April - Pray Continually

Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Could you use this monthly outline of suggested prayers as part of the impact you are making for Jesus through the church?

Fast days for April: 16, 17 and 18^th in preparation for Easter weekend.  Could you find a sensible but challenging way to fast over those three days – your physical hunger developing a spiritual hunger for Jesus and preparing you for the ‘feast’ that is his death & resurrection?

April

1: Pray you would ‘be careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity…’ (Ephesians 5:15)  Pray for yourself and at least three others who come to mind: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’  (Ephesians 5:14)

2: List ten things you are thankful for - big and small.  Thank God for them.  'I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving' (Psalm 69:13)

3: Who will you see today?  Pray you would live and speak of Jesus in small ways to those around you. Pray you would be ‘mindful of God’s unfailing love and live in reliance on his faithfulness.’ (Psalm 26:3)

4:  Think of three people you know in the church - pray they ‘may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding.’  (Colossians 2:2)

5:  Pray for the churches across Stafford.  Pray especially for Church Lane and St. Mary’s as they seek new ministers.  Pray these church may ‘have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who give an account’, and those called to lead them would find their work a ‘joy, not a burden’ (Hebrews 13:17).  Pray for John Marshall and Father Graham as they retire.    

6: Pray that as churches gather together they will 'devote themselves to the apostle's teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.'  (Acts 2:42)

7: Pray for ‘Marston Grange’ a 3000 house new development with three new schools on the Beaconside/ A34 segway - now underway.  Pray for the vision and resources to reach these homes with the great news of Jesus. Pray for a collective ‘ambition to preach the gospel where Christ is not yet known’ (Romans 15:20).

8: Think of three people you know who are not yet Christians.  Pray they may know that ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ (Romans 10:13).  Pray you might speak something of Jesus to them (Romans 10:14-15).

9: Pray for Anusuran, who we support in India and Smile, who we support in Nepal. ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…’ (James 1:27)

10: Pray for our lifegroups to be effective and helpful in living out Jesus. ‘Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

11: Pray for Alex & Matt to serve effectively as chaplains to the Police HQ, University and Military of Defence. Pray that they may be ‘…equipped with everything good for doing his will…’ (Hebrews 13:20-21)

12: Pray for the Beacon Friendship Group as it meets weekly to serve and reach retired and older friends, remembering ‘grey hair is a crown of splendour’ (Proverbs 16:31).

13: As churches gather together pray we would be ‘eager for the gifts of the Spirit’ but particularly ‘try to excel in those that build up the church’ (1 Corinthians 14:12) so that people might ‘worship God, exclaiming ‘God is really among you’ (1 Corinthians 14:25)

14: Thank God and pray for the provision and good stewardship of our finances & buildings, and that we might ‘excel in the grace of giving’ (2 Corinthians 8:7).

15:  Pray for Christians living out Jesus on their 'frontline' of home, work and leisure that we may be 'Christ's ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us.'  (2 Corinthians 5:20)

16: FAST DAY (if you are able). Think and pray about: ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.’ (Psalm 51:1-2)

17: FAST DAY (if you are able). Think and pray about: ‘For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, and you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…’  (Psalm 51:3-4)

18: FAST DAY (if you are able).  Think and pray about: ‘Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me….Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.’  (Psalm 51:10-12)

19:   Pray for the great celebration that is Easter Sunday (tomorrow) especially that as churches gather together preaching and praising would ‘remind you of the gospel…by which you are saved…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve…’ (1 Corinthians 15:1-8) and therefore ‘death has been swallowed up in victory’ (1 Corinthians 15:54).

20:   List ten things you are thankful for - thank God for them.  And then thank him most of all for the resurrection.  ‘But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’  (1 Corinthians 15:57)

21: The rest of this week we will pray about practical living in the light of the resurrection, using Ephesians 5:21-6:9.  Today, pray for marriages and family life: that homes would be safe and secure environments with a readiness to ‘submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.’ (Ephesians 5:21)

22: Pray for husbands and husbands-to-be to ‘love their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…’ (Ephesians 5:22-33)

23:  Pray for wives and wives-to-be to ‘respect her husband’ and to find in him someone she can joyfully and freely ‘submit to…in everything.’ (Ephesians 5:22-33)

24: Pray for those who are single, some contentedly and some sadly. ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our struggles, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are...’  (Hebrews 4:15)

25: Pray for family life.  That ‘children obey their parents’ and are able to ‘honour their father and mother’.  Pray that parents would ‘not exasperate their children, instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.’ (Ephesians 6:1-4)

26:  Pray for those in paid employment to ‘serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people…’ (Ephesians 6:5-8).  Pray for those with management and leadership responsibilities to ‘treat everyone in the same way’, with ‘no favouritism’.  (Ephesians 6:9)  Pray for those eager but unable to find paid employment.

27:  As churches gather together pray they ‘will sing of the Lord’s great love for ever: with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.  I will declare that your love stands firm forever’ (Psalm 89:1-2).

28: Pray for those who lead our church; Alex, Matt, the elders and deacons.  Pray ‘since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.  Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.  He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.’  (Titus 1:7-9)  Pray they may be ‘strengthened in the grace that is in Jesus Christ’ for this task. (2 Timothy 2:2)

29:  Think back over the first third of the year.  Reflect on the last few months personally.  ‘Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.’ (Psalm 39:4)  Pray we might not waste our lives.

30:  Praise God for his greatness and that in his sovereignty no life is ever wasted: ‘The heavens praise your wonder, Lord…who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings…he is more awesome than all who surround him.  Who is like you, Lord God Almighty?  You Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you…’  (Psalm 89:5-8)

Could you help compile next month’s - what do you think should be a priority for praying together as a church?  Let Alex know for next month: pastoralexharris@gmail.com