2010 Year of Prayer - Part 1

One of my spiritual heroes, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, would often say, “Nothing of eternal importance happens a part from prayer.” What a true and powerful statement. Yet, as true as that statement is, the sad fact is that we as followers of the God of the Bible still don’t make prayer a priority in our lives. It should be. That is exactly what Paul meant when he said to “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

In order to drive our entire ministry (church, daycare and school) toward making prayer more of the priority it should be, we are designating the upcoming year of 2010 as a “Year of Prayer” here at Grace Ministries. The dates for this will run from the first day of the year (January 1, 2010) all the way through the last day of the year (December 31, 2010). The purpose is to have our entire ministry family focused on prayer for one full year. Just think of what God will do as a result. After all, according to Ephesians 3:20 we serve a God who is able to do, “super abundantly in quantity beyond anything we could ever ask.” Or, as James wrote, “We have not because we ask not.”

So what will this Year of Prayer entail? First and foremost, we want to see every scheduled meeting, class, appointment, activity, service, connect group, etc. begin with prayer. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Beginning January 1, 2010, anytime you are involved in anything connected with Grace Ministries that was scheduled, be it involving two people or two thousand people, it needs to begin with prayer. Sadly, this will be a paradigm shift for much of what we do because we have not been making prayer the priority it should be. This will take some getting used to but it will develop a wonderful habit in our lives and ministries.

Second, we will start the year off in January with a five week series on prayer to get us focused. Below is the main element of each of these messages:

Jan 3 – Jesus: The Pattern of Prayer (Mark 1:35-39; 1 John 2:6). We will see that the prayer life of Jesus was a PRIORITY; the prayer life of Jesus was PERSONAL; the prayer life of Jesus was PREPARATORY; and the prayer life of Jesus was a PATTERN.

Jan 10 – The Mansion of Prayer (selected Scripture). We will examine prayer as if it were a mansion with 5 rooms. Each room will show us a part of prayer and with each room we will find a key to open up that room in a new and fresh way.

Jan 17 – Doug Kegarise will preach this morning on the topic “Praying for Students”.

Jan 24 – Being Devoted to Prayer (Colossians 4:2-4). We will see our need to be devoted to prayer with an attitude of alertness; an attitude of thanksgiving; and a specific aim.

Jan 31 – The Need for Persistent Prayer (Luke 18:1-8). In this passage we will look at a story that Jesus tells with the purpose of teaching his disciples to make prayer a priority and praying persistently. That is our goal for the year – to be persistent in prayer.