Patterns for Prayer Volume 1 E-Book

Alvin VanderGriend

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Patterns for Prayer
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 133

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

“After five minutes I run out of things to say.”

“My prayers don’t seem to go anywhere.”

“My prayer life is boring!”

Ever felt that way? Do you want your prayer life to be radically different? Patterns for Prayer can make the difference.

It provides daily prayer suggestions in five categories:

Personal • Family and Friends • The Church • The Kingdom • The Unsaved

Each suggestion is designed to move you to voice dynamic, kingdom-building prayers. Over time you will be motivated and encouraged to move beyond the suggested prayer items as you gain confidence. Soon prayer will become an enjoyable habit as you learn to release God’s power on your world.

There are 3 volumes to the Patterns for Prayer series. Each volume covers a 4-month period. Volume 1 has daily prayer points for the months of January - April

Leseprobe

PrayerShop Publishing is the publishing arm of the Church Prayer Leaders Network. The Church Prayer Leaders Network exists to equip and inspire local churches and their prayer leaders in their desire to disciple their people in prayer and to become a “house of prayer for all nations.” Its online store, prayershop.org, has more than 150 prayer resources available for purchase or download.

© 2021 Alvin VanderGriend

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of PrayerShop Publishing, P.O. Box 10667, Terre Haute, IN 47801.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

ISBN (Print): 978-1-970176-13-1

ISBN (E-Book): 978-1-970176-14-8

Original contributors to this prayer guide include Edith Bajema, Dian Ginter, Joan Huyser-Honig, Don McCrory, Laurie Quist, Al Schaap, Mark Timmer, Alvin J. VanderGriend, and Jean Westenbroek.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

January

February

March

April

PREFACE

This book is designed to help you develop a meaningful and disciplined personal prayer life. I have heard people say, “I’d like to pray more, but after five minutes I run out of things to pray about.” Most of us know what that’s like. Patterns for Prayer is for all who have “run out of things to pray about.”

Regular use of this prayer guide will help you

•learn to use the language of Scripture in prayer

•use all of the elements of prayer regularly

•claim the promises of God with confidence

•keep your thoughts from wandering during prayer

•pray expressively for friends and family

•release God’s power and grace for your church and the kingdom of God

•develop the habit of praying for unsaved friends and acquaintances

You’ll discover a weekly cycle in these pages as you pray for the leadership and ministries of your own local church. You’ll pray about worship, church leaders, outreach ministries, church education, world missions, caregiving and fellowship, and financial stewardship.

This guide is meant to enlarge and deepen your prayer life. It is not intended to be the whole of it. Let these prayer suggestions trigger prayer expressions from your own heart. Where they do not fit, customize them to your own situation. Space is provided on each page for you to keep a record of further petitions and intercessions.

The Heidelberg Catechism reminds us that “God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking him for them” (Q&A 116). I pray that you may do just that and, in so doing, find that your life is enriched as you grow in intimacy with God and receive a generous amount of his grace and Spirit.

—Alvin J. VanderGriend

JANUARY 1

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his creativity. Give glory for the unending variety exhibited in his creation. Thank God for the wonderful way you have been made and for your unique personality, gifts, and talents. Confess any dissatisfaction you have had with the way you have been created. Commit yourself to serving God with your gifts and talents. Ask that God may reveal your spiritual gifts to you and give you opportunity to use them for him.

For Your Family and Friends

Pray that family members and friends will be a source of joy and blessing to each other and that together they may experience the joy and blessing of the Lord.

For the Church

Pray that pastors may speak the Word of God with power and conviction so that God’s people may hear the Word and do it, be equipped for discipling, and witness boldly to the good news.

For the Kingdom

Pray that the gospel may reach, touch, and renew the hearts and minds of people without hope in our world today so that there may be a great harvest of souls brought into the church.

For the Unsaved

Since “no one can come to [Christ] unless the Father . . . draws him” (Jn. 6:44), pray that God will draw your unsaved relatives, friends, and acquaintances (it’s best to name them) to himself.

