It is our sincere hope and prayer that this 40 Days of Prayer initiative will mark the beginning of what will eventually become a hallmark of Grace Community long after the 40 Days have come and gone.
Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
God wants His church to carry out His agenda. His agenda for His people is to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-19) while obeying the Great Commandment to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40). One thing is certain – no church will make disciples while loving God and others if they are not dependant in prayer. That is not to say that we cannot devise programs and preach sermons on the Great Commission and Commandment. We can do both of those without real prayer. If we neglect prayer, we will fail miserably or worse, succeed only in building a monument (idol) to human ingenuity.
Every day for the next 40 days there will be a new article on our home page written to encourage, challenge, equip and motivate you (the church) to pray. Sometimes the challenges will be short. Sometimes they will be longer.
Please take some time to explore our Prayer Resource page as there are many resources and links designed to challenge and to equip you to pray God honoring, Christ exalting, kingdom building, faith stretching, sin destroying and love building prayers.
Pray with me now as we begin seeking God together these next 40 Days:
Father, you sent your Son Jesus to redeem the world. He died. He rose. He conquered sin. He ascended into heaven and is at Your right hand. He sent us the Holy Spirit. Lord, we know that the Spirit indwells and empowers us to do your will. God, exalt Your name. Make Your name holy in this community and among the nations. God, grant us greater faith to seek You and pray for Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done here and now in the place we live. Lord, we pray believing that You will do in and through us what we cannot do in and of ourselves. Jesus, we repent of lukewarm faith. Rekindle Your fire in our hearts to live for You and make You known. Amen!
This time of “prayer emphasis” has been extremely enlightening so far. Thank GOD that He is so loving and merciful. I also love how strategic He’s been in own life. The very first thing that I received out my quiet time in preparation for our corporate Prayer Emphasis was a clearer view of my own heart. He IS exposing and ultimately removing my own “high places” before allowing me to effectively pray and intercede on behalf of the church body. I thank the leadership of Grace Community for calling for a time of prayer and I am, by faith, expecting GOD to do great things in and through this body.
terri