PRAYER Prayer Exhortations from Scripture Top 10 Reasons to Pray Suggested Prayers Prayer Calendar Parishioners at St. Mark's engage in daily prayer for two of their members throughout the year. The privilege of prayer is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. In prayer, we can come before our Lord and commune with the Almighty. We can tell God what is on our hearts and ask for help, comfort, peace. The Bible is full of exhortations to pray. Indeed, prayer is one of the most important works of the Christian life, yet for many of us, it is an unworked work. We have access to the Creator of All, yet we so rarely use that access. "I never seem to find the time to pray as much as I feel like I should. Here is this wonderful gift and it sits on the shelf, like an unread book. I find time to jog, I find time to work in my garden and complete my work, but I seem to have difficulty finding the time to pray. My prayers always seem reactive, rather than proactive. I'm hoping that this prayer calendar will help me to be more faithful in prayer and draw us closer together as children of God." Prayer Exhortations from Scripture: Matthew 7:7-11: Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every asker is answered, each seeker finds, and every knocker will have the door opened. Think about it: you don't give a stone to your child when asked for bread or a poisonous snake when asked for a fish, do you? If you, as imperfect parents, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your perfect heavenly parent give good things to the children of God who ask for them! Philippians 4:6,7: Don't be anxious about anything. Avoid anxiety by making your requests known to God through prayer and thanksgiving. If you do this, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall protect your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Colossians 4:2: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. I Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks: for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. James 5:16: Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a faithful child of God is powerful and effective. Note: These verses have been translated/modernized for this paper. See a Bible for more traditional translations. top Top 10 Reasons to Pray Obedience - The New Testament is filled with references to God's faithful praying for others. One of the reasons we should pray is because the Bible says that we are supposed to pray. There are several exhortations to pray (see below for a few). By praying, we are being obedient to these exhortations. Communication - How do you get to know someone better? By spending time with them, talking with them. There is an odd thing about communication: sometimes we feel closer to someone because of what we say, not just what we hear from them. Sharing our hopes and fears with others draws us closer to them. Our relationship to God is no different: when we spend time with God in prayer, we get closer. The Lord speaks to our hearts, even if we don't hear the words. By this, we can have confidence that our prayers are heard. The answers will not always be what we want, but God does answer all our prayers. Communion - When you love someone, you want to be near them. Prayer brings us into God's presence, where we can bask in that all-encompassing love and spend time together. Just as spending time with earthly loved ones is fulfilling, so is time in prayer with God. Sustenance - Prayer isn't just a duty, it is a wonderful privilege. When we come before God in prayer, we are nourished by our closeness to God. Prayer feeds our spirit and draws us closer to God. Prayer provides us spiritual food. Growth - When we are faithful in prayer, we are nourished by our time with God. This nourishment helps us to grow in our faith and makes our light shine brighter. Perspective - It is easy to lose perspective and view ourselves as being at the center of the universe, with all our cares and fears of paramount importance. There is nothing like communion with God to bring our perspective back into focus, so we see things with a clearer eye and a more realistic perspective. Faith Workout - Prayer is one way to practice our faith. It is the active believing in God's promises to us; part of the works of our faith. Just as exercise improves our muscles, prayer strengthens our faith. Help Others - Think of prayer as a form of community service. Praying the prayer calendar can improve the quality of the lives of others, as well as our own. There have been actual studies done in hospitals that showed that sick or injured people who are prayed for do better than those for whom no prayers were given. Prayer can’t hurt and it certainly can help. We don't even need to know what a particular person needs to pray for them, since God knows all their needs. We just need to lift them up to our Lord. Peace - Prayer doesn’t just bring answers, it brings peace. By putting things in God's hands, it helps us to recognize that we have done all that we can do and trust God to do the rest. When we truly turn things over to God in prayer, it lifts the burden of worry and eases our feelings of helplessness. Peace isn't contentment; it is a deep knowing that God hears us, loves us, will be with us and will take action on our prayers. St. Mark’s - Just as you pledge of your money and talents, please consider giving St. Mark's a wonderful gift: your faithful prayers. If this paper has convinced you please pledge to pray the prayer calendar each month. top Suggested Prayers God, shower _____ with your love and peace this day and help him/her to live this day to your glory. Help all of us at St. Mark's to grow in your grace. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Lord, please watch over _____ today. Guide _____ through the day and help her/him to feel your love. Give _____ your peace and the strength to glorify you through her/his thoughts, words and deeds. Bless all of us at St. Mark’s. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Gracious God, thank-you for your love. Especially be with ____ today and help him/her to see your hand in his/her life and give him/her your peace. Open his/her heart to your healing grace and teach him/her to walk in your ways. Teach all of us at St. Mark's to better learn to walk as children of the light. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Heavenly Father, thank-you for redeeming us through the blood of your only son, Jesus. Please guide ____ this day and help him/her to walk in truth and light through your grace. Make your love evident to ____, fill him/her with your Spirit and give him/her your peace. Lord, be with all of us at St. Mark's. Help Matt in his ministry to the parish. Help all of us to grow in wisdom and grace and live our lives to your glory. Open our eyes to what you would have us see. In Jesus' Name, Amen top Prayer Calendar Please participate, you don't have to do anything but take on the monthly prayer calendar and use it. But if you are willing, you can help us track how many people in the parish are using the prayer calendar as well as make a commitment to use it. On the welcome table, you will find small slips of paper which say "I pledge to God and myself one month of praying the prayer calendar." Take the slip and put it in the offering plate or in the box provided by the prayer calendar. This will help us to know how many people are praying the calendar. You don't need to put your name on the paper. This promise is just between you and God. What is it? You will find a prayer calendar on the welcome table. The purpose of this calendar is to help us remember to pray for each other. Everyone in the parish will appear on the calendar over the course of the next few months. The calendar is created from an alphabetical list of the parish. If you are in the parish database, you will appear on the calendar. Once we have gone through the entire parish, then the list will start again from the beginning. How do I use it? Take this calendar home with you and put it up on your refrigerator or somewhere you will be reminded to use it daily. All we ask is that you take a few seconds each day to pray for the person listed on that day. This is for the whole parish; don't limit this to just adults; encourage your children to participate as well, no matter how young. The prayer doesn't have to be long or elegant; it can be a simple "Lord, be with ____, ____ and ____ today and bless Matt and St. Mark's." The calendar has a few suggestions on how you might pray, but make this your own and pray what feels right to you. The prayer doesn't even have to be words; you can simply open your heart to God and mentally lift that person up to the Lord. It isn't important how you do it, when you do it or how long you take doing it; the important thing is for us to pray for a different person in the parish each day. Why should I use it? I was part of a congregation that used a prayer calendar and the results were incredible. It brought the parish together as a church family as never before. Some people found that their prayer day was a very special day and others found that the prayers gave them the strength to do things they had never dreamed possible. It changed peoples' lives and it changed that parish. top