POSTURES OF PRAYER

There is power when the people of God pray as one. There is healing, connection and works of the heart that happen when we come together under his name. We truly believe that we can experience Heaven on Earth when believers come together, grow together, grieve together, worship together and pray together.

Over this 40 Day Lenten season we have over 180 people starting their day with the name of God on their lips – together. What a beautiful picture of the Kingdom of God. Prayer is a posture that we take when walking with God. We asked 40 people to come alongside us to create a collection of prayers that guides us in this season. As we listened, read and watched the prayer leaders of all ages take on this challenge, we began to notice common threads among all the participants.

Praying with humility. In 1 Peter 5:5 we are called to, “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another…” and again encouraged again in Philippians 2 (verse 5-11) to take on the same attitude as Jesus who made himself nothing and took the nature of a servant. As each of us takes the next step in our prayer lives, may we take the posture of humility with us.

Praying with gratitude. Each of these prayers begins and comes from an offering of praise and gratitude to a God who loves us and hears us when we pray. Gratitude is a central piece of the way Jesus taught us to pray as he modeled it in the Lord’s Prayer and we are reminded throughout scripture to continue that very posture. 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Praying outside of our comfort zones. Pastor Shannon encouraged each of us this past Sunday to learn from Jesus in a posture of prayer that allows others to hear us when we pray out loud. Jesus prayed out loud so that others could see the glory of God. Jesus says in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Praying out loud allows us to connect with others. This goes against what many of us are comfortable with. We prefer to go to God in prayer in the quiet moments – alone. While this is a beautiful and crucial part of prayer, we know we can miss the value that comes when praying aloud among other believers. In Joshua 1:9, we are taught to be strong and courageous. We are taught not to be frightened for God is always with us. This is true when going through the hard seasons of life and still holds true when we step out of our comfort zones to pray out loud. When we step out of our comfort zones and pray where others can join us, we set forth the glory of God where others can hear.

There is still time to join us on this 40 Days of Prayer: Lenten Journey. Join us as we seek God together and learn to pray like Jesus.