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Prayer fascinates me. It’s a rich experience. It’s a privilege. I am constantly learning, and wanting to learn more. Here I will share something of my journey with you.

From scripture, from the life of Jesus, and from the saints throughout history, we know that prayer is the foundation for the Christian life and for seeing God’s purposes fulfilled. But we can easily become lethargic with regard to prayer. Or we can develop a sense of self-confidence that says, ‘We can do this on our own’. But reaching the unreached with the Gospel, is a battle, and it is only possible with God’s help, relying on his Spirit to work through us and amongst us. We must pour time, energy and resources into the work of prayer.

Thursday 30 June 2016

How to encourage prayer?





A privilege
Do you ever wonder how you can encourage prayer for our world in your church or your small group?  It doesn’t have to be complicated and there are lots of resources just waiting to help you.

But first of all, we shouldn’t aim to make others feel guilty for not praying enough or for not praying about the right things.  It’s too easy for the very mention of ‘prayer’ to fill us with a sense of guilt, when actually prayer is such a high privilege for which we should be so incredibly grateful.

Operation World
The resource Operation World is described as “the definitive prayer guide to every nation”.  It is arranged with a different country allocated to each day of the year.  So, by following the guide we can pray for every country in the world throughout the year.  At the moment, the focus is on India.  India is so vast and diverse that it actually covers two weeks.  Have a look at the website: http://www.operationworld.org/  On the homepage is a link to the country of the day.  Click on ‘Join the prayer movement’ to sign-up to receive a daily email to help you pray for the country of the day.  ‘Like’ the Operation World Facebook page and join over 36,000 others receiving prompts for prayer this way. 

Prayercast Videos
I highly recommend these videos.  In each one you hear the voice of someone praying for a particular country alongside scenes of that country.  The videos are free to download from the website: http://prayercast.com/  There’s a short video for most countries, plus a number of themes.  So, pray for India and use the India Prayercast video as a helpful aid.

Above all
The tools and resources are there for us to use.  Above all, we need the discipline of turning to prayer, whether on our own or with others.

Let’s pray for India . . .

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