Thank you for joining us as a prayer team member Or prayer partner.
We are excited to share some practical, encouraging tips for praying faithfully and fervently. We are using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide for praying, along with reading in the Psalms and Proverbs each day, listening prayer, and our strategic guided prayer for the city.
Prayer is something we should do with consistency and fervency. Prayer is not something directed by our feelings, but something that directs our feelings. It is not responsive only responsive to our thoughts but directs our thoughts. Prayer is active participation with God to see the world within us and around us transformed.
Through prayer we engage with God asking him for his kingdom to come and his will to be done. We are asking him to use us as the conduit through which this prayer is answered.
Prayer involves honoring and adoring God, as Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer. We look up to him and elevate our thoughts when we pray. This prepares us to pray about things on Earth from a heavenly perspective.
Prayer involves confessing our shortcomings before God alone. We are clear and hold nothing back from the one who sees and knows all. He makes us whole, and we desire to see more things made whole.
Prayer includes thanking God for who he is and what he has already done in our lives. Thankfulness is a great primer for strength in prayer. When I remember his goodness, I am encouraged to ask him for more.
Prayer is about asking God for things we need, and things needed in the world around us. This type of prayer flows from our prayers of personal confession and remembering his goodness. If he can make us whole and show us his goodness, what else can he do? It is here that we remember we are a forgive people and must be a forgiving people. So, we love even our enemies in prayer and ask God to bless them.
As we approach God in prayer, we follow the pattern of the Lord’s prayer to open our mind and heart up to participate with the God of Heaven. Then we take a little time to welcome the Spirit of Truth to guide us in some listening prayer. We invite the Holy Spirit to come as we open the word and then sit in silence while we pray. Simply say, “Holy Spirit, you are the Spirit of Truth, come and guide my time in the word and prayer today.”
Read the text for the day, out of Proverbs and Psalms. In Proverbs we’ll read the Proverb chapter corresponding to the day of the month. For example, on the first day of the month we’ll read Proverbs 1 and on the fifth day of the month we’ll read Proverbs 5. In Psalms, we’ll read five Psalms for each day. For example, on the first day of the month we’ll ready Psalms 1-5 and on the fifth day of the month we’ll read Psalms 21-25. This ready will take about 15 minutes, give or take about 3-5 minutes, for most readers. You may wish to have an app read the text while you follow along so that you are already somewhat in listening mode.
We want to spend some time just listening with the word of God fresh in our minds, we want to sit in silence or maybe have some non-lyrical music playing in the background. It is good to have a pen and a piece of paper out during this time.
After 3-5 minutes of listening prayer, we’ll move into our strategic prayer for the city. This prayer time will last for about 15 minutes. If you live in the city for which you are praying, you’ll want to use specific names of people and neighborhoods or landmarks that represent places where people gather. As a prayer partner, you’ll have opportunities to help organize and participate in activities around your city, putting feet to these prayers. If you are praying for a city as a prayer team member, be as specific as you desire to be when praying for cities on our daily list.
Today, we are praying for specific spiritual and natural needs in my city and 40 of the largest 1,200 cities in America. Below you will find one example of how to pray through these strategic prayer points in more detail. In summary, we are praying consistently for these specific needs in our city.
We are asking you, God, to bring:
1. Spiritual Renewal
2. Financial health for more people and a decrease in poverty
3. High-quality educational opportunities for all
4. Integrity in civic, business, spiritual, & political leadership
5. Crime and corruption to decrease
6. Peace to increase
7. People who live here to love God, love people and work for the good of this city.
Strategic Prayer Points Detailed Prayer Example:
We are asking you, God, to bring:
1. Spiritual Renewal to the city: Lord let your Spirit move in love and power that changes lives as people encounter your goodness. May the love of God, the testimony of Jesus, and the work of Holy Spirit work in me and through me to see heaven come to earth. Stir the hearts of fathers and mothers to love their children. Turn the hearts of children to honor and love their parents. Give influential people in the city a heart for you that they may encourage others to seek you, know you, love you, receive your love, and share your goodness.
2. Financial health for more people and a decrease in poverty: Lord people have physical and financial needs all around me. I have needs of my own. We are asking you to help us have the daily needs of our lives, homes, and communities met through your kindness and care for us. Help us to use wisdom and manage our finances well so that we can take care of ourselves and be able to help others. May poverty, the thinking and cycle of struggle that keeps us bound, be limited and may we learn to live as free and generous people regardless of our financial status. Help us to bless others and be a blessing. Let the city be known for how well we care for each other and met the needs of our neighbors.
3. High-quality educational opportunities for all: God, people need knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and opportunity to grow. Financial hardships and community social limitations can keep us bound to systems and cycles of struggle. We are asking you to expand the educational options and elevate existing opportunities to learn and grow for people of all ages. Let the city be known for education and opportunity, not lack of education and opportunities to advance. Lord, let this be true throughout the city and let every neighborhood be filled with new hope and possibilities.
4. Integrity in civic, business, spiritual, & political leadership: Lord we ask that our leaders in local government, businesses, places of worship, and governing councils be filled with kindness, respects, and care for the people of the city. Let the motive of these leaders not be or selfish gain or direct by the corrupt desires of others. God, expose corruption and remove corrupt leaders from any areas of influence in the city. May the financial, social, and political pressures behind corruption be unmasked and may people be set free from the control of evil intent. Give us leaders who will love you and love the people of this city, all the people of this city. Give our leaders counselors who will speak truth and promote justice.
5. Crime and corruption to decrease: God turn the hearts of those who wish to do evil away from wicked thoughts and actions. Change the mind and heart of those who commit crime and draw them closer to having a heart to love you and love everyone made in your image. May corruption and crime decrease in the city. Expose those who seek to control the city through crime and corruption and remove them from places of safety and influence. Replace corrupt leaders and unjust people with those who will be just, kind, and respectful.
6. Peace to increase: Holy Spirit let the peace of God fill the hearts of minds of people all over the city. May you bring goodness and kindness to our communities that we might be thoughtful of others, do the best things possible for our community, and work together for the safety and harmony of our city. Let fear not be the main feeling people have at night in the city, but let peace and safety become the norm. May those who cause the city to be unsettled be transformed to become peacemakers or removed from the streets of the city.
7. People who live here to Love God, love people and work for the good of this city: Lord, continue to shape our thoughts and actions until we look more like heaven on earth. We want the city to reflect your kindness, goodness, and love for all people. May we be known for our love and respect. Make this city a place where people love to visit, live, and plan for generations of life to come. Help us to build a place where all are welcome, and all feel safe. Forgive us for thinking of our ideas, or ways of doing things, as better than everyone else and help us to work together for harmony in our communities and homes.
Lord, I am praying this for my city and for the following 40 cities around the United States, today.
Pray for the 40 cities on today’s list.