Yesterday we dedicated our One Prayer focus to praying for each other as individuals. Today, let’s continue the dialogue by posting short prayer requests for our churches. How can we pray specifically for your church as you participate in the One Prayer series? While you’re here, pause for a few moments and lift up the other churches in prayer. Then be sure to check back on Monday and share what God did in your church this weekend!
Join the conversationOne Prayer Daily Devotional
By Jason Boucher, Lead Pastor, Lifecentre
Every story starts the same, as a blank page.
Imagine the opposite. You are given a series of jumbled words on a page and then instructed to organize these words to write your story.
Which task would you prefer?
Blank page or jumbled words?
Acts 2:42 (NIV) says…
They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
While there are many words that we could highlight from this text, ones with equally profound meaning, there are three “key words” that are essential for the rest of the words to have their full effect.
“They devoted themselves.”
Central to the word devoted is this word vow.
As a minister I see many couples profess vows one to another during the marriage ceremony. What makes this moment beautiful is the depth to which these vows are expressed wholly and freely. One can be forced into a marriage, but no one can be forced to love. That is something that one must make the choice to give.
Just as in any relationship, the same is true in your life with God.
None of us come to God as a blank page. Rather, if we were totally honest, we resemble those jumbled words on a page. This one truth I know – all of us hunger for God to write a story with our lives that is a page-turner.
While I don’t know what the next chapter of your life will look like, what I do know is that if we devote ourselves to God wholly and freely, we will also see a demonstration of God in us and through us equal to what was experienced in the Acts 2 church.
Demonstration is God’s part, devotion is ours. Lord…..make us wholly and freely…..devoted.
Many of us have been challenged through One Prayer to be more devoted to God through fasting and prayer. What has your experience been like? What have you learned that you can share with the rest of the One Prayer community?
Join the conversationDaily Devotional by Gary Lamb
One Prayer Daily Devotional
By Gary Lamb, Lead Pastor, Revolution Church
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
I love this verse from Paul! It is so rich in context that there is no way to cover all my thoughts in one short devotion and come anywhere close to doing it justice. Since we are a part of this unbelievable thing called One Prayer, let’s focus on the last part of the verse.
Paul encourages us to be faithful in prayer. Sounds like a pretty simple principle, but I’ve got to be honest and say for the longest time this was hard for me. In my Christian walk, faithfulness in prayer was one of the hardest disciplines to master because I had such a false idea of what prayer truly was.
I thought prayer was something you could only do in a quiet place, down on my knees, head bowed, and talking in King James English. However, this is actually the type of prayer that Jesus teaches against. The mindset I had towards prayer was turning prayer into some religious activity instead of something that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Prayer is simply an outflow of relationship. Every relationship involves communication and prayer is the way we communicate with God. This simple understanding changed my prayer life. The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing, we are to be in constant communication with God at all times. Prayer doesn’t end because we say Amen.
We are to be in a constant attitude of prayer. Faithfulness in prayer comes when we realize we can communicate with God at anytime, anyplace, about anything. As thoughts pop in our heads, we have a direct line to God to talk about those things. God is not interested in the length of our prayers, the elegant language, or what we are doing when we are praying. He is simply interested in our faithfulness to communicate with Him.
During One Prayer, make it a point to start the discipline of being faithful in prayer. It isn’t how much or how long you pray, it is just the discipline of being faithful when the Holy Sprit lays something on your heart to communicate with God about it.
Think for a few minutes about circumstances you could begin lifting up in prayer. Share your ideas below!
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