Do you want to see the best of what humans can do together? Look at the Pyramids of Egypt. Inspire them to a great task, organize them, and equip them. What do you have, a pile of stones reminding us of millennia gone by. Do you want to see what only God can do? Look at the church of Jesus Christ. For two thousand years Christ has been using it to bring new life to the world. God has ordained prayer as a key means of building the church. His glory will be seen in it forever (Ephesians 3:21). God continues to use His Word and the work of his servants as they remain dependent in prayer.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Peter 4:10-11
We begin a unified series on prayer as a church today. Both from the Pulpit and in Growth Groups we will be learning from Christ how we should pray. This series marks the start of a year-long focus on prayer for us at Faith Bible Church! To enhance and focus our gathered prayer in our Sunday services and in our personal lives we are providing key guiding requests in FBC Weekly through the whole year of 2020. These are born out of our strategic planning and ministry desires.
We will use the well-traveled path of ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication). It is always an effective way to keep your prayer life on track. When we adore God we are giving affectionate praise for who he is. Scriptures are full of truths about God that deserve our praises. When we compare ourselves to God in his perfection, we often see our sins and imperfections. We then confess our sin to him. As God faithfully supplies our needs and answers our prayers, we give him thanksgiving. Supplication is another word for prayer requests. They can be for yourself, a friend, another person, or a ministry.
The most important requests we make are for God’s glory and godly hearts. We always want to be praying for our hearts as God’s people to worship him, love him and obey him. You will see requests for the heart each week.
We also have church-wide initiatives. Back in September of 2017, we launched three-year initiatives and God has been gracious to fulfill many of these. We want to see him continue to work. We want to be praying for these every week.
Each ministry also has goals and plans birthed out of obedience to God’s Word. We will include two different ministries per week.
Lastly, we also plan to send out prayer prompts and requests via text message a couple times per month or when urgent needs come up.
God is working among us. We see the fruit of prayerful labor everywhere. We can always tell he is ready to work more as his people move more to pray. What we will see in 3,000 years is not a pile of worn out stones, but people worshiping God in heaven forever.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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