Thanksgiving Thoughts
By Marty Youngblood
Recently I had the great privilege of traveling to Vancouver, Canada to be a part of the PrayerLink 2009 meeting. I was in the SBC national and state prayer leaders’ group. This was my first official meeting in my new ministry position as a prayer and pastoral care consultant for the Georgia Baptist Convention.
For twenty years I had served Christ through the local churches as a Baptist collegiate ministries (BCM) campus minister, but in June 2009, that all changed. God was beginning a new work in a seasoned heart and for that I am most thankful. As I sat across the table listening to T. W. Hunt and other great men and women of prayer, I asked myself, “What am I doing here? Sure, I pray and believe in the power of prayer, but really God, what am I doing here?”
Just then, a quote from R.G. Lee ran through my mind, “Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God.” I began to remember the hundreds of times I have used that quote to encourage and teach students and churches about the “priority and power of prayer.” Also, I was reminded of a verse that my entire collegiate ministry had been founded upon, Isaiah 50:4 (NIV), “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.”
In a few months my life’s pursuit had shifted from praying and encouraging university students to mobilizing churches to make prayer a priority. My time in Canada among God’s leaders who have both a passion for prayer and a for reaching the lost was very encouraging. At the end of my visit, I was also humbled to have these individuals gathering around me to pray, asking the Father to deepen His work in and through my life.
These truly are exciting days to love God and serve His churches. For as we kneel and pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” who knows what great works God may press into our lives, if we are willing to let God rework the landscape of our hearts.
A few weeks ago I hosted my first official state prayer conference called, “Speechless.” My pastor Jim Staubes had invited me to this conference in 2008. I was unable to attend last year and thought to myself at the time, “what an unusual name; what does it mean?” I now know first hand what speechless means.
The dictionary definition of speechless as an adjective is: “Temporarily unable to speak, as through astonishment.” Jeff Renn our worship pastor said it in a very practical way, “Speechless was an incredible time in the Lord, life-changing words for the Church.” Numerous others spoke of “deep spiritual cleansing and renewed strength for the hard work of prayer.” These comments reminded me of a wonderful quote by E.M. Bounds, “Prayer and the holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone. The absence of one is the absence of the other.”
Nearly two hundred people from around Georgia and various other states gathered in Toccoa for a time of “prayer, listening and the pursuit of holiness.” In those days God did what He does so well—leaving us all speechless in His presence.
As I have reflected thankfully on what God has done in recent group meetings, may I encourage you with words that have encouraged me.
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25 (NIV).
Marty Youngblood is the Prayer and Pastoral Care Consultant for the Georgia Baptist Convention.
