Praying as a Community of Believers
Beginning September 1 you are invited to join our Pastor and staff as we pray together as a community of believers. We are calling this #PrayThruSept.
The purpose of #PrayThruSept is simple – Prayer. That’s it! This initiative is not a prelude to something else coming in the days ahead for our ministry, it is simply a call for us to pray – and do it now!
Recently in a message Pastor McKinley presented on prayer, he shared this:
“My great concern in this message is that much praying is about our needs rather than the need to advance the mission of God and see works of salvation in the lives of others.”
One of the greatest things we can do for the Kingdom is to pray for a fire for God to be kindled so strongly in our own hearts, that we ignite a flame for Him in the world around us. We must pray to this end. People in our community, state, and world are dying with no true knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we must be willing to step outside of ourselves and share Him with others.
Daily Prayer Guide
The #PrayThruSeptember Guide will help us in our daily time of prayer to reflect on the person of Jesus Christ and His Gospel message. Using the word, CHRIST, every five days we will use a different theme to “pray thru” His name.*
C = Confession
H = Healing
R = Restoration
I = Instruction
S = Salvation
T = Thanksgiving
You will find a devotional at the beginning of each theme along with daily verses and points of prayer that will help bring clarity and consistency as we #PrayThruSept with unified purpose together. As we seek God during this time, we are confident that He will stir our hearts to long for His presence, give us renewed passion for Him, and cause us to unceasingly share the message of the Gospel to those who do not know Him.
Fasting
We are also asking that we fast as a community of believers every Thursday during #PrayThruSept (Sept. 3, 10, 17, 24). Fasting is the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity. You decide the type of fast you wish to take part in:
- Normal Fast (a fast from all food but not from water)
- Partial Fast (a limitation of the diet but not from all food)
- Other fasts (fasting from TV, technology, sleep, social media, talking, etc.)
Whatever you decide to fast from, use the time normally involved in that activity to pray and seek the Lord’s guidance.
On the days set aside for our congregational fast, we will equip you by providing a more extensive prayer guide that will offer further direction to your prayer time and some instruction about fasting.
Will you be a part of #PrayThruSept? We can do many things for God, but apart from the power of God and the wind of His Spirit in our sails, our labors are in vain.
*We would like to thank Dr. David Hawkins for providing us with the “CHRIST” acrostic and for allowing us to use it to #PrayThruSept.