Our Blog
A Prayer for the Church
Father, I pray for my local church. I thank you for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I praise you for the blessings you have bestowed upon us and ask for continued grace.
You know the needs of our congregation. (List specific needs here.) I pray that, according to your will, you would give healing to those who are suffering with physical needs. Encourage them, despite their pain, to live for you. I pray for those with financial needs. Supply what they lack. Provide for them, as a sign of your love and grace. I ask you also to remember those who are under heavy burdens of stress, etc. Lighten their load. Let them know that you are with them, to help them through these trials and to give grace for every hour.
Father, help our church to be a light of love and holiness to this community. May we be known as a people who love God and one another. Increase our influence for Christ in our world. Thank you for all this. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The Joy of Right Relationships
Read Psalm 51:10-13
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit” (v. 12).
For many years I did not notice the right relationship of the pronouns in this scripture verse. I exchanged “thy” with “my.” I wanted my joy to be based on owning my salvation and my free spirit. That’s definitely a self-centered attitude regarding relationships, especially my most precious one with God. He has greatly invested in our desire for Him by sending His only Son to the cross for my sins and for the sins of the whole world (John 3:16, 17).
I relate the joy of salvation with what Paul wrote in Romans: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). As a peer-counselor at a crisis pregnancy center, I would tell a client that she did not have to clean up her act before accepting Christ as Savior. God acted first on her behalf.
How did God demonstrate His love? He “sent his Son to be the propitiation [sacrifice, atonement, satisfaction] for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Thus, “We love him because he first loved us” (v. 19). What joy! What freedom! And it’s all provided by our great and good God. (Ann L. Coker)
God’s best wish for us is an intimate relationship with Him.
A Prayer for God’s Family
Focus Text: Ephesians 3:7-21
Central Truth: God’s empowerment is available for all who seek it.
Objective: By the end of this lesson my students should be able to identify several ways the Spirit strengthens Christians.
Lesson Outline:
I. Appointed by God's Grace (Eph. 3:7-13)
II. Prayer for Strength (Eph. 3:14-19)
III. Prayer for Power (Eph. 3:20, 21)
A Prayer for God's Family
Focus Text: Ephesians 3:7-21
Central Truth: God’s empowerment is available for all who seek it.
Objective: By the end of this lesson my students should be able to identify several ways the Spirit strengthens Christians.
Lesson Outline:
I. Appointed by God's Grace (Eph. 3:7-13)
II. Prayer for Strength (Eph. 3:14-19)
III. Prayer for Power (Eph. 3:20, 21)
A Prayer for the Community
Heavenly Father, I pray today for our community. All around our church live many people who do not know you as their Lord and Savior. Some may know much about you, but they have not surrendered their lives to your control. Others may actually not know much about God and the gospel. Some may hate you. But I know that you love them and want each one to trust in you as Lord and Savior.
Therefore, Lord, I pray for the good of my community. Lord, break into the routine of this community to demonstrate your love and grace. Through tragedies that may come, I ask for your abiding peace to overshadow us. Create a hunger for yourself that will not be satisfied by worldly success and pleasure.
Help our local church to provide the witness necessary to attract lost people to you. Draw them by the power of the Holy Spirit, and change them by your grace. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
A Prayer at Midnight
Read Acts 16:25-34
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them” (v. 25).
“We must learn from Jesus what our attitude should be when life becomes painful — one of earnest prayer to our Father who is in heaven,” wrote Dennis Kinlaw in his devotional book, This Day with the Master That is just what Paul and Silas did when they were cast into prison.
The dramatic result, of course, was that God answered via an earthquake that opened the prison doors and shook off the chains that bound the two missionaries and other inmates. The quake also awakened the jailer, who feared for his life until Paul spoke encouraging words to him. And best of all, the jailkeeper gave his heart to God!
But these weren’t the only results of that midnight prayer. One that we almost always overlook is mentioned at the end of today’s verse: “and the prisoners heard them.” Scottish preacher George MacDonald picked up on that phrase and preached and wrote a wonderful sermon about it. Think of the prisoners lying in dark, cold, damp cells, perhaps bound with chains, losing hope of freedom with each day that went by. What did Paul’s singing mean to them? How did Silas’s praying affect them? How could it be that someone could sing in the dark night of suffering?
The missionaries’ worship not only brought deliverance — it ministered to others! (Steven E. Hight)
In our darkness do we encourage others?