#GuidedPrayerFocus#MuchNeeded

Written by cycleguy on November 12th, 2019

Well, it is a long time coming but it is finally here. And no I am not talking about the frigid weather hitting our area. That started yesterday (Monday) and left us about 3 inches of snow last night. Temps today were 17 but they said it felt like 5. For November that is way too cold. But that’s the way it is. I was going to take a picture but it was too cold to go back outside after I has spent way too much time shoveling and spreading salt.

The long time coming is the Guided Prayer Focus report I promised. On Sunday afternoon, the 3rd,  the church I pastor had a Guided time of prayer.  Background: we have offered a Day of Service (DoS) to our community for the past 10 years or more. But as I studied for the letter to the church at Ephesus I felt God was “speaking” to me and saying, “Bill, I commend OVCF for your works, your hard work, but I want you to stop doing for me and just be with me. So instead of our DoS we had a guided prayer focus from 1-3:30 at the church building.  We had about 20-30 people participate on different levels. Some did the whole thing; some did part due to schedules or in the case of one family-a child. All said it was a good thing. The idea was mine but I cannot take credit for its “workings and implementation.” Two ladies had a vision for it so they met with Ryan and me. Ryan and Diana (church secretary) did the heavy lifting of gathering the information and printing things off. I am so grateful I work with people who will take the bull by the horns and make things happen.

Here is how the Guided Stations were broken down. We had different rooms for each station.

STATION #1– I met folks outside with an explanation of how it worked and their first stop was a personal time which we called Draw Near to the Lord. We suggested certain Scripture to use and then encouraged them to take an index card and write some praises on it and put it in a jug (supplied). They were also encouraged to write some besetting sins or anger or lack of forgiveness, etc on a card and then use the shredder we provided in the hallway.

STATION #2– Prayer for our community. We asked them to pray for our local government, Law Enforcement, School Admin, teachers, etc.  We also asked them to pray that people in our community would come to know Jesus as the Lord of Salvation. And we asked them to pray for OVCF’s influence in the community.

STATION #3– Pray for Missions and the Persecuted Church. We gave a list of the missions we support as a church and Ryan had some iPads cued up for people to learn more about the persecuted church.

STATION #4- Pray for Family and Society. We asked them to pray for the families of our community, especially those being torn apart by issues like Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation Confusion, Child Abuse and Neglect, Drug and Alcohol Abuse (Opioids are real bad here) and a stop to abortion.

STATION #5-Pray for our Nation. Federal. State. Local. National tensions of racial/ethnic/religious/extreme political tensions. We asked them to pray the Gospel would transform hate-filled hearts.

STATION #6– We offered to pray with anyone who would like us to. Several of the elders and their wives, and Ryan and I were here to pray with people if they so desired.

We closed with group prayer of anyone who wanted to join us. It was a very fulfilling and much-needed time. We had some who hoped we would do it again. Sorry I had such a long post but I didn’t want to divide it into several posts. I’d suggest it for your church community to give it a try some day.

 

12 Comments so far ↓

  1. Crystal says:

    Wow! Love the sound of it! Prayer has a tendency to be underrated. Maybe its because its easy as humans to think everything depends on us – when the reality is “it all depends on Him” – we are only meant to be His vessels through which His life and power flows. So good to hear about the afternoon of prayer at OVCF!!

  2. Pam says:

    Always always we want to do rather than be. Yet we would have so much more strength and wisdom for the doing is we first did the being. Great idea, Bill.

  3. I would LOVE to see our church do something like this, Bill! We did have a day several months ago when the church was opened on a Saturday for people to come in and pray, but there wasn’t any particular structure to it. Since Danny is head of the Board of Trustees, I will definitely mention this to him.
    Blessings!

  4. Lisa notes says:

    This sounds so beautiful, Bill. I trust you all will be seeing fruit from this as well.

    I have begun reading What Is a Girl Worth at your suggestion, and I’m seeing why you suggested it. Powerful and horrifying at the same time. 🙁 But important.

    • cycleguy says:

      I am hoping and praying we see fruit also Lisa. Thanks for being interested. Glad you are reading the book. And yes it is powerful and disturbing. And most definitely important.

  5. Karen says:

    I know I don’t have this exactly right but the gist is here – from Oswald Chambers…”Do not pray for greater works. Prayer IS the greater work”

    • Karen says:

      Boy did I get that wrong: Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer does not fit us for greater works, prayer IS the greater work”

  6. Ed says:

    Excellent!

  7. floyd says:

    So cool that you all pulled it off. Thinking outside the box is God’s concept. He made a world…

    It was almost 80 at the car show today… 😳😂