Are the Unevangelized Going to Hell?

Why should anyone go to Hell? First the sin of Adam, the head of the human race (Genesis 3), has been judicially laid at the feet of all his offspring. Romans 5:12 says “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (NIV). How that sin is transmitted is debated, physically or judicially. Although human genetic structure was probably altered in some way--the Bible says that we are all guilty with Adam’s guilt, even coming out of the womb (Psalm 51:5), which is the judgment of God. A Barna survey found that 74% of Americans reject the idea that they come into the world as sinners (“Americans Draw Theological Beliefs From Diverse Points of View,” 10/8/02, Barna Research Online).

Second, each of us sins individually. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards (Romans 3:23), and broken God’s law by sins of commission and omission. The Second Commandment is to love our neighbor as our self (Luke 10:27). The moment I try to selfishly use my neighbor, I break God’s command--a sin of commission. The Great Commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Luke 10:27). One day we’re going to love something more than God, or love will grow cold, if we haven’t otherwise fractured the Great Commandment by 6 PM. Then we sin by omission—not doing what we should do (possibly John Gerstner used these examples). Actually, nobody deserves to go to heaven (“the paradise of God” [Revelation 2:7] or the New Jerusalem described in Rev.21). The reason is God’s decision to punish sin, generically, not only with physical death (Genesis 3:3,19—the first death), but with the second death, described as the “lake of burning sulfur,” (Rev. 20:10), “eternal fire,” “raging fire” (Heb. 10: 27), darkness (Jude 7,13) and “torment” (Luke 16:23). Hell is an expression of God’s justice. We don’t have another chance: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…” (Heb. 9:27). Once there, one cannot migrate to heaven (Luke 16:26). There is no reincarnation, or laborious life-long opportunity to improve upon the last earthly pilgrimage, until at last we’re released (moksha) into the godhead, as Hinduism and Buddhism teach. Why? Heb. 10:28 explains, “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Salvation history isn’t cyclical, as reincarnation teaches, but linear, culminating with the Christian spending eternity with Christ, and non-Christians having their desire (many of them) to be away from Christ eternally. There is one sacrifice for sin, one judgment, one chance. Life is a one-way trip. We do not have to personally atone for sins by doing better, even if it were possible for a good deed to totally negate a bad deed (half of US adults believe we can be saved by good deeds--Barna 10/8/02). A Christian trusts the one sacrifice of the sinless Christ for all personal sin--past, present and future. Christ paid for that sin, which merit we receive by trusting the person of Christ for our salvation. The Bible teaches that we are saved by faith alone, plus nothing, since Christ’s atoning death was completely sufficient to cover and satisfy the justice of God. “If you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom. 10:9). Period. “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom. 10:13). God generally uses human means to communicate this message of salvation. “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? …And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Rom. 10:14a, 15a).

God does use dreams and visions to convict the lost, if the testimony of many is believed. Of course, evangelists use technologies. Many of those evangelized reject Christ, trusting some other scheme to compensate for obvious or subtle personal sin. Some try doing “good” (this “good” is like a filthy rag, Isaiah 64:6). Others minimize sin or deny that there is a god to whom we will give account. Or they suppress thoughts of God. Those who do reject Jesus will not spend eternity in heaven (John 3:36; 12:48). We can’t get there by other religions or sincerity. Jesus made the way narrow when He said that none come to the Father apart from Him (John 14:6).

Christians who are orthodox agree up to this point. An estimated 15.4 million unevangelized people die each year (Todd Johnson “A Global Summary of World Evangelization, mid-2005” World Christian Database).  These will have had no clear explanation of God’s offer of salvation through faith in Christ. What happens to them? The weight of scripture puts them on the way to perdition. Why? First, nature has already witnessed to them about God. The apostle Paul said that the godless and wicked suppress evidence of God’s “eternal power and divine nature” in creation (Rom. 1:20). They see brown earth and blue sky—not Creation. All of us without Christ are “godless” and our sin makes us “wicked” before God. We can, to a certain extent, know God through His creation (Rom. 1:21). So every unbeliever, not just the really wicked, sins against the knowledge of God found in nature—and is self-condemned. “Men are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20).

