June 13, 2013: Every Day God / All Night Prayer!

Joel 1:13-14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [Joel’s] God, for the cereal or meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].

Joel 1:13-18

Amplified Bible (AMP)

13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my [Joel’s] God, for the cereal or meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord [in penitent pleadings].

15 Alas for the day! For the day of [the judgment of] the Lord is at hand, and as a destructive tempest from the Almighty will it come.

Lie all night in sackcloth! Well, todays passage of Scripture is timely! I will be attending an all night prayer meeting tonight and I have received specific instructions from the Lord right out of His word. I am supposed to pray prayers of repentance. Repentance for my sins, hidden and revealed. And prayers of repentance for those who feel like they are so far gone they don't even know how to pray for themselves anymore. Kind of like someone on a hospital bed who's so out of it that they can't pray anymore. They are too weak and tired from their illness. Their body is wracked with pain. These dear souls who I need to repent for are sin-sick. They are miserable and don't even know why!
This reminds me of the time during prayer that God brought my attention to the verse about chaff. So I looked it up.

Matthew 3:12

Amplified Bible (AMP)

12 His winnowing fan (shovel, fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out and clean His threshing floor and gather and store His wheat in His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.

I read it and thought, "Surely this scripture can't be about me! Helloooo, I'm PRAYING right now!" Then instantly a spirit of repentance fell on me hard. And I started crying and sobbing. It WAS for me! God was drawing me to repent so I didn't wind up being thrown out and burned "with a fire that cannot be put out!"

"Thanks, Jesus, for continuing to reach for me even when I sincerely think I'm doing okay! But really, I'm not! Thanks for drawing me, and pulling me tenderly to You. Thanks for not giving up on me when You see pride creeping in! Thanks for drawing me to pray all night for others who can't pray for themselves. You are the BEST, Jesus! The BEST Heavenly Father anyone could ever want! How I love You!"