Week of Prayer

Twice a year our church has what we call the Week of Prayer, a special time we set aside to focus on the priority of prayer. One of my favorite features of the week is our prayer room, open all week, 5am to midnight.

The prayer room is made up of six "Prayer Points" that guide people through a time of intercession on a variety of topics. Since we're currently studying Jeremiah, this time around the points are all drawn from passages in that book. We also have a wall where people can post the names of friends and loved ones who don't yet know Christ.

Here is the content of the "Prayer Points." I hope they encourage you in your practice of prayer.

Know the LORD.

"Thus says the LORD: 'Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,' declares the LORD." -Jeremiah 9:23-34

• Take a moment to quiet your heart before God.
• Ask God to increase your love, fear, and awe of him.

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Turn to the LORD.
"If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver... then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: 'Break up your fallow ground...'" --Jeremiah 4:1-3

"Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O LORD, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.... Yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us." --Jeremiah 14:7,9

• Ask the Lord to convict us of our stubbornness of heart and idolatrous desires.
• Pray that he would awaken us to the reality of God's judgment against sin.
• Pray that the Lord would pour out a spirit of repentance on our church and that we would see and turn from our sin, trusting in the mercy of our King.

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Celebrate Mercy.
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ...they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." --Jeremiah 31: 31-34

• Thank God for fulfilling his promise and establishing a new covenant in Jesus Christ.
• Praise God for the glorious salvation he planned and accomplished through the death of Jesus upon the cross.
• Give thanks that through Christ our Mediator we may approach and know the Holy One of Israel, and are adopted as his sons and daughters.
• Give thanks for the Holy Spirit, through whom God writes his law on our hearts and helps apply it to our lives.

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Delight in His Word.
"Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts." --Jeremiah 15:16

• Ask God to deepen your love and reverence for his words.
• As one who is called by his name, pray for your own times of meeting with God, that you may encounter him daily through his words.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to open Scripture to you--to help you apply and be changed by it.

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Community
"But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." --Jeremiah 29:7

• Ask God to give you a deeper compassion and desire to minister to the needs of the poor and hurting in our community.
• Pray for boldness to share the truth of the gospel with friends and family who don't know him.
• Pray that members of our church--in their jobs, their schools, and their neighborhoods--would be a blessing to our community and represent the gospel.

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World
"At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart." --Jeremiah 3:17

• Pray that God would cause the gospel to go forward throughout the earth, and that those who have not yet heard the gospel would hear.
• Pray for the 3 billion throughout the earth with no viable church. Pray for the 1.2 billion Muslims in the "10/40 window," most of whom have no access to the gospel.
• Pray for believers around the world who are persecuted for their faith. Ask God to protect them, give them boldness in the face of opposition, and make them powerful witnesses of the gospel.