Focus on Prayer
As we begin a New Year, Bro. Steve's heart is for the Bellevue family to focus on prayer in a renewed way. Please join Bro. Steve and Donna in making Bellevue a house of prayer. Prayer will change you, your relationship with God, and our church forever. We recently sat down with Bro. Steve and Donna to get their thoughts on prayer and their prayer vision for Bellevue.
Q: How important is prayer to your lives and ministry?
Bro. Steve: I believe that a day without prayer is a wasted day. As for Donna and me, we believe that the very first thing we need to do in the morning is read our Bible and pray. We need to hear from God and talk with Him. If we don't do that, it really doesn't matter what else we do.
Donna: Prayer is our power source, our connection with the God of the universe. It's not just an activity.; it's a relationship. As I spend time in the Word of God and in prayer, God often gives me additional insight into what I've just read. He will burn a Scripture into my heart, and that Scripture will be used later in the day or week when I encounter someone else.
Q: What is your strategy for praying for others?
Donna: My strategy for praying for others includes a prayer basket that I keep beside the chair where I meet with the Lord. In this basket, I have my Bible, a journal, and a prayer notebook, which I use to remember and to know how to pray for people. It includes pictures of people I pray over. I also have an intercession section. When people ask me to pray for them, I jot down their names and requests so that I can remember them.
Bro. Steve: I use blank index cards and, just like Donna, write down names of people and specific things for which I need to pray. I pray each day and try to pray through my prayer cards at least twice a week. I also have a stack of answered prayers. And whenever I get a little bit discouraged and wonder if prayer really matters, I go back and say, "Oh, man, it mattered then!" So the prayer cards work for me.
Q: How do you stay focused when you pray?
Bro. Steve: Well, I think my prayer cards help me stay focused because I'm praying for specific things, and I'm praying Scripture back to God. I also have a pattern. The Lord's Prayer talks about worshiping God by praising His name, so I pray the various names ascribed to Him in Scripture and thank Him for what His name means. Colossians 4:2 says you are to "devote yourself to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving." When I'm down or just "stuck" in my prayer time, I start praising the Lord and thanking Him for what He's done for me lately.
Donna: I, too, think the key is to have a system, a plan. It keeps you focused, and you're not forgetting to pray for things that are important. I can't pray through my notebook every single day. I pray for my family every day, but then I'll work through another section in my notebook each day. So there are certain days that I pray for certain sections of my notebook because I can't do it all.
Q: What advice would you have for others who may be struggling in their prayer lives?
Bro. Steve: I think that everybody struggles. I think that the main thing is that even when you don't feel like praying, you pray anyway. If I don't "feel like it," then that's the time I need to pray more. When you make time to be with the Lord Jesus and pray, He blesses it. It's just the discipline of doing it whether you feel like it or not. Never follow your feelings. Obey the Lord, and the appropriate feelings will follow obedience.
Q: What is your vision for prayer at Bellevue?
Bro. Steve: I would love for us to be a real "house of prayer." That means I want our prayer room to be active and to have people praying here nonstop, 10-12 hours a day. I can also envision us having a prayer chain that involves Bellevue members praying 24/7, so the sun will rise and set on our people crying out to God. I want our church family to practice prayer according to Isaiah 62:6-7, which says, "On your walls, O Jerusalem (Bellevue), I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem (Bellevue) a praise in the earth."
Donna: I agree with Steve. I desire that God would raise up committed intercessors throughout the body of Christ. It is in spending time with the Lord that we see what He wants us to see and hear what He wants us to hear. Apart from spending time with God in prayer, we can't know those things, and we can't truly be about His business. So I would love to see our portion of the body of Christ be a vibrant, healthy, praying body and this house that we meet in literally become a house of prayer.
Bro. Steve: I agree, and when you boil it all down, there are three "houses of prayer" that God desires: the house of our individual bodies, the house of our families and homes, and the house of our local church. If we can succeed in prayer at all three of those levels, watch out! – God will "show up and show off" for His glory!!!
Q: How important is prayer to your lives and ministry?
Bro. Steve: I believe that a day without prayer is a wasted day. As for Donna and me, we believe that the very first thing we need to do in the morning is read our Bible and pray. We need to hear from God and talk with Him. If we don't do that, it really doesn't matter what else we do.
Donna: Prayer is our power source, our connection with the God of the universe. It's not just an activity.; it's a relationship. As I spend time in the Word of God and in prayer, God often gives me additional insight into what I've just read. He will burn a Scripture into my heart, and that Scripture will be used later in the day or week when I encounter someone else.
Q: What is your strategy for praying for others?
Donna: My strategy for praying for others includes a prayer basket that I keep beside the chair where I meet with the Lord. In this basket, I have my Bible, a journal, and a prayer notebook, which I use to remember and to know how to pray for people. It includes pictures of people I pray over. I also have an intercession section. When people ask me to pray for them, I jot down their names and requests so that I can remember them.
Bro. Steve: I use blank index cards and, just like Donna, write down names of people and specific things for which I need to pray. I pray each day and try to pray through my prayer cards at least twice a week. I also have a stack of answered prayers. And whenever I get a little bit discouraged and wonder if prayer really matters, I go back and say, "Oh, man, it mattered then!" So the prayer cards work for me.
Q: How do you stay focused when you pray?
Bro. Steve: Well, I think my prayer cards help me stay focused because I'm praying for specific things, and I'm praying Scripture back to God. I also have a pattern. The Lord's Prayer talks about worshiping God by praising His name, so I pray the various names ascribed to Him in Scripture and thank Him for what His name means. Colossians 4:2 says you are to "devote yourself to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving." When I'm down or just "stuck" in my prayer time, I start praising the Lord and thanking Him for what He's done for me lately.
Donna: I, too, think the key is to have a system, a plan. It keeps you focused, and you're not forgetting to pray for things that are important. I can't pray through my notebook every single day. I pray for my family every day, but then I'll work through another section in my notebook each day. So there are certain days that I pray for certain sections of my notebook because I can't do it all.
Q: What advice would you have for others who may be struggling in their prayer lives?
Bro. Steve: I think that everybody struggles. I think that the main thing is that even when you don't feel like praying, you pray anyway. If I don't "feel like it," then that's the time I need to pray more. When you make time to be with the Lord Jesus and pray, He blesses it. It's just the discipline of doing it whether you feel like it or not. Never follow your feelings. Obey the Lord, and the appropriate feelings will follow obedience.
Q: What is your vision for prayer at Bellevue?
Bro. Steve: I would love for us to be a real "house of prayer." That means I want our prayer room to be active and to have people praying here nonstop, 10-12 hours a day. I can also envision us having a prayer chain that involves Bellevue members praying 24/7, so the sun will rise and set on our people crying out to God. I want our church family to practice prayer according to Isaiah 62:6-7, which says, "On your walls, O Jerusalem (Bellevue), I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem (Bellevue) a praise in the earth."
Donna: I agree with Steve. I desire that God would raise up committed intercessors throughout the body of Christ. It is in spending time with the Lord that we see what He wants us to see and hear what He wants us to hear. Apart from spending time with God in prayer, we can't know those things, and we can't truly be about His business. So I would love to see our portion of the body of Christ be a vibrant, healthy, praying body and this house that we meet in literally become a house of prayer.
Bro. Steve: I agree, and when you boil it all down, there are three "houses of prayer" that God desires: the house of our individual bodies, the house of our families and homes, and the house of our local church. If we can succeed in prayer at all three of those levels, watch out! – God will "show up and show off" for His glory!!!
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