Second, we violate our own moral standards, regardless of how simple. These standards are exposed whenever we judge someone’s conduct. Eventually, if not before morning, we will judge someone’s conduct. At that precise point we condemn our self, since we commit that same sin precisely or in kind (Rom. 2:1). You judge a thief—you will steal or covet sometime. You lament a murderer, yet you have hated someone--the moral equivalent (1 John 3:15). We condemn ourselves, regardless of ever seeing a missionary. God uses our own standards by which to judge us. The verdict: “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else…” (Rom. 2:1). A prominent evangelical African American teacher is now saying that if someone doesn’t explicitly reject Jesus (such as a Muslim would have to do), God will judge them by another “dispensation” and that, without ever hearing of Christ, they will be saved. The reasoning is that if a person is seeking God, God is obligated to enable that person to find Him, since he who seeks, finds (Luke 11:10). Two problems arise. I get worried when I hear people teach that if you do “A,” God is “obligated” to do “B.” This is the line we hear about tithing. We cannot obligate God to do anything (see Rom. 11:35-36). Animism is about obligating the unseen world to do our bidding. God is too smart for us.

Second, God says that “There is no one who seeks God.” (Rom. 3:11).” If someone is found seeking God, it is because the Father is drawing that person to Christ (John 6:44), not because that person is seeking God all by herself. I believe in that case that God will somehow complete the good work begun (Phil. 1:6). There is no quicker way to anesthetize missions than to teach that people will go to heaven apart from personal faith in Christ.

Another entire layer upon this issue is predestination. “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” (Rom. 9:18). I believe predestination is part of the equation, but the God who elects (Rom. 9) is the same God who shows us that He uses human means--missionaries (Rom. 10). Workers are still needed to evangelize those “being saved” (Acts 2:47). Now if the unevangelized do go to hell—if they really do—how does that impact my life and resources? If the equivalent of over 42,000 people is going into eternal torment every night, how does this impact my spending priorities, and my church’s budget priorities? What percentage of income does your church give to promote cross-cultural evangelism? Does it matter to us that by mid-2007 there will be about 1,850,402,000 unevangelized persons on the planet—28% of the earth’s population (David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, “Missiometrics 2007,” Int’l Bulletin of Missionary Research, Jan. 2007, p. 32).  Taking care of our own neighborhood isn’t enough. We aren’t to stay in Jerusalem. Our finish line isn’t a packed and prosperous church or collecting our first Social Security check. It’s to complete all the work God has given us personally to do. Our mandate goes to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8: Matt. 28:18-20). Jesus, confronting this human harvest, told us to pray to God to thrust out laborers into the harvest field (Luke 10:2). If the unevangelized can be saved apart from Christ, as some otherwise orthodox Christian leaders and scholars tell us—Christ died needlessly. If the unevangelized could still reach heaven, D. James Kennedy facetiously suggests quickly bringing every missionary home, so none could hear, and all could be saved—the opposite of Jesus’ solution. It then becomes the responsibility of the Church to finance those the Father is sending, in a manner worthy of God (3 John 1:6). Are we doing personally and corporately what God wants us to do to evangelize as many as we can on the broad road to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14)? Indignation at the thought that the unevangelized will suffer hell is, I believe, higher morality than God’s, who plainly tells of their destination—the profoundest human tragedy, and reason to go.

THE PRESENCE OF GOD

Which is best: to work 2 hours; to work 1 hour and pray one hour; or to pray 2 hours?

WORLDVIEW

Our prayer life is a valid reflection of our worldview.  The whole issue of prayer rests upon our understanding of where we fit into the universe.  Prayer is like a "reset" button.  When life causes our perspectives to become distorted, prayer gives the proper reality.  It "centers" or re-focuses our world once again.  "In Him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28), as even a pagan Greek poet understood.

POWER

Submission

Prayer reflects our actual understanding of what power we as human beings have, and what kind of power God has.  It is a power issue, a Creator/creature--a sovereignty issue.  Are we willing to get so close to God that He takes entire control of our life?  Are we willing to surrender our "unlimited" freedom to the control of the Spirit of God?  We are really NOT in control down here.  God does whatever He pleases (Ps. 115:3; Ps. 135:6; Dan. 4:35).  He is not capricious--He chooses is bind Himself to His character.  If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim.2:13).  And He chooses to remain constant, "I the LORD do not change" (Mal.3:6).   But He does whatever the counsel of His will dictates, and He usually doesn't consult with us in advance.  He doesn't seem to need our input. Sometimes it takes a tragedy for us to realize His sovereignty.  Everything is going our way until the incomprehensible happens. 

