21 Days of Prayer - Day 12 - Thursday - January 19- Prayer Focus - Marriage and Family

Day 12 - Thursday - January 19- Prayer Focus - Marriage and Family  

21 Days of prayer is a time of transformation - like a chunky hairy UGLY caterpillar goes into a cocoon and comes out later, transformed into a beautiful butterfly. 

May this be true of us during 21 days of prayer.  We enter the season with things in life that make life seem ugly. Yet when we come out of a time of focused prayer with the Lord, we see things with a beauty and grace as only He can design.

Today our Focus on Marriage and Family

Matthew 19:4-5 (NIV)  

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?

Before the church, God created the home - the family.

When God does something it’s for a specific reason.  

Some people say God is exclusive and leaves people out, that’s not true. He wants all to be in His family.

But He has a purpose and a reason. He’s very specific.  Marriage is designed by God and not by man. God’s design for marriage is that a man and woman will be united together.

He created marriage and  the home so that we might have companionship. 

Ephesians 5 and Psalm 78 give such holy and honorable descriptions.

The home is holy that God has created and that is why the enemy attacks it.

So we need to be in prayer for the home and family.

Ephesians 6:10-12 (NIV)

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

We are to be strong in the Lord.

If God says it we believe it!  He’s specific for a reason.

This time of 21 Days of prayer is to grow strong in Him.  We are to put on that full armor of God.

Nehemiah 4:14 (NIV)

After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”

Let’s be ready to fight in the spiritual realm.

Three things I’m praying for today:

1. Homes built on the Word of God.

There is no marriage that is too far gone for God.

2. Homes with a spirit of love and unity.

3. Homes filled with children in love with God.

Let’s fight for our family, our homes, our marriages and our children.

21 Days of Prayer - Day 11 - Wednesday - January 18- Prayer Focus - Growth Track & Dream Team

Day 11 - Wednesday - January 18- Prayer Focus -  Growth Track & Dream Team

Today we pray for our Growth Track and Dream Team.  We are praying for Laborers into His harvest

Matthew 9:37-38 (NIV)

37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

How exciting it is to be able to pray the exact prayers that Jesus gave us.  

There are many prayers we pray that He didn’t give us, but how wonderful it is to pray the exact prayers that He did give us.

Let us pray for people who are searching for their purpose - that God would allow us to connect with people in various ways and connect them to the Growth Track that people might discover the big reason that God has for them.

How great it is that not only are people made by God but they are made FOR God. So we pray to help people discover their WHAT FOR.

Life will never make sense until we discover our WHY or our WHAT FOR!

There’s more to life than what we are living. The greatest days of our lives are the day we were born and the day we discovered our purpose - our WHAT FOR.

Ephesians 1:11-12 (MSG)

11 In him we were also chosen,[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

So many people are waking up today and want to know their design - and we get to pray for them. 

We get to be a part of God working His overall purpose for everything and everyone.

The enemy wants people to wander - but we get to offer prayer for people to find their WHAT FOR.

1. I am praying that people will connect to the church and that the power of the Holy Spirit will nudge them. I am praying over connection cards that people complete.

2. I am praying that people will discover their design.

3. I am praying that people will then be free to make a difference.

21 Days of Prayer -Day 10 - Tuesday - January 17- Prayer Focus - Small Groups

Day 10 - Tuesday - January 17- Prayer Focus - Small Groups

Our prayer focus today - Small Groups

We are believing God to something supernatural in the hearts of our small group leaders.

We are not a church with small groups but a church of small groups. We believe in the power of connection - in the context of relationships.

God values groups and He encourages us to connect.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

A passage that shows us  the power of groups - of proximity.

Luke 5:18-20 (NIV)

Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.

20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

This is a beautiful picture of intercession.  Here we have 4 men who see a man on the side of a road. He cannot get where he wants to be. Out of their compassion they see him, they pick him up and bring him to Jesus.  These were not strangers, they likely were his group, men in relationship with one another.

Intercession is simply standing in the gap of where someone is and taking them where they need to be. In the presence of God.  Healing, Freedom, breaking strongholds all happen in the presence of God.

These men took him where he needed to be - at the feet of Jesus. Three ways we can pray for our groups and theses needs:

1. Pray with compassion.

Put yourself in that position. Having empathy. Pray as if it were ourselves in that position.

2. Pray with boldness.

These men didn’t just settle - they did what they had to do. They climbed on the roof. They dismantled the roof and lowered the man before Jesus.

There is nothing too hard for God to do. 

3. Pray with expectation.

This man experienced healing in the spiritual - When Jesus saw their faith he was healed spiritually and then he was healed physically.

We pray with expectation.  Jesus responded to their collective faith. They expected Jesus to do great things and He did.

There is nothing that our God cannot do.

Thank you Lord that today we pray for our small groups with compassion, boldness and expectation.  In Jesus’ name!