Our 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting are almost over! To conclude this special season in the life of our church, we are having an all night prayer gathering TONIGHT from 8:00pm until 7:15am tomorrow morning. Learn more and sign up on the event page for a time to come pray with us.
HARRINGTON: ‘And God hears your prayer, doesn’t he? We hear Joy’s getting better.’
LEWIS: ‘That’s not why I pray, Harry. I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.’
William Nicholson, Shadowlands
Begin with Adoration
Day 40!! Oh my, it has flown by. Question:
Has it changed us?
Let’s conclude this final adoration by completing the following statements:
- Oh, God, You are…
- Lord, You have been…
- And You will always be…
- From the rising of the sun to its setting may I speak of Your…
- Today, Father, may I rest because You…
- Oh, God, You are…
- Lord, You have been…
- And You will always be…
Continue with Confession
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Psalm 139:23–24
As the Spirit brings any sin to mind, confess it (agree with God that it is sin) and turn from it (repent). Thank God that He forgives our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness on the basis of the finished work of Jesus and the promise of 1 John 1:9.
Now offer words of Thanksgiving
Add to your list anything that comes to mind you have yet to note that you are thankful for in 2017. Would you pause to review the list you have compiled, and note if there are any “hard, difficult, not what you hoped for” type of things on your list?
Don’t forget, He is our Sovereign God…
See now that I, I am He, and there is not god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. I am the Lord, and there is no other; Beside Me there is no God. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these.
Deuteronomy 32:29; Psalm 135:6; Isaiah 45:5,7
Our “thanks” for those things that are difficult are not a capitulation to the power of sin and evil. They are declarations of faith—a faith that says God is in control, He is all powerful, He is wholly good, and He loves us. For the cross and the Bible tell us so.
Let your thanks be all inclusive…
Conclude with Supplication & Intercession…
God saved us, that through us He would save others. Pray for those who do not know Christ, that God would open their eyes to the grace of the gospel…
We have been praying Scripture this final week. If I could summarize the things we have been praying for our church as we look into the next twenty years, I would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate prayer than Paul’s prayer in Colossians 3:12-17.
Make this prayer your own, and pray this prayer for us as a community of faith:
Colossians 3:12-17
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Let’s end this 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting by going back to where we started. We entered this time because we are at a juncture. Twenty years are almost behind us, and as we look into the next twenty we desperately desire God to renew our hearts and our vision for what He wants for Fellowship moving forward.
We have experienced challenges from without and from within over the years, and they have taken their toll, even as God has used them to break us and shape us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.
Humbly, in ongoing repentance and dependence, let us join with one accord and ask…
- Pray that God—in His grace and by His Spirit—would make us to be “of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32a).
- God, please grant Spirit-directed clarity and direction around mission and vision.
- God, we ask for Your wisdom, clarity and discernment for how best to structure our church and strategies with the three existing campuses.
- God, may Your Spirit superintend the process of vetting and confirming new elders, raising up men of character, full of the Spirit to shepherd your people with integrity of heart and skillful hands (Psalm 78:12).
- Pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so the we will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (Colossians 1:9-12)
And we end this season with praise on our lips. Pray or sing along…
