Desire Starters and the Night of Prayer
John Piper
@JohnPiper
Why might you want to pray all night on January 9 from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM? Or even for part of it? We’ve done it every year for over 15 years during prayer week (January 4-11 this year). O the blessings on our lives and our church that have flowed from this night! We start with an hour of worship at 10:00 PM and then take a different focus each hour of the night. Think of it as a sleep “fast.” This much, O God—as much as my body craves sleep tonight—this much I want you.
What do you long for God to do in 1998? If your desires are weak, and you are so numb from Christmas frenzy that you can’t feel, here are some desire starters. Prayer grows out of desire. God says, “Seek me with all your heart!” Here is my rationale for coming. I will be there for a simple reason: my answer to all the following questions is yes.
- Is there someone you love whom you want him to save?
- Do you know wayward sons or daughters you want him to bring to their senses?
- Is there a sickness you want him to heal?
- Is there a bondage you want him to break?
- Do you want to eat right and exercise right and sleep right?
- Is there an alienated person you want him to reconcile?
- Is there a job change you want him to orchestrate?
- Is there a ministry you want him to prosper?
- Is there a debt you would like him to help you pay off?
- Is there a potential missionary family you want him to send out?
- Is there a war you would like for him to make cease?
- Is there an injustice you want him to overcome?
- Are there refugees you want him to take home in security and gospel blessing?
- Do you want abortion to become unthinkable in America?
- Is there persecution you want him to remove?
- Is there hunger and homelessness and destitution you want him to ameliorate?
- Is there a church you would like to see revived and reformed in the truth?
- Are there biblical doctrines you want God to preserve from undermining attack?
- Are there colleges or seminaries you want God to strengthen in biblical faithfulness?
- Are there children you want him to make submissive and happily obedient?
- Are there marriage stresses you want God to relieve?
- Is there loneliness you want him to replace with friendships?
- Are there disabilities someone needs grace to accept and exploit for God’s glory?
- Is there pride that God needs to humble?
- Is there a depressed person you care about whom God might awaken with hope and strength?
- Is there disunity among believers anywhere that brings reproach on Christ?
- Do you want God to restigmatize pornography that desecrates women and dishonors God?
- Do you want God to preserve the conviction that homosexual activity is an abomination to the Lord?
- Do you want timidity in witness replaced by courage in the lives of tens of thousands of Christians?
- Do you want Christians to have lifestyles that communicate that knowing Christ is more to be desired than owning anything in the world?
- Do you want your worship to be deep and intense and authentic and God-centered?
- Do you want God to call an urban pastor to us who would catapult us into powerful new ministries in the city that would bring hundreds of people to Christ and bless the neighborhoods around the church?
- Do you want Tom Steller to be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit for his renewed ministry among us?
- Do you want God to show us in 1998 his plan for the growing space crunch at BBC?
With growing desire Godward,
Pastor John