JANUARY 2

Personal Prayer

Praise the prayer-hearing God that his ear is attentive to your prayers. Give thanks for the privilege of coming into God’s presence and conversing with him through prayer. Confess any personal failure in your prayer life that you are aware of. Commit yourself to being a faithful intercessor. Ask that God will strengthen your prayer life and help you to pray in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer, on all occasions, for all God’s people (Eph. 6:18).

For Your Family and Friends

Pray for unity in the Spirit. Ask for a deep love for, and understanding between family members and friends, and for reconciliation where they are at odds.

For the Church

Pray that your church’s leaders—pastors, elders, deacons, and others—may be filled with the Spirit and be effective in the ministries to which they are called.

For the Kingdom

Pray that the leaders of your denomination will clearly discern God’s will and vision for your churches. Ask that they will use their spiritual gifts to lead the church in that direction.

For the Unsaved

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Mt. 9:37-38). Pray that God will send helpful believers (this could be you) to unsaved persons you care about.

JANUARY 3

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his matchless grace. Give thanks that his grace is sufficient for you in every situation. Confess any do-it-yourself efforts in which you have rejected God’s grace and tried to go it alone. Commit yourself to being a channel of that grace to others. Ask that God will meet your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19) and that his grace will be poured out abundantly.

For Your Family and Friends

Pray for the salvation of each family member. Ask that children may come to trust Christ at an early age and may desire to become part of God’s forever family.

For the Church

Pray for each of your church’s outreach ministries, for the leaders, and for those being reached, that God will use all these efforts to bring people to himself.

For the Kingdom

Lift up the names of the leaders of your nation, state/province, and community, asking that the Lord’s strength and wisdom come to full maturity in each one as they learn to rely on him.

For the Unsaved

Pray that the unsaved persons you name before God may seek him, reach out for him, and find him, since he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27).

Prayer Pointer

“Our business in prayer is not to prescribe, but to subscribe to the wisdom and will of God; to refer our case to him, and then leave it with him.” —ANONYMOUS

JANUARY 4

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his limitless power. Give thanks that God is willing to strengthen you with power through the Spirit within you. Confess any time that you have been weak because you did not avail yourself of his strength. Commit yourself to serving in the strength of the Lord. Ask that out of his glorious riches God will strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being (Eph. 3:16).

For Your Family and Friends

Pray that your family and/or friends will experience rich times of praying together, playing together, and worshiping together.

For the Church

Pray for your church’s teachers and counselors that they may communicate Bible truths clearly, live holy lives before God, and be Christ-like examples to those they lead.

For the Kingdom

Pray for small group Bible studies as they meet weekly in homes and churches all across the continent. Ask God to change hearts and lives through the Word.

For the Unsaved

Pray that unsaved persons you know may receive the free gift of God, which is eternal life, and may not have to receive the wages of sin eternally (Rom. 6:23).

Prayer Pointer

“When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.” —JOHN BUNYAN

JANUARY 5

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his unswerving faithfulness in keeping all his promises and never forsaking his own. Give thanks that God gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should have everlasting life. Confess any unfaithfulness on your part to God. Commit yourself to being faithful to all your loved ones and to keeping all the promises you have made to them. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to give you the confidence that you are a member of his family and know God as “Abba Father.”

For Your Family and Friends

Support family members and friends in their work or studies and pray that each may be diligent in pursuit of God-given tasks.

For the Church

Pray for your church’s missionaries (by name, if possible), asking the Lord to encourage and strengthen them and to keep them from loneliness, discouragement, spiritual attack, and burnout.

For the Kingdom

Pray for your denomination’s world mission efforts as missionaries are recruited, trained, sent out, and supported. Pray for adequate funds to carry on and expand the work.

For the Unsaved

Pray that unsaved persons who hear the Word of God will receive it and accept it not as the word of human beings, but as it truly is, the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13).

JANUARY 6

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his unfathomable love. Give thanks that he will let nothing separate you from that love. Confess to God any lack of love for him. Commit yourself to loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Ask that your love may grow and overflow to others just as Christ’s love does to you (1 Thess. 3:12).

For Your Family and Friends

Pray for family members and friends to have a strong and growing love for God and for others.

