Ending The Day With Kingdom Praying

Vespers can be the most challenging and yet rewarding time for prayer and study. Challenging because it comes at the end of the day, usually when the mind and body are tired. It requires concentrated effort to focus on what is before you because our thoughts can easily drift. I have found that unless I am intentional about this time, I can easily justify putting it off till later or another time.

The Psalmist understood the need to close out his day with God. "When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. (Psalm 63:6-8).

Please understand me when I say that I am not opposed to those who choose to read a devotional book or listen to praise music in the evening hours. These can help focus the mind and heart on God. But for me I choose to read the Bible and glean its truths before I "lay me down to sleep". This doesn't make me more spiritual than anyone else. It's based in my firm belief that the Bible is God's revelatory Word, and as such, I desire to read, learn and know what He would say in the historical context and our modern day. I want to know Him and not just know about Him.

In the morning I read from the New Testament. In the evening I read from the Old Testament. My pattern is to read four chapters systematically. I begin with Genesis and follow through to Malachi and then repeat. Some might find that reading from a book like Leviticus might be challenging but for me, I see how it fits into the larger context. It really does help me to pray Kingdom prayers in a more effective and concise way.

Without being disrespectful, I have been in many prayer meetings that have focused mostly on the immediate families of those praying. And this is good since these are closest to the prayer's heart. But if I am only praying for me, my wife and my two kids: us four and no more I will have missed the joy and opportunity of being an intercessor for the larger family grouping.

Families are important in the Old Testament, from individuals to families to the groupings of families to clans to tribes. Each name listed is important. As such families are also important to us: both in the immediate and in the larger grouping.

I regularly pray for over 100 persons that are members of the clan. Each name is important to me. Each person is important to God. I know the names of siblings, of their children, of their grandchildren. I pray in the authority of Christ over each life: for salvations, for healings, for deliverance, for the fulness of the Spirit.

God's word through the prophet Ezekiel is significant in his day and ours. "I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. (Ezekiel 22:30).

May it not be said of me. May it not be said of you.

Blessings!