Praying for your Church

This morning at church Pastor Brian spoke about the power of prayer, in particular the power of praying for your local church.  Pastor Brian pointed out that there are 650 prayers in scripture, therefore prayer must be important.  He pointed out that Paul prayed often for the churches, therefore prayer must be important.  He pointed out that Jesus prayed, so prayer must be important.

We are called to pray for our local church family.  Here are some strategies for praying for your church:

1) Make your prayers simple.  I.e. pray for mercy, strength and awareness of God's presence.  As Martin Luther said about prayer, "The fewer words the better."

2) Make prayer for your church a routine.  As Corrie Ten Boom said, "Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it."

3) Make a prayer list.  Put names and families on it and try to be specific in your requests if you can.  This will give you another reason to get to know your church family, all of it.  Specificity also gives us a unique connection with and investment into those in our church.

4) Make your prayers known.  Tell people you're praying for them.  This can be done in person, e-mail, phone or just tag them in a post on Facebook saying that you are praying for them.  This provides both encouragement for them and accountability for us.

5) Don't forget the power of praying in person with hands laid.  Praying in any location is great, but there is something special about face-to-face with a church family member.

So, pray for your church family.  We're called to do it.  We should want to do it.  Pray for your church family today.