Dependency

God does not want us to act independently of Him.  He wants us to call upon HIM in the day of trouble, for us to see HIS power in extremities (Ps. 50:14). We are utterly dependent upon God.  Apart from Christ we can do NOTHING (John 15:4-5).  That is His estimate of our talents, intelligence, training, perspicuity, basketball or golfing skills, prowess and charm.  In HIS estimate, and ultimately that is the only estimate that will count for eternity, we can do NOTHING apart from Him.  Failure to pray is a failure to accept His personal estimate of our place in the world, that disconnected from God we can accomplish nothing of value to Him.  We are critical of humanists who believe that "man is the measure", and that what the majority of people want is what is right (sociological "truth").  Yet we may guilty of the same kind of hubris, the error that we can do it all right by ourselves, "But thanks, God, anyway." 

The error of omitting God may NOT be intentional.  We may hold a wonderful theology, anthropology and doctrine of prayer.  It may simply be a matter of the wrong priorities: busyness, entertainment and the culture of comfort.  But the effect remains the same as if we had intentionally omitted God.

Francis Schaeffer put the omission in terms of a supernaturalist/materialist continuum.  He wrote in Death in the City,

The difference between a Christian who is being supernatural in practice and one who says he is a Christian but lives like a materialist can be illustrated by the difference between a storage battery and a light plug. Some Christians seem to think that when they are born again, they become a self-contained unit like a storage battery.  From that time on they have to go on their own pep and their own power until they die. But this is  wrong.  After we are justified, once for all through faith in Christ, we are to live in supernatural communion with the Lord every moment; we are to be like lights plugged into an electric socket.

The Bible makes it plain that our joy and spiritual power depend on a continuing relation to God.  If we do not love and draw on the Lord as we should, the plug gets pulled out and the spiritual power and the spiritual joy stop. (p. 292-293).

We must really sit in the supernaturalist's chair and pray.  If a Christian does not pray, if he does not live in an attitude of prayer, then no matter what he says about his doctrine, no matter how many naughty names he calls the unbelieving materialist, the Christian has moved over and is sitting in the materialist's chair.  He is living in unfaith if he is afraid to act upon the supernatural in the present life. (p. 296).

HOW BIG IS OUR GOD?

Is our God too small?  Genesis 18:14, "Is anything too difficult for the LORD?" when promising a child to Sarah.  Jeremiah prayed, "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.  Nothing is too hard for you." (32:17). God responded, "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind.  Is anything too hard for me?".  God gave quail to the Israel in the dessert, for 600,000 men plus their families, for an entire month.  You could walk for a solid day in any direction and wade through three feet of birds (Numbers 11:21,31).  The testimony of the New Testament is the same, that with God NOTHING shall be impossible (Matt. 17:20; 19:26; Mk.10:27; Lk. 1:37; 18:27).  It fits well with the vine/branch analogy.   

THE LARGER ISSUE IS GOD'S GLORY

Donald A. Carson, in a message on prayer delivered in Australia, said, "For a sovereign, transcendent, powerful God there are no degrees of difficulty."  One thing is not harder than another for God.  He went on to say that the issue is not the difficulty, but how much it will display God's glory. The supreme issue is not power.  God has won over all contestants.  It is not power in our life, as I see it, so much as one of God's glory.  He makes known His goodness in His "vessels of mercy", to the rest of the world.  When He answers prayer in a remarkable way, people of faith will and should glorify God, not the one who prayed.

Prayer is perhaps the most radical enterprise in the universe. Books on prayer are given, I've noticed, to making stupendous claims for prayer.  We almost expect these claims.  But there ARE stupendous claims to be made for prayer. And prayer is one of the clearest projections of our operational doctrine of God.  Prayer bridges the infinite and the finite; the Sinless and the sinner;

eternity and time; present and future; here with anywhere.  It holds promise to change the course of not only our own reality, but that of others.  We can affect events, people, thinking, emotions, the body and even spirituality (1 Thess. 3:12-13; "May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones".  It can influence what is seen and can influence the realm of the unseen. 

[Luther] wrote, 'I judge that my prayer is more than the devil himself; if it were otherwise Luther would have fared differently long before this.  Yet men will not see and acknowledge the great wonders of miracles God works in my behalf.  If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.”…Martin Luther spend his three best hours/day in prayer, Wesley his first two hours/day  (Duewel, 156-157)

SIN

Charles Stanley has found that whatever his agenda in coming before God, God will deal with his sin first.  It is wise to ask God to search our heart when coming before Him. 

