76.3 Stephen Prays For His Killers

(Acts 7:54-60)

As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God. "Look!" he said. "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!"

With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul. They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!" He said this and died.

76.2 Samuel Prays For Forgiveness Of Sins

(1 Samuel 7:2-6)

The Covenant Box of the Lord stayed in Kiriath Jearim a long time, some twenty years. During this time all the Israelites cried to the Lord for help.

Samuel said to the people of Israel, "If you are going to turn to the Lord with all your hearts, you must get rid of all the foreign gods and the images of the goddess Astarte. Dedicate yourselves completely to the Lord and worship only him, and he will rescue you from the power of the Philistines." So the Israelites got rid of their idols of Baal and Astarte, and worship only the Lord.

Then Samuel called for all the Israelites to meet at the Mizpah, telling them, "I will pray to the Lord for you there." So they all gathered at Mizpah. They drew some water and poured it out as an offering to the Lord and fasted that whole day. They said, "We have sinned against the Lord." (It was a Mizpah where Samuel settled disputed among the Israelites.)

76.1 Moses Asks For Pardon

(Numbers 14:11-20)

The Lord said to Moses, "How much longer will these people reject me? How much longer will they refuse to trust in me, even though I have performed so many miracles among them? I will send an epidemic and destroy them, but I will make you the father of a nation that is larger and more powerful than they are!"

But Moses said to the Lord, "You brought these people out of Egypt by your power. When the Egyptians hear what you have done to your people, they will tell it to the people who live in this land. These people have already heard that you, Lord, are with us, that you appear in plain sight when your cloud stops over us, and that you go before us in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill all your people the nations who have heard of your fame will say that you killed your people in the wilderness because you were not able to bring them into the land you promised to give them. So now, Lord, I pray, show us your power and do what you promised when you said, 'I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.' And now, Lord, according to the greatness of your unchanging love, forgive, I pray, the sin of these people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt."

The Lord answered, "I will forgive them, as you have asked.

75.5 Praise God For His Goodness

(Psalm 111)

Praise the Lord!

With all my heart I will thank the Lord
in the assembly of his people.
How wonderful are the things the Lord does!
All who are delighted with them want to understand them.
All he does is full of honor and majesty;
his righteousness is eternal.

The Lord does not let us forget his wonderful actions;
he is kind and merciful.
He provides food for those who have reverence for him;
he never forgets his covenant.
He has shown his power to his people
by giving them the lands of foreigners.

In all he does he is faithful and just;
all his commands are dependable.
They last for all time;
they were given in truth and righteousness.
He set his people free
and made an eternal covenant with them.
Holy and mighty is he!

The way to become wise is to have reverence for the Lord;
he gives sound judgement to all who obey his
commands.
He is to be praised forever.

75.4 Pray Always

(Ephesians 6:18-20)

Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help.  Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people. And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel's secret.  For the sake of this gospel I am an ambassador, though now I am in prison.  Pray that I maybe bold in speaking about the gospel as I should.