Four Weeks of Prayer - Week 4

Four Weeks of Prayer

October 7, 2012

James 5:13-16

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  

Prayer is absolutely important in the life of a Christian.  It is a primary connection point between our lives and God.  Prayer is a community effort.  It can be done when a collection of individuals pray for the same thing.  It can be done when the whole church gathers together to anoint those who need healing and/or forgiveness.  It can be done when a small group of people gather to pray for each other in an atmosphere of confidence and confidentiality.  All are needed for us to live well round lives of prayer.

Confessing our sins to another is often more difficult than confessing our sins to God.  It requires us to open up the doors of our hearts and become vulnerable to another.  It requires trust in another person.  This trust is not to be given lightly or casually.  This trust must not be betrayed.  When this trust exists everyone is strengthened.  God did not create us to go through life alone.  We are greater when we have deep personal relationships with other people.  This is God’s design for the church.  How many of us have a group of people like this?  How often do we admit our failings and our sins to others or even to ourselves?  What stops us?  Healing is found in the prayers of the faithful and in the atmosphere of trust. 

This week, let’s each make an effort to seek out a trustworthy believing friend.  Let’s be open with and pray with that person.  Let’s use our 30 minutes of prayer each day to help us make this happen.

Four Weeks of Prayer - Week 3

Four Weeks of Prayer

September 30, 2012

James 5:13-16

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  

Prayer is absolutely important in the life of a Christian.  It is a primary connection point between our lives and God.  Prayer is a community effort.  We don’t just pray by ourselves.  Our prayers for each other are to be visible, active, and intentional.  When a church prays, people change.  Lives are changed.  Sickness is overcome.  Forgiveness is received.  The church comes together and becomes more united than it was before.  This scripture paints a beautiful picture of the church.  It is a place where the leadership and all the people humble themselves in faith before God.  It is a place where God’s work is being done and can be seen.  It is a place where people experience forgiveness and have their lives changed for the better because of it.  Does our church look like this?

The prayers offered are offered in faith by faithful people.  A church is a place where people regularly step out of faith in their daily lives.  It is a place where people are intentionally choosing the path of righteousness.  Stepping out on faith often feels risky.  It is believing and acting when you can’t fully understand or know what will happen.  It is sometimes difficult to trust.  Yet trusting God opens the door for us to experience to power of God.  Faith works.  Prayer works.  This week we invite everyone to live lives of righteousness.  Let’s spend 30 minutes in prayer every day.  Let’s be the church, lifting each other to God.  May God show us his power this week.

Four Weeks of Prayer - Week 2

Four Weeks of Prayer

September 23, 2012

James 5:13-16

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  

Prayer is absolutely important in the life of a Christian.  It is a primary connection point between our lives and God.  Prayer is unavoidable in life.  We pray for those who suffer, we pray for the sick, we pray for troubles in the lives of people we care about, and we pray for our country and world.  Our instinct is to go to God in times of uncertainty or trouble.  Yet life is more than suffering, struggle, disease, and uncertainty.  Life is also full of joy, laughter, fun, excitement, anticipation, and wonder.  God calls us to bring these things to him in prayer as well.  Prayer brings help for the helpless and prayer brings indescribable joy to the joyful. 

How much rejoicing do we do as part of our everyday routine?  It’s easy to focus on the problems.  Many of us are great problem solvers.  I wonder if we really know how to have fun with the Lord.  If we are cheerful, we take it to God.  He adds power to our cheerfulness.  He magnifies our joy.  He gets us energized and excited about life.  When we take our joy to the Lord we end up standing in awe of him.  We end up amazed by his blessings, by what he has done as is doing, and at how his love speaks into our lives.

I invite you to spend at least 30 minutes every day for the next four weeks in prayer.  This sort of prayer will change our lives.  This week let’s take our joys to the Lord.  Let’s fill our week with praise, joy, and awe.  May God show us how awesome he is.

Devotional: 4 Weeks of Prayer Week 1

Four Weeks of Prayer

September 16, 2012

James 5:13-16

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.  The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.  

Prayer is absolutely important in the life of a Christian.  It is a primary connection point between our lives and God.  Prayer is an instinct found in every human being.  When we face a time of trouble or suffering we often feel compelled to pray.  Yet all prayer is not created equal.  It is a reflection of our relationship with God.  The stronger and more intimate our relationship with God, the more powerful and effective our prayers.  This does not mean that God doesn’t listen to all prayers equally.  It means that the more we know and follow God, the more we connected to him we will be in our prayers.  God uses prayer to change us.  The more we allow God to change us the better we are able to pray.

So what should we pray for?  James speaks clearly.  If you are suffering, pray.  Simple.  Suffering isn’t defined in the narrow terms of physical or visible suffering.  It can apply to any person in any situation that feels overwhelmed, alone, hurt, in pain, or any other form of suffering you can think of.  It could be said this way…if you are hurting you need God and prayer can get you to him.  God invites us to share our hurts with him.  He can handle it.  He can help.

 

I invite you to spend at least 30 minutes every day for the next four weeks in prayer.  I believe this sort of concentrated effort will change our lives.  This week let’s take our hurts, whatever they might be, to God in prayer.