[Power of the Word] My Prayer Request
Daniel Brady
“…and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” --Ephesians 6:19-20
Paul knew that the boldness to preach the gospel comes from the Lord. He also recognized his need to continually depend on God for boldness. And so, even at the end of his life, we find him asking for prayer for boldness.
In light of this, I would like to take the opportunity to share my prayer request with you. It is different than Paul’s, but somewhat related.
As many of you know, I have cerebral palsy, and since my speech can be difficult to understand at times, I minister through writing, rather than preaching in front of a congregation. So I do not need boldness so much as I need greater diligence in my writing. For quite sometime, my writing has been somewhat sporadic. And I feel I need to apologize to you for that. It must be frustrating, I suppose, not necessarily to receive these devotions only once or twice a week, but to receive them on different days each week, and also to have an entire week or two go by without receiving any devotions at all.
All of our lives get busy, and mine is no different. I work 40 hours a week on the graveyard shift at The Home Depot. I sleep during the day. I also have other projects I am working on and other obligations each week. However, this is no excuse for laziness or for being lax in my writing.
But I understand that perseverance, like boldness, comes from the Lord. The strength I need to be diligent and consistent in my ministry of writing must come from Him. I cannot find it within myself. And so I would ask you to pray for me in this area.
In addition, I would ask you to pray that God would give me wisdom as I write. I will admit to you that there are times when I am not sure what to write, or how to write it, particularly as I seek to keep each entry to just one page in length. There have been times when I have started to write an entry, only to delete all I’ve written and start over again, because I did not like the direction I was taking with it.
In addition to writing “The Power of the Word,” I’ve also become a volunteer writer for the website, www.gotquestions.org. As people visit the website and submit questions about the Bible and Christianity, the questions are sent out to various volunteers who write and submit answers to the questions. Some of these questions are not easy, particularly when the questioner is not merely seeking academic knowledge. The questions I receive often reflect some issue that a person is dealing with on a very personal level. Not knowing all (if any) of the details concerning the situations they face, it can be difficult to provide answers that are, first and foremost, Biblical, but then also sensitive to what may be happening in an individual’s life.
So, as Paul requested prayer for boldness, I would ask for prayer for diligence and wisdom in my writing. I thank you for praying for me.
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