“God acts when we pray. And God can do more in five seconds than we can do in five years.” John Piper
This begs the question—why wouldn’t we pray? Is anything keeping you from being a prayerful person—or us a prayerful people? Too busy to pray? Don’t have a convenient place to pray? Don’t know how to pray? Don’t feel the need to pray? Don’t know if it actually makes any difference—for you, our church, our community or our world?
As Charles Spurgeon said, the reality is that “we may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, he intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If he has said much about prayer, it is because he knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we are in heaven we must not cease to pray.”
There is no way around it—The Hallows Church needs to be a community comprised of dependent, prayerful people. More than talking about God we need to be talking to God. More than listening about God, we need to be listening to God. As we look forward to 2018, would you commit to seeking the Father’s face and waiting on His voice more and more? Would you, as worded in the book of Colossians, “Devote yourselves to prayer keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving”? Would you help us grow as a people who not only pray privately but corporately as described in Acts 2:42, saying, “They [the early church] were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”?
To this end, please plan to participate and take advantage of these specific upcoming opportunities to help us grow as a community of prayer:
Sunday, December 31st: Worship Gatherings — Before you go out to celebrate New Year’s Eve, join us for one of our three worship gatherings as we dive into Scripture to study why and how to pray.
Monday, January 1st: 24 Hours of Prayer — Start the new year in a posture of dependence (prayer) by setting aside just one hour of your day from midnight-midnight (wherever you are) to pray through a provided prayer guide. Beginning in 2012, we have started each year as a community of faith with 24 hours of unbroken prayer. We ask that individuals sign up to take one hour shifts for prayer on New Years Day. What hour can you devote to seeking His face and voice for yourself, our church, our city and our world?
Wednesday, January 3rd: Prayer Gatherings 6:30-7:45 p.m. — At this point we would have studied prayer together on Sunday, enjoyed prayer privately with the 24 Hours of Prayer so then on Wednesday, January 3, make plans to set aside time to pray corporately in one of our three prayer gathering locations—choose whichever gathering is most accessible to you midweek from 6:30 p.m.-7:45 p.m. We will have prayer gatherings at our West Seattle expression and Fremont expression buildings as well as at a location in North Seattle (TBD). Children are invited to participate in the prayer gatherings (separate childcare is being planned for preschool age and under in each location). Also note that all MCs will meet this week for the prayer gatherings rather than separately at their normal times and locations.
Sunday, January 7th: Weekly Pre-Worship Gathering Prayer — May we be a people who continue to devote ourselves “to prayer with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). Join us for weekly prayer 30 minutes before each expression’s Sunday worship gathering. All are invited to jump in and participate in this vital ministry of the church any Sunday that you are available. If you are interested in being part of the team that helps lead, foster and direct this time for a certain expression, please email prayer@hallowschurch.org. (This ministry team also intercedes throughout the week for prayer requests received through The Hallows Church app and worship gathering communication cards.)
“Prayer is the simplest act in all religion. It is simply speaking to God. It needs neither learning, nor wisdom, nor book knowledge to begin it. It needs nothing but heart and will.” J. C. Ryle
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