Prayer Guide for the Week of 02/01

For the next several weeks, as a church, we’ll be focusing on prayer.  Prayer is a familiar discipline to all of us, even so, most of us spend very little time doing it.  As Scott mentioned on Sunday, perhaps this is because we think of it more as a duty than a delight. 

This month, we’d like to encourage you to pray; to communicate with God, but even more so, to commune with God.  This can look and sound like a number of things, but to help you with this, we’ve put together a list of prayer focuses.  

We’ll post these focuses here seven days at a time.  Feel free to press into them in prayer however you’d like—i.e., praying a focus per day, praying through all seven focuses each day, etc.—but as you pray, be intentional about praying beyond yourself.  Too often, when we pray, we pray mainly for ‘me’ and seldom for ‘we.’  

To clarify, many of these prayers are for the heart.  Please pray them for your own heart, but don’t stop there.  Pray them also for those in your family, those in your city group, and those in our church. 

Below are the prayer focuses for this week. 

Thursday, February 1

Ask God to make us a people who delight in Him as the greatest treasure of all.    

Friday, February 2

Ask God to place us in situations this month where questions get asked that lead to conversations about Jesus.  Pray that when this happens the Holy Spirit would free us from anxiety and give us the words to say. 

Saturday, February 3

Pray for the G family as they to prepare to take the gospel to SE Asia. 

**This month we’re writing encouraging notes and prayers in a Bible that we’re going to give to the G’s in March.  So as you pray, as the Holy Spirit brings to your mind certain Scriptures or words, make a note of them so that you can write these things in their Bible on Sunday.  

Sunday, February 4

Ask God to make us a people who, like the church in Acts 2:42-27, are devoted to His word, empowered by His Spirit, committed to each other, and in awe of Him. 

Monday, February 5

Ask God to increase our dependence upon Him in every area of our lives, so that we can be a people who continually live by faith and continually trust Him for empowerment.  Confess areas of your life where you are not completely trusting Him, and surrender these parts of your life to Him.        

Tuesday, February 6

Ask God to help us build each other up (Ephesians 4:16).  Ask Him to give us specific giftings for growing and building up our church.  Pray that those who are on the fringes of church life would come to see the essential role they can play. 

Wednesday, February 7

Recall Scriptural truths about God and stories of His past faithfulness from your life, then spend time in prayer thanking Him (We encourage you to talk and pray through this focus in your dinner parties on 2/7).