Make sure there is nothing in your own heart which would hinder your prayer.  Remember that prayer can be checked by sin cherished in the heart (Ps. 66:18), pride (1 Peter 5:5-6), unforgiveness (Luke 11:4), personal conflict with another (Matt. 5:23-24), or marital conflict (1 Peter 3:7). "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Ps. 139:23-24; READ Is. 1:15-20)  (Duewel, 165)

Since prayer brings us into immediate contact with God, He looks at our heart. He has His own agenda when we come before Him, and that is foremost.  Prayer is thus beyond pure individualism.  It can be individualistic.  But here prayer has social consequences.  Elsewhere we are to intercede for the needs of others.  So it should have the result of connecting me with others, family, friends, enemies, Christians in need, nations, conflicts, dilemmas, as well as with myself, and with God.

Will we allow God to point out our sins and inadequacies as we seek to gain His ear to hear our prayers?  We are washed as we approach God, as we agree with God over our sins, just as the priests washed before they approached God.  We give proper place to self when we acknowledge our sin.  Preparation for communion is an occasion for this kind of reflection (1 Cor. 11:28-29).

PRAISE

When we bow to offer praise to God, this also "resets" our worldview to the proper setting.  "It is good to give thanks to the Lord." (Ps. 92:1).  Habakkuk's world was about to end with the coming Babylonian invasion.  Yet He remembered the awesome deeds of God.  Whatever was coming down, he wrote, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior."  Praise gives our personal world perspective and a sense of stability, and it is quite simply right to do.  It is appropriate.  We may try praying the Psalms to God. We can sing songs.  We can even sing NEW SONGS, because God apparently gets tired of the old ones, or we sing them without sentiment or thoughtfulness (Ps. 33:3).  David wrote, "He put a new song in my mouth." (Ps. 40:3).  Try composing a new song to God extemporaneously.  Make sure that no one can hear you, so you won't be shy.

The normal temperament of the Christian should be praise for who God is and thanksgiving for what He has done.  "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil. 3:1; 4:4).  "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Th. 5:18).  When we don't, we need to be "reset".  Since we exist for God's praise, (Eph. 1:11-12), praising

God is a shortcut to the essence of our existence.  We are most who we were created to be when we give praise.

GRACE 

Prayer is basically an act of grace on God's part.  The Father is inviting His children to come to Him.  Apart from realigning our worldview, and giving God His due, it is to be desired simply because of the fellowship with God.  The God of quasars, and quarks, is interested in you and me--knows when we do even as mundane a thing as stand up or sit down (Ps. 139).  Asaph wrote, "As for me, it is good to be near God.  I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge." (Ps. 73:28).  Time with God can become the best time of day.  We connect with the One for whom we exist (Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:11-12).

THE ANSWER IS YES

Prayer presupposes that God is willing to answer our prayers.  I am amazed that when we come to God, basically, the answer is YES.  When a child comes to the father with a request, we generally try to give it, unless there is a good reason not to.  Sometimes we cannot say "yes" because of lack of resources, but that is never true for God, who owns the entire earth (Ps. 50:12).

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened." (Matt. 7:7-8).  Yes, we need to pray according to God's will, in Jesus' name, believing, not seeking personal lust. But it is GOD who is at work in us both to WILL and to DO HIS good pleasure. (Eph. 2:10).  The answer is basically YES!!

So then, WHAT CAN GOD DO THROUGH YOUR LIFE?

PLANNING

What has God given you the faith to believe Him for? (Bill Gothard; Rom.14:23).  God's plans never fail (Is. 14:27; Ps. 33:11).  Therefore we need to try to understand God's will (Eph. 5:17; Jer. 9:24).  This may not come quickly (Rom. 11:33).  Jesus left us the example of frequently getting off to be with the Father to pray and seek wisdom (Matt. 14:23; Luke 6:12; 9:28; Mark 1:35).

As we yield our mind and body to God (Rom. 12:1-2), God is able to will in us and do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13), as illustrated by Jesus' life (Heb.10:5-7).  It is good to plan, and to bring God into our plans (Prov. 16:3; 3:4-5).  The excitement comes as we repeatedly bring these plans before God in prayer. Extended time in prayer gives excitement to the balance of the week.  You now begin to look for God's answers to your prayers.  David wrote, "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." (Ps. 5:3).  You realize that the supernatural God will invade the mundane routine.  You are no longer limited by yourself, or other people, because God can overrule if He chooses.  You can pray about the Mountains in your life, your children, their future, your future.  You connect with the infinite, timeless God, raising the mundane to the limitless. Your future is now what GOD desires it to be.  You have faith to believe God for new directions and opportunities.  We are to think of ourselves in direct proportion to the FAITH He has given to us.  Paul prayed for the Thessalonians, that God would, by His power, "fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith." (2 Thess. 1:11b).

