FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
God has prepared a special life for each one of us , our children and for all who live in this nation. He loves us and wants us to know our nation’s God given identity and life purpose and for each of us to live fully free. He offers us a whole life with nothing missing, nothing broken and the chance to experience His love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, (Gal 5:22-23) But tough, even traumatic things have happened in our nation. When we have chosen to make mistakes both as individuals and as a nation we have moved further and further away from the life that the Lord had prepared for us. There have been times when we were hurt, have messed things up and crushed our hope of a good life or our belief in God. These have destroyed both our identity and our potential. We have experienced evil thoughts, words, and actions (sin) that have left us confused, traumatised, rejected, depressed or in despair. (Romans 3:23) Some of us have felt life is meaningless and death as inevitable – and even a solution. (Romans 6:23) When we try to find meaning, popularity, or comfort, it can sometimes make life worse, hold us captive and drain our lives, our relationships with one another and with God. We would love to experience the full life we had hoped for. Doing good things doesn’t seem to wipe out the bad we’ve done. Sometimes we want to reach out to God as we need Him to save us as individuals and a nation. He loves us and wants a close relationship with each of us to turn our negatives into positives and offer a new life as a gift. Let us choose to live our lives looking forward through the windscreen and not back through a rear vision mirror and move from darkness to light. Jesus is the true light, who gives light to everyone. ( Jn1 :9).
Let us pray:
* For those who need to be saved and for each of us as we need to go on being saved that we will acknowledge, when we have messed things up, that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in our hearts that God raised him from death. (Romans 10:9, John 11:25)
*That as followers of Christ after starting our new lives in the Spirit and then tried to be perfect by our own human effort (Gal 2:2-3) we will be filled with God’s love and the Spirit’s power – to live the life He has planned for us.
* Holy Spirit, convict and lead us to speak words of life by faith so that many more will know and experience the glory of God and join heaven in joyous eternal worship.
PRAYING FOR THE VICTORIAN ELECTIONS
It has been noted that the Victorian Parliament is often the door through which much of the permissive legislation that eventually finds its way across Australian, enters. With the Victorian elections approaching it is important that we cover those elections in persistent prayer so we are asking Prayer Watch members to remember Victoria in your prayers over the coming weeks until election day.
Please pray:
* asking God to reveal the historical spiritual roots of Victoria that has given life to such anti-God legislation that has been passed through the Parliament in recent years. Pray into any revelation given, asking God to bind any spiritual forces opposing Godly Government.
* asking God that through this election process He will reorder and renew Victoria’s foundations.
* asking God to raise up men and women who will stand in the midst of the election to stem evil and release the righteousness, peace and joy of His kingdom to the state of Victoria.
CULTURAL INTOLERANCE
Journalist Greg Sheridan, in an article written for The Australian, said that the effective sacking of AndrewThorburn as chief executive of Essendon because of his affiliation with the City on a Hill church represents a dark new phase in cultural intolerance. The new situation is one in which it is becoming virtually illegal, certainly dangerous to your career, to espouse, or be associated with someone who espouses, traditional Christian views. Greg Sheridan wrote that our society is becoming ever more illiberal. Liberalism and pluralism are features of societies that developed under the Judaeo-Christian influence but as we become post-Christian, it seems we are also destined to suffer post-pluralism. He states that it’s only a matter of time before the avatars of inclusion declare the whole Bible to be “hate speech”.
Please pray:
“You are true to Your name, and you lead me along the right paths. I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won’t be afraid. You are with me, and Your shepherd’s rod makes me feel safe.” Psalm 23:3-4
* Praise and thank God that His love and goodness and that truth will never end and His Word will never be eliminated.
* Thanking our Lord for His Word, which reassures us and gives us courage and hope.
* As we pray for revival, ask the Lord first to do in us what we ask Him to do in others.
PRAYING FOR ISSUES IN THE NEWS
* Now that the Federal Budget has been handed down let us pray that the best intentions of the Government will be fulfilled and not derailed by events over which they have little control. Pray that where unintended outcomes begin to emerge that they will be able to quickly correct them and that they will not allow ideology to override economic reality.
* The cyber-attacks that have been recently impacting major corporate businesses in Australia, including Optus and Medibank, have the potential to cause considerable pain and distress, not only to the businesses themselves, but more importantly their customers who run the risk of having their identities duplicated as well as personal details made public. In such circumstances payment of a ransom may be considered a good business decision, however it also undermines the rule of law in giving criminals a victory in their pursuit of riches by illegal means. Pray for wisdom for all involved in decision making as to how to handle such circumstances and for law enforcement officers as they seek to find and bring the culprits to justice.
PRAYING FOR OTHERS
This week let us pray for Ethiopia. Many Christian women are forced to marry non-Christian men and renounce their faith. Pray for perseverance, strength, and courage in the face of pressure.
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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