[Please join me in praying for the Church on Sundays this year.]
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NIV)
Before each worship service our church has a time of “pre-service prayer” from 45 minutes before the service to 15 minutes before the service. During that time people come in to walk, pray, listen, and prepare for worship, and generally a keyboardist plays for prayer. Last Sunday I was walking and praying in tongues and listening to what God might say. I heard the phrase “deposit of hope.” When I told our pastor about it he responded that he’d been hearing God say that He wanted to give hope to people who needed a breakthrough in some really tough situations.
I am seeing a lot of people in the world who are in very rough circumstances and really need a “deposit of hope” in their lives. From finances to marriages to wayward children to international chaos to suffering… you know the places that can seem hopeless in our lives. Thankfully, God never forgets those who need him – those who need hope: “But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.” (Psalm 9:8 NIV). No matter what challenge our circumstances may be, God has not forgotten us.
Today, let us pray that God’s Church is a place of HOPE – a place where those who feel hopeless, tired, worn, weary, and even dead, can come for a new and fresh breath of Holy Spirit’s wind. May they find hope in the Church – hope in us.
God,
You are the living God, the Savior of all people. You have called each of us into belief so that your Church will be built up and complete. We thank you that you have given your people strength and vitality so that as we labor and strive, we can be Light, Life, and Hope in this world. We pray that your people would be seen as beacons of hope in our communities. Help us overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Fill up people with joy and peace as they trust in you so that our world has a new and refreshing move of your hope, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10 NIV)