Throne Speech Prayer - June 2013

It was my privilege to open the 40th session of the BC Parliament in prayer today.  This week also marks the start of our 7th year of living in Victoria. 

This is the 2nd time I've been afforded the privilege of opening in prayer for the Throne Speech.  You can read about the first time here. (Someone actually forgot they were scheduled to pray and I was called from the gallery to 'pinch hit'.  It was a pretty remarkable moment...) The difference between then and now is amazing.  Then, I prayed in a group of strangers.  Today, I prayed for friends and people that I have walked with  and built relationships with for the past 6 years.  BC is blessed with some incredible people who freely give themselves to serve us.  What an incredible privilege I have to serve God in this way! 

Here's the prayer I prayed today. Take a minute to pray it along with me.

God in Heaven, we thank you for the bounty and beauty of our great province and the many ways in which You have blessed us. We live in a majestic land that is rich in beauty, in natural resources and in the diversity of gifts, talents and abilities instilled in the many people who call British Columbia their home.

We pray today for those who have been chosen to lead our province both in government and opposition for the next 4 years.   Give them strength to walk with integrity and honor.  Help them to do what is right, to govern from a place of compassion and to walk with great humility before You and the people of British Columbia. 

We pray for our Premier and her Cabinet.  We ask that You will help them set a course that is prudent, compassionate and courageous.  Grant them the ability to see clearly those things that must have the greatest attention and priority in the days to come.

Let your blessing and favor be on our province and those who will lead us forward.

Amen.

MLA Bible Project

We've just discovered an exciting ministry opportunity. We'd like to provide bibles to every MLA marking the occasion of their election, but more importantly we'd like to make an investment of the Living Word into the lives of our political leaders. 

Combined with the strong number of Christian MLAs elected to office, these bibles will be like seed in the ground that will in due time produce a harvest! Our cost on giving each MLA an attractive, leather bound bible is $35. 

We need your help to make this happen! The bibles will be presented during the first week of July. To help us with this project, please click the link below. https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/798

2 Minutes 2 Change the World

What if you could actually change the world in 2 minutes a day?  I know it sounds like one of those gimmick weight loss or fitness commercials that promises incredible results while you do basically nothing, but I'm thinking about something much more significant than what you might see in a late night infomercial.

When we launched the 60 Days of Prayer campaign coming up to the recent election our strategy was to invite people to pray along with us for 2 minutes a day.  We kept the prayers brief and to the point.  Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people engaged with us through email and social media.  We were astounded by what we saw take place on Election Day.  The media kept referring to the outcome as a miracle!  They don't know the half!!  13-17 Christians were elected to office!  I don't know that it's the most we've ever seen, but it's a significant number to be sure.

To be clear, God isn't partisan.  God is SOVEREIGN and He responded to the prayers of His people all across BC.  In His wisdom, He prepared leaders from across BC to serve our province for the next 4 years and we had huge part in seeing them elected to office simply because we prayed.

It's exciting to have a large number of Christians serving as MLAs.  If the number is as high as 17 that's almost 20%.  That said, public service is still a tremendously difficult role and those who serve need our prayer support. 

Consider this:  If the 2 minute prayers of hundreds of people across our province resulted in a stunning election result, what might happen if we continued to pray for those who govern over us?  It just might be that God would respond to us again and hear from heaven and heal our land. 

'When people find out that this prayer thing really works, everyone is going to want to do it!'