A Call To Pray

...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Hebrews 12:1b

The sin. The thing that so easily entangles us. Other translations say that which distracts, entraps or weighs us down. It's my button, if you will. The pressure point the enemy knows surely how to get at and targets each and every time. Mine isn't the same as yours but no doubt we both wrestle just the same. 

It started for me on Christmas night. My husband and I watched The War Room and the powerful call to prayer gripped my heart. Through sovereign intervention, it's been the theme and call to action over the last few weeks from our pastor. A call to pray. A plea to seek the Lord, not just for what I want or desire, but to call upon Him for revival, renewal and restoration. 

They've put up boards around the church where you can post your prayer requests and praises but on the altar are two boxes. We've been asked to write it down. The sin. The one that haunts us. The one that entangles us, the thing that causes us to stumble over and over again. The weight that we bear. Release it. Be free from it. Be delivered in the name of Jesus. On February 20th we'll have a special celebration service and the cards in those boxes will become a burnt offering to the Lord of our burdens and sins that we are seeking freedom from. 

The pastor took the lead and wrote his down today and put it in the box. We're a baptist church so we have a traditional altar call. But today was anything but traditional. People started to come, dropping their cards in the boxes, kneeling at the altar, praying and crying out to God. Releasing the sin, praying for forgiveness, finding freedom and being delivered. It was beautiful and moving and emotional and Spirit filled. 

I've experienced this moment of coming face to face with the holiness of God and the utter despair of my life. I've wrestled with my humanity and His holiness as I realized the depravity of my flesh and the humility of who I am on my own. I've experienced His lavish love poured out over me as I offered Him my brokenness. I know the freedom that comes when this burden is laid on the altar and released. And I know you can experience the same.  

I can't go without extending the invitation to you. Not just to join us in prayer as a church, not only as a part of this special service that I would love to see you attend, but to be free from the sin that besets you. You don't need a box or a hand written card but you do need a moment of honesty with God Almighty. There is deliverance and freedom in Christ when we surrender to Him. He conquered sin and death when He paid our debt on the cross. What I witnessed today were people coming to grips with the grace and mercy that is freely available to us. To me. To you. It's time to throw it off. It's time to be free. It's time to pray, in Jesus' name, and experience Him at work.