our request, and to
- confess our sin to remove any barriers to receiving his instruction. (Ps. 66:18 “If I had cherished sin”)
And third, we need to pray for protection from our enemies. For that, I learned to put on the armor of God every morning before I leave for the building. (Eph 6:10-11 “Finally, be strong in the Lord”)
Give the example of the armor of God and enforce the need for a prayer team, suggest that people in the audience who are not members of the legislature can often be that prayer team.
We should all be familiar with the biblical acknowledgement that we are in a spiritual battle against the world and our flesh. (Eph 6:12- read if time)
But what is often less acknowledged here, is that politics is a form of “civilized warfare”. As we see around the world, when political systems fail, there is deadly warfare. Therefore, it should be clear to us that regular daily prayer is not an option.
For what soldier would ever consider going into battle untrained, unprepared, or unarmed?
