OUR NEED TO BE ONE
Our prayers can often be focused on our own needs, but they need to be deeper and not necessarily about our needs, but about the needs of others while being one with Jesus and one another . We need to pray about the needs of families, prodigals, widows, the sick, our country, our future, and our leaders, but when we pray in a group, we need to be one. To be one we need to be united in spirit and set free from the sins that so easily entangle us such as pride, unbelief, fear, resentment and deceit which can hinder our fellowship with each other. We may need to confess our sins to God and each other and experience the peace of God which passes all understanding. In the early church all the believers were one in heart and mind. .. they shared everything they had, and God’s grace was powerfully at work in them all (Acts 4:32-33) In all groups there will be a diversity of gifts, personalities and experience none of which should limit how we experience unity, and challenge us to show true unconditional love one for the other. But being one is not easy and will always be challenged by Satan because the need for us to be one is so important when we pray. If two or three of us agree here on earth concerning anything we ask, our Father in heaven will do it for us, for where two or three gather together as His followers, Jesus is there among us.(Mat 18:19-20 ) Jesus knew the importance of being one. He prayed for those who will believe in Him through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ( Jn 17: 20-23) When we are one we can experience the way God can reveal to us what we need to pray for and He can use anyone including children. Christ’s purpose was to create in himself one new humanity and in one body to reconcile to God through the cross, by which he put to death our hostility. (Eph 2:15-16)
Let us pray:
* As Jesus prayed that we will all be one, just as His Father and He are one and also as His Father is in Him and He is in His Father, that we may be in them so that the world will believe the Father sent Him.(Jn 17:21)
*That when we meet together for prayer in groups that we might be one and be convicted of any selfishness, feelings of estrangement, self- interest, narrowness of hearts, confess it to another and experience the joy of sin being removed.
* That we will experience the Joy which comes from being in an intimate relationship with Christ the One who is pure joy, and with one another.
THROUGH CHRIST WE CAN DO ALL THINGS
Unbelief assumes a life of its own. Unbelief has a mind of its own that thinks for those who doubt, that speaks through them words of negativity, and becomes a power that keeps them from experiencing the promises of God. Unbelief is a national sin that stops God’s word from working through the people of our nation to perform God’s will in our national life. His Word says that if we call on Him, He will answer us, and deliver us from evil, and that He will be with us in trouble. Let us as believers stand in the gap for our nation accepting His promise that He can overcome unbelief by the power of His Spirit which indwells us.
Please pray believing that:
* He will give us the strength to resist the devil so that he will flee from us. (James 4:7) Let us therefore pray that the plans the enemy has to pull us down as a nation will fail and that we will experience the abundance of God’s intended blessing upon us as a nation, and the protection of His powerful hand against every strike the enemy would try to launch against us.
* He has given us the power to pull down mental strongholds, wayward thoughts, imaginations and impulses. (Corinthians 10:5). Let us pray giving Him permission to pull down those things in our own lives but also liberating the whole population from those very same things that bind us as a nation.
* more of those who struggle with unbelief will find faith (and belief) so they can join in the battle for the life of our nation.
CASHLESS DEBIT CARD
As debate continues in relation as to what is the best way to assist Indigenous communities and families overcome excessive spending on drinking, drug taking and gambling to the detriment of the women and children of those communities and families, let us pray that the voices seeking righteousness and justice for our Indigenous people will prevail over the voice of self-interest and personal indulgence.
Let us pray:
* that if the Cashless Debit Card is to be discontinued that it will be replaced with an alternative system that will protect communities and families from a return to the days of excessive drinking and domestic violence.
* that Government policy will be determined by what is best for communities as a whole and not what is politically correct because of ideological positions held by decision makers.
* that Indigenous communities given the right to make their own determinations as to what is right for them, will chose the high road of protecting the innocent rather than giving in to political pressure from Governments or others with vested interests from within their own communities.
PRAYING FOR ISSUES IN THE NEWS
* The sacking of the recently appointed CEO of the Essendon Football Club, Andrew Thorburn, under pressure of the Victorian Government for simply being the Chairman of a Church that holds to Biblical values recognised for centuries is absurd, unbelievable and distressing. It takes our nation to a new level of intolerance that forewarns us of the persecution of Christians that is slowly taking hold of our nation. Pray that the Church will take up the issue by whatever means is available to it on behalf of Mr Thorburn to have the decision overturned in law to protect others from similar prejudice and vilification. Pray for Mr Thorburn, his wife and family that they would be strengthened to continue to stand for what they believe and would receive the support of the whole community in doing so.
* The pending decision of the Federal Government as to whether to bring back wives and children of Islamic fighters from Syria will cause controversy whichever way they decide to go. Let us pray therefore that the Government will be given wisdom in the making of that decision, that in the process they will put the national security of our Nation at the forefront of their thinking, and that if as expected, they do decide to bring them home that they would take every precaution to ensure that the Australian public is not put at risk either in the near or distant future from people who may still hold radical and fundamentalist Islamic beliefs.
PRAYING FOR OTHERS
This week let us pray for Tunisia. Pray for Amina who was recently expelled from her family home because of her faith. Pray that she will find a safe place to live long-term.
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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