By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor
[img_assist|nid=8077|title=Prayer|desc=Several events related to the 2012 National Day of Prayer are planned at churches and in communities across Louisiana on Thursday, May 3. This year’s theme is “One Nation Under God,” based on Psalm 33:12.|link=none|align=right|width=600|height=640]STATEWIDE – “In prayer we loose the power of God,” says Dick DeBusk, pastor of Alpine Baptist Church in Pineville.
DeBusk is to be one of six men praying at Philadelphia Baptist Church in Deville May 3, which is one of several events related to the National Day of Prayer that are planned at churches and communities across Louisiana.
The 6:30 p.m. hour-long service Thursday, May 3, at Philadelphia Deville is to include specific prayers for 1. Our Nation/Government Leaders; 2. Military/Police/Firemen/First Responders; 3. Schools/Education; 4. Churches; 5. Families/Homes/Marriages/Youth of our Nation; and 6. Missions/Missionaries, reports Ricky Belgard, prayer minister for the last two years at Philadelphia, where he’s been a member about 10 years.
“We’re hoping to make this an annual event for our church,” Belgard said. “At this juncture in our nation there never has been a more needed time for prayer than right now.”
The 2012 National Day of Prayer theme is “One Nation Under God,” based on Psalm 33:12 – Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Shirley Dobson is national chairman of what essentially is a grass roots effort in which local churches or communities plan how, when and where they want to pray, and the specific content of those prayers.
The website – www.NationalDayofPrayer.org – provides a plethora of helps: What is prayer? Why pray? How to begin. Principles in prayer. Types of prayer. Key Bible verses on prayer and more.
“We really felt like a community-wide prayer and praise service was something God laid on our heart to do,” Belgard said. “This was something we needed to come together as a community to do. It’s a wonderful opportunity for our churches to bring their prayer warriors together and pray for our community and our nation. We understand there is strength in numbers. When you bring together people in prayer, God honors that.”
Several pastors across the state are known to be prayer warriors. Dick DeBusk, pastor of First Alpine is perhaps best known because of his time – 1998-2004 – as prayer strategist for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“That is the mandate for myself – to pray,” DeBusk said. “What I am drawing from in prayer is [the Apostle] Paul’s two prayers for the church in Ephesians 1 and 3. When he writes in Philippians 2:5, let this mind be in you which is also in Christ, that tells us Paul’s mind was the mind of Christ and Christ was the man of prayer. He always prayed.”
It’s essential that Christians value the things Scripture says to value, and prayer is high on that list because “of the latent power that is in prayer, when we pray rightly,” DeBusk said. “The power is there, in God’s timing. It’s not a silver bullet, but in prayer we loose the power of God. I believe it with all my heart and soul. It’s the air I breathe, the rock on which I stand, the heartbeat of heaven.”
DeBusk’s dependency on prayer dates to 1987, when he was a young pastor, serving the people of Hebron Baptist Church in Dry Prong.
“It started from a desperate need in my own life,” DeBusk said. “I had exhausted all that I was, and that wasn’t enough. In a plea of desperation I was driven to prayer and in the coming to that point that I truly experienced the things that God said He had for us.”
Later, at a revival service, DeBusk surrendered himself to be a man of prayer. When people asked for prayer, he said, he stopped telling them, “I will,” and began saying, “I won’t pray for you but I’ll pray with you.”
To say “I will” signifies a good intention, but can too easily be forgotten in the midst of a busy day, DeBusk said.
Lee Thomas of the Lake Charles area is known nationally as a man of prayer. To date, 1.5 million copies of the 43-page book he first published in 2003, “Praying Effectively for the Lost,” have been printed in 35 languages.
“Throughout his ministry he’s always had a great heart for souls,” said his wife, Sue Thomas. “It all started in 1969 when he was stationed in Key West, Fla., after he was drafted. He did street ministry there, and prayed for their souls.”
He pastored for 32 years, first at a mission in Orange, Texas, followed by stints in DeQuincy, Tullos, Start, and in 1995, Westwood Baptist Church in Westlake, adjacent to Lake Charles. There he led a group of men to meet at 5 a.m. daily – for years – to pray for the revival that finally came in 1998-99.
“After awhile it began fading and he started praying to be more effective in reaching people for Christ,” said his son, Andy, who works in the book-and-speaking ministry with Lee Thomas. “He had a hunger for that, for the Kingdom, and the Lord began to reveal the revelation on how to pray effectively for the lost.”
The Baptist Message caught up with Lee Thomas during a speaking engagement in North Carolina.
“Years ago I realized prayer was the key to everything,” Thomas said. “When I was a young preacher I fasted and prayed for souls. God does nothing except through prayer. He waits for us to pray. He does it through us praying.
[img_assist|nid=8078|title=National Day of Prayer|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=196]“Prayer is God’s appointed way for us to get all things from him,” Lee Thomas continued, referring to James 4:2 – You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask – and Philippians 4:6 – Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
“He knows what we want but He wants us to ask Him,” Thomas said. “I can’t tell you when I first realized that. I’ve always known prayer is the key. David Brainard [1718-1747] was a hero; reading stories of men like this I think really affected me.”
The materials on the National Day of Prayer website list several reasons for praying:
“We pray because we love God. We spend time with God in prayer and communion because we love Him. Just as a man and woman in love desire to be together and communicate, so we – if we love God – will desire to be with Him and to fellowship with Him in proportion to our love for Him.
“We pray because we depend on God. God is our source. He is our life (Colossians 3:4). Through prayer we receive the comfort, the strength and all the other resources that we need in life – both naturally and spiritually. Prayer – relationship to God – is as necessary to the spiritual life as air to the natural life.
“We need to pray in order to resist temptation. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. (Mt. 26:41). Much sin is the result of the sin of prayerlessness. Through lack of prayer, we are weak, others are weaker and Satan gains the advantage in our lives.
“We need to pray because it is necessary for men to invite God to act in salvation. God gave the earth to Adam and his descendants. We must invite God to work here.
If no one invites God to work here, Satan (the god of this world through man’s universal rebellion – 2 Corinthians 4:4) will dominate the affairs of men and eventually the judgment of God will come. By inviting God often and specifically, multitudes can be saved that would otherwise be lost.
“We need to pray because God commands us to pray. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. (Colossians 4:2). Then he [Jesus] spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not lose heart. (Luke 18:1). The need to pray is as great as the authority of God which commands us: Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
“Prayer is so vital to all that God wants to do on the earth, and so essential to us, that God commands us to do it all the time. We should even deny ourselves sleep and food at times in order to pray more and with greater power. (Matthew 6:16; Luke 6:12; Luke 21:36; Colossians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:27).