For the Church

Pray for your church’s caregivers that they may be gems of Christ’s love and compassion and may be his hands and feet to reach out to many human needs today.

For the Kingdom

Pray that God will bless the efforts of relief ministries throughout the world as they help the church to motivate and empower members for works of mercy so that hurts are healed and needs met.

For the Unsaved

Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict unsaved persons you know (again, be specific), bringing them to repentance and faith and guiding them into all truth.

Prayer Pointer

“I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.” — JEAN INGELOW

JANUARY 7

Personal Prayer

Praise Jesus Christ for his incomprehensible humility. Thank him for humbling himself to die on the cross that you might be set free. Confess any pride, egotism, or boastfulness you find in yourself. Commit yourself to doing nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility considering others better than yourself (Phil. 2:3). Pray that you may have the mind of Christ in all matters such as priorities, goals, time management, vocational choices, relationships, and recreation.

For Your Family and Friends

Pray about weaknesses you see in family members and friends, asking specifically that God may overcome each weakness by his strength.

For the Church

Ask that God’s people will give generously and cheerfully, according to the blessings they have received, that the financial needs of your church will be adequately met.

For the Kingdom

Pray for the church throughout the world that its divisions may be healed, its leaders endowed with the Spirit’s power, its people filled with zeal for the cause of Christ, so that the church may increase daily and the kingdom be advanced.

For the Unsaved

Pray that the Holy Spirit may give you a burden for lost people like that of the apostle Paul, who expressed “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in [his] heart” over lost people (Rom. 9:1-3).

JANUARY 8

Personal Prayer

Praise God for his inexhaustible goodness. There is nothing lacking or defective in him. Give thanks for all the pleasure and blessings which flow from God’s goodness. Confess any ingratitude to him. Commit yourself to God-like goodness. Ask that today you may grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18).

For Your Family and Friends

Pray that your children will grow up in the training and instruction of the Lord and will learn to walk in his ways (Eph. 6:4).

For the Church

Pray that all who proclaim the gospel today may be clothed with power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and may preach the Word of God boldly and clearly. Ask that worshipers may have open ears and attentive hearts, and that they may experience God’s presence.

For the Kingdom

Pray for the unreached people groups worldwide to be reached with the gospel. Ask for laborers, open doors, adequate funds, and a positive response.

For the Unsaved

Pray that those who seek the Lord will seek him with all their heart and will find him (Deut. 4:29).

Prayer Pointer

“When you go to your knees, God will help you stand up to anything.” —ANONYMOUS

JANUARY 9

Personal Prayer

Praise God that he knows everything in every age. Give thanks that he knows you by name and that you matter to him. Confess any attempt to conceal things from God. Commit yourself to openness and honesty before God. Invite him to search your heart and life (Ps. 139:23-24). Ask to be protected from the evil one and kept from a spirit of worldliness.

For Your Family and Friends

Pray that each family member and friend may be responsive to God’s grace and may live a life pleasing to him.

For the Church

Pray that your church leaders may grow in grace, in knowledge, and in wisdom as they continue in the Word of God and prayer.

For the Kingdom

More than 100,000 persons are added each day to the church worldwide. Pray for new converts that they may stand firm in the faith and may grow spiritually strong.

For the Unsaved

Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:15-17), pray that your unsaved friends, neighbors, and relatives will hear the Word and respond in faith.

JANUARY 10

Personal Prayer

Praise God for the depth of his wisdom and knowledge, and for his unsearchable judgments. Thank God for guiding and directing your ways. Confess any resistance on your part to do his will. Commit yourself to acknowledging him in all your ways (Prov. 3:5-6). Ask God for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better and have the eyes of your heart enlightened, to know the hope to which you are called, the riches of his glorious inheritance (Eph. 1:17-18).

For Your Family and Friends

Pray that by God’s grace, parents will be able to train their children in the ways of the Lord and that their children will always walk in these ways (Prov. 22:6).

For the Church

Pray for the Spirit of love in your church that believers may be one, even as the Father and Son are one, so that the world may believe that God sent Jesus Christ (Jn. 17:21).

For the Kingdom