Day 1

Originally Published - November 21, 2011

Good afternoon church,
I hope all of you are doing well and that your holiday week is off to a good start. You have all been in my prayers today. Yesterday in worship we talked about given to prayer in the Scripture and wrestled with the question of whether or not our lives reflect the same kind of commitment to and appreciation for the gift of prayer. If you weren't with us yesterday, you can find the sermon audio by clicking on this link. The sermon isn't anything special, but I really believe God is calling our church family to rediscover the spiritual gift and discipline of prayer. I am prayerfully hoping that all of us will respond to this call from God together. Perhaps this lesson can provide a good launching point for that.  

As part of yesterday's sermon, I asked everyone to commit themselves to daily prayer and the intentional pursuit of a deeper understanding of prayer . Each of us needs to make prayer as a priority in our lives every day, not just for the next month. However, we want to spend some concentrated working on it and exploring what it means to be a "praying church." For some of us prayer comes quite naturally, but for others it can be a struggle. Over these 30 days, we'll have the opportunity to encourage each other, pray for each other and work together to make prayer a priority in our lives, homes and our church family.  

One of the ways I have planned to support this commitment to prayer over the next 30 days is by writing about it some every day during this time and sharing it with you all. So, for the next 30 days I will be sending out an email like this as a reminder to make prayer a priority that day. The daily form will vary, but I'll typically include some great idea (someone else's obviously) or an encouraging thought I run across in my studies for this series on prayer. Or, perhaps just share a personal reflection or prayer. After all, I'll be walking through this prayer journey with you all for the next month as well.  

I will probably create a space on the church website or open a blog site for these as well to make it as easy to access as possible for you all. So look for info on that soon. I do hope you will join me in this exciting time of prayer and spiritual growth. I've taken up enough of your time for now. So, I'll leave you with this quote from the great theologian Karl Barth:  

To be a Christian and to pray are and the same thing; it is a matter that cannot be left to our caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life. 

May God bless you this evening. Be in prayer continually! 

Grace and Peace, 

Josh