Praying for Unity together

Prepare: One of the things which confuses people most about the church is why it’s in so many different pieces. Jesus prayed that we would ‘be one’. Think about the wider church; Methodist, Assemblies of God, Independent, Baptist, Catholic, Church of England. Use your own words to pray for unity or pray:

Lord Jesus, we pray for all churches in this area, for unity in spirit and truth, within churches and between churches. Forgive us for the times when we have allowed our prejudices or preferences to divide us. Help us all to speak well of one another, and to work together for your Kingdom. May your people always look for the best in others, just as you did, and demonstrate your kingdom by loving one another. May the Christians in this area work and pray together for the good of our neighbourhood. Amen. 

Read: Matthew 18:19-20

Reflect: Jesus taught his disciples that there is power in agreement. Matthew 18:19-20 is about authority, and Jesus says that we use our God-given authority best and most effectively when we’re praying in agreement. Praying in agreement involves getting together with others and turning our hearts and our prayers to one another and to God. When what I am praying for lines up with what you are praying for and when that lines up with what God wants to do, then we’re all in agreement and something very powerful is released. When that agreement is also between people of different churches, different generations or different races, wow! 

God loves to hear his people praying together with one heart in accordance with God's heart. 

Respond: If you are able this week join in praying for a specific issue in your area. If you can, meet with others to do this. Here are some suggestions to pray for, where our heart and God's heart can be in agreement: 

• For crime rates to fall 
• For a family with a particular problem/crisis would find release 
• For an area nearby where there have been a lot of problems lately
• For a specific area of vandalism

A deeper Love for our Communities

Prepare: "This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." (1 John 4:10) Thank God that he loved us even before we knew him.

Reflect: Take time to read these verses from the Bible slowly:

‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. ‘Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’ (1 Corinthians 13:1-7) ‘

"You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”’ (Matthew 5:43-48)

Respond: What occurs to you as you read these verses? What stands out? For me it is that love is both an attitude and an action. When we love in our actions and through our heart, something powerful is released, and our families, our homes, and our neighbourhoods can be totally changed.

• Spend time in silence and ask God to show each of you where your attitude towards people in your neighbourhood or family is less than loving. Ask his forgiveness and invite the Holy Spirit to change your heart.
• Make a special commitment to pray for those you find it hardest to love. (Praying for someone can be the quickest way to start loving them)
• Pray for situations in your neighbourhood where relationships are strained, where people are excluded or where people are treated with hostility.

God is doing new things

Prepare: Look forward not back – this is a new moment, a new day, a month, a new start. What would you like God to do with it?

Read: Isaiah 43:16-19 Click here

Reflection: So often the new is simply a replacement or updated version of the old (new clothes, a new car, a new house), with no substantial change. These words that God speaks here turn our attention to God who is doing what is genuinely new. The people Isaiah is speaking to can remember former times (v 18) when God had done great things – the escape from Egypt and slavery, travelling and arriving in the land God had promised, but these times were past and they were in exile. Difficult times.

In situations of decline or loss it is easy to ‘dwell on the past’ (v 18), to look nostalgically, often with regret or anger, at what seems to be irretrievably lost, or to seek ways to bring it all back. God, however, moves forward seeking to bring about new things in each generation.

God speaks these words to the Israelite's but also to us today "See I am doing a new thing". God was about to do something. To get it ready, to set it in motion for the Israelite's. God goes out before us and we are to watch out for his new thing and then join in with what he has planned for us.

Prayer Ideas

Pray that God would show you:

• What good things are happening where you live? Things being done by people of faith or those with no faith. 
• As you look on the internet read the papers and see what is there going on in your area. Ask God what He is celebrating.
• Ask God if He is calling you or your church into one of these areas?