PRAYER LIST

It is wise to unhurriedly decide what the most important things are to us in life.  The people, the life focus, the goals for self, for family, for ministry, those we have a primary obligation for whom to pray.  List the greatest concerns in your life.  That is your prayer guide.  Revise it, don't feel tied to it.  Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  As you use it, you will focus on those things that are most important, and will probably experience great peace when you have laid all these concerns repeatedly before God.  Then consider a prayer plan, when and where to pray. Carson says that we will not pray unless we plan to pray.  I'd encourage you to have regular or irregular prayer retreats, perhaps once a month or quarter or year, whatever you will do.

MOUNTAINS

Among the important things for which to pray, list your mountains.  Your personal stumbling blocks, the things that defeat you and others in your family, perhaps enemies.  Then, speak to those mountains.  "I tell you the truth," Jesus said, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you."  I sometimes talked to our house as it was being built.  Even before the money came for it to be dried in, I commanded it to be built, in Jesus' name.  I believed that God wanted it built. I'm not a closet Pentecostal, I just believe that it is a legitimate prayer principle.

HELP FOR BURDENS

God, in His grace, enables us to unload all of our cares upon Him. (1 Pet. 5:7).  He helps us with any problem.  We are in an intellectual valley.  We need God's perspective.  As men, we are called upon to solve any family problem.  We're on call.  Taxes, bills, vacation, injuries, financial decisions, interpersonal relationships, long range goals.  The decisions and the responsibilities are finally, ours.  We must be men of prayer to have the mind of God, to lead our family.  We are invited to become dependent upon God.  In this we are also invited to become publicly dependent upon God before our family.  "I don't know, but God does."  It teaches dependence upon God, rather upon a man who will eventually die, and perhaps reach senility before that.

Prayer is grace to get into touch with our self.  It allows us to see our own tiredness, depression, or joy.  Sometimes we don't even know how we are feeling.  In solitude, we can get in touch with our self.  In American culture, we don't spend a great deal of time unoccupied.  There are phones, beepers, mobile phones, fax machines, portable computers, personal computer assistants, TV, Walkmans, to keep us connected with other activities.  When is solitude? It allows us to see our “creatureliness”.  Prayer is a way to give away our stress, and to ask for relief. 

Richard Foster wrote in Celebration of Discipline, (Harper San Francisco Book)

Find places outside your home: a spot in a park, a church sanctuary..., even a storage closet somewhere." "The fruit of solitude is increased sensitivity and compassion for others.  There comes a new freedom to be with people.  There is new attentiveness to their needs, new responsiveness to their hurts. “Don't you feel a tug, a yearning to sink down into the silence and solitude of God...You are welcome to come in and “listen to God's speech in His wondrous, terrible, gentle, loving, all-embracing silence."

Gordon MacDonald, in Ordering Your Private World, quoted William Cowper's poem from The Task, Book 3:

A life all turbulence and noise may seem
To him that leads it wise and to be praised,
But wisdom is a pearl with most success
Sought in still waters. (p. 128)

MacDonald also quoted Thomas Kelly: (p. 131)

We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all. And we are unhappy, uneasy, strained, oppressed, and fearful we shall be shallow. . . We have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.  If only we could slip over into that Center!. . . We have seen and known some people who have found this deep Center of living, where the fretful calls of life are integrated, where No as well as Yes can be said with confidence. (cited in Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, p. 78)

ADVERSITY

There comes a time when, as J.I. Packer put it, God leads us out of light into darkness.  "Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel" (Is. 45:15).  The familiar landmarks are gone.  God is not answering our prayers in the way we are asking.  There is little joy in God's presence, indeed we may be desperate.  Again, that is the time to run "toward the lawn mower," because as bad as it within God's permissive will, it is worse away from Him.

It is time to look to that which is unshakable.  Some directions are the character of God, that He still is good, and the promises of God, that He cannot lie.  The good character of God guarantees the promises of God, in which we can hope.  Frankly, I turn to Scripture promises and pray them to God.  Some verses which have helped me in depressing times, which I carry with me in my planner are these: (Ps. 81:10; 84:11; 86:3-4; 91:14-16; 94:18-19; 123:1-3; 138:7-8; 142:3-7; 145:13b-15; Is. 45:5-7,22; Jer. 17:5; Heb. 13:5-6; Rev. 3:8), and to which I add.

 Two verses which are particularly valuable to me are Ps. 50:14-15.  I discovered the last week of March 1994 that I owed about $1,100.00 in taxes on April 15 because I taught at Chattanooga Christian School in return for tuition for our children.  All I had were these two verses--no money.  So I would go into the woods and plead with God and plead these promises.  By April 15 I had received perhaps one or two hundred dollars which we could apply. But at 11 AM on that day a friend called, Betty Hodges.  I'd asked her about that tax issue about a month earlier.  She asked about my tax liability and I told her.  She said that she had set aside some tithe money and would like to pay that bill, and asked me to come to her office that afternoon.  We quickly got a rose at a grocery store and rushed over.  At the board room of the accounting firm she handed us a check for about $1,625.00.  It was "too boring" to give just for taxes, so she added some.  The sequel to the story is that a year later we found ourselves in a similar predicament, only owing about $2,000.00. This time, without knowing the need, she called about three weeks in advance of April 15 and again paid off the entire amount.  She called for several years afterward, and now supports us regularly. Ps. 50:15 says that after God delivers us we are to honor Him.  Not to forget, which is one reason for relating these stories.  "Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." (Is. 50:10).

SUGGESTIONS FOR SPENDING A DAY IN PRAYER

1. Plan in advance for it by marking the time off on your calendar.
2. Bring a mat or plastic sheet to sit on and insect repellent, if you'll be outside, and perhaps an umbrella.  You might want to bring some water.
3. You might want to bring, along with your Bible, a hymn or song book, your planner or equivalent, and a notebook with pen to record prayer requests and impressions received. 
4. Let your wife or husband know where you are, but with instructions not to disturb you unless there is an emergency.
5. Find a place where you cannot be seen (Mark 1:35), if possible and safe. Also a place where you cannot be heard if you raise your voice or sing.  "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission." (Heb. 5:7). You might want to bind away any forces of Satan in the area which would hinder your time with God through dullness of mind, tiredness, insects, distractions, no spirit of supplication.
6. Vary your position.  Walk, sing, pray in various postures so that your body will not become cramped.
7. Allow the Lord to be in control of the time and set the agenda. He may have plans you are not aware of. 
8. You might want to begin reading the Bible.  You might want to spend some time singing hymns and songs and making up a song.
9. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." (Ps. 100:4).  Spend time thanking God and praising him.  This comes much more easily after reading the Scriptures and singing.
10. You might want to spend time in confession of sin and allowing the Lord to search your heart and for the Holy Spirit to have freedom.  Check your guidance.  Confess and ask God for grace to correct what He reveals.
11. At this point you may want to spend time in intercession.  Here is where a thoughtfully prepared prayer list is helpful, so that we at least cover the matters that are most important. There is nothing too big for God, so we don't have to keep requests small.  You might want to begin by praying for your family, for those for whom and to whom we are  responsible.  We can pray for the world, for Christians who are suffering, and for the testimony of God's people around the world. For Christian unity, to testify of Christ.  For those involved in wars, for leaders, for nations, for more laborers for the harvest. We may want to narrow things down to our state and county and city. At this point you can pray for special requests that people have given for your praying recently.  You can pray for those involved in the circle of your ministry. You can pray for those associated in your work, if outside the home. You can pray for your church and its leaders. You can pray for the unsaved. You can pray for world missions, the "10/40 window" (using Operation World). You can pray for the Mountains facing you. Pray for revival. For new opportunities and directions. For the coming responsibilities on your calendar. For finances. For people with whom we are having a difficult time relating and for enemies. Ask the Lord what else He would have YOU pray for. Spend time throughout your praying to thank the Lord for His answers (Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2).
12. Allow a time of silence at some point.  Give God a chance to speak or impress upon you whatever is on His mind.  We need to record the impressions and the things He is leading us to do throughout the day.
13. Do not reveal this time to anyone unless necessary.  God who sees in secret will reward openly (Matt. 6:4).
14. A very different plan, and one that can be interspersed with the above ideas, is to come before God with thanksgiving and praise, and allow the Lord to direct all praying.
15. It becomes apparent that no matter how many hours are allocated to prayer, there is not enough time to pray for everything, which is  probably why we are told to "pray without ceasing".
16. After spending such a day in prayer, beware any tendency to think that our praying is done for the week.  We need God's power and presence daily.  As J.I. Packer put it, yesterday's power is not sufficent for today (Knowing God).
17. You may find less structure to be more helpful, with time.