Saturday, March 27 – Day 39

Seeking His Peace Among All Peoples

Seek God…for Christ’s Lordship to be welcomed by the nations

Seek God On Behalf Elderly People

The prayer walking suggestion for today is to pray at a retirement community or an extended care facility.

I may be going out of a limb here a little, but “elderly” is sometimes a perception. When I was 20 I thought 60 was really old. Come to think of it, when I was 43 I had no idea that I would be able to do the things I am now doing. Amazing! Perception! Now, I’m almost 64 and it doesn’t seem old at all….well, most days anyway.

Where am I going with this? The label ‘retirement community’ does not necessarily mean a lack of ability or a sound mind or a lack of willingness to be involved; nor should it.

At our combined annual meeting for the Mission America Coalition and CityReachers we were all challenged by a ‘young man’ in his mid-twenties. The moderator was thanking this ‘young man’ for being with the 250 of us, asking God for more young men and women to join us (kind of carrying on about us being, well, ‘old.’) when the young man was asked to share with all of us his thoughts on the week.

He challenged us to stop thinking as though we were about to become useless! Wasn’t Caleb over 80 when he took the high country?! Wasn’t this person over 70 when he….?! Wasn’t this person…??? He continued with sentences like “we all need each other…” I say like as I really can’t tell you what he said but I can tell you the impression it made on me.

The Holy Spirit brought scriptures to me like “he who endures to the end.” I am often tired of the battle, struggle, fight, and warfare (all scriptural words). I don’t think 64 but most often my daily capacity to work betrays my chronological age and the 37 years of enduring and fighting the good fight. However, we who are over 60 or 70 or 80 have an important part in this fight!

We are closer to the return of Christ that we all know. As we prepare to celebrate Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and RESURRECTION DAY, Easter, I have an idea for us all.

Let’s take the high country!

Brother Charles

Serve The City

Tuesday, March 16 – Day 28

Seeking His Righteousness In Our Communities
Seek God....to inspire a yearning for righteousness

….to inspire a yearning for righteousness. (inspire: 1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.) (yearning = a persistent, often wistful or melancholy desire; a longing) (righteousness = 1. morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.2. In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment. 3. Morally justifiable: righteous anger.)

This is a good day to look at the words being used by the writer of these prayers! I would ask you to pray with passion for a divine influence in your prayers. Obviously those who defined the word in the dictionary put in the very first definition the words “divine influence” so let’s go for it! Can you ask the Holy Spirit to put ‘salt’ in the soul of those that you are praying for that they would yearn for right standing before their God! AND we can pray (see the NT prayer for today) from a place of celebrating the sinlessness of Christ!

The fourth sentence in the NT prayer for today is electrifying for me!! “Your words, Your deeds, Your prayers – everything about Your life was lived in outrageous fullness.” Outrageous fullness. [In today’s prayer, consider the word ‘outrageous’ to be defined as: well beyond the understanding! Not only full, but beyond our ability to comprehend what full is. More than full. Running over! An inability to contain it all.] This is what we have to celebrate!

When we go to prayer – we can move in prayers of outrageous celebration!!! Think about it – as I write these sentences I am not sure I comprehend all that the Holy Spirit is telling ME! Let’s try this together – I believe we will have some outrageous answers!

Brother Charles
Serve The City

Wednesday, March 10 – Day 22

Seeking His Glory in Evangelizing All Peoples
Seek God…to be recognized and honored by leaders.
Seek God On Behalf of Government Leaders

As Christians we are to serve and honor our Lord in all we do, and seek to glorify Him. Our thoughts and behaviors in the political and governmental realm are included in that. How easy it is to jump on the media bandwagon – conservative or liberal – and use our voices to tear down politicians whose views don’t agree with ours. How many emails do you receive each week, forwarding a cartoon, column or essay berating a politician or the government? And how many times do we forward this type of material along to others! I can only imagine how my heart and mind would be transformed if I spent the time I waste on watching political television programs or listening to radio talking heads, praying for those government officials instead! And I mean truly caring about and praying for their salvation! And for Christians in government, praying that their hearts would always make decisions that line up with Scripture and that they would be infused with the power of the Holy Spirit to be Godly leaders in their public and private lives. When I wonder just how involved believers should be in government – and the opinions are vast – I know that prayer is the type of involvement that the Lord always views as right!

Kathryne Oates
Isaac Newton Christian Academy

Wednesday, February 24 - Day 8

Wow! What else could I say to express how powerful the words are that the Psalmist uses in Psalm 51:7, 10? Powerful words like “purify me”, “wash me”, “create in me”, and “renew… within me” in order that I “shall be clean”, “whiter than snow”, possessing a “clean heart” and a “steadfast spirit”. These are words that require transparency and expect transformation. Maybe the honest question for us is whether we’re ready for either.

We’re in the eighth day of our 40 days of prayer and the call to pure hearts has to be embraced or ignored. Ignoring the call is like saying, “Jesus, I know this is what you want but there is only so far I’ll go in following you.” Embracing the call requires of us a bold action like I find with David in the 139^th Psalm. In this Psalm it is as though we get to step into David’s personal chambers and listen to him think out loud about God.

In all the insight we are privileged to gleam from David nothing may be as important to us during these 40 days of prayer as verses 23 and 24 of Psalm 139. It is in these verses that David, as it were, gives God permission to, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When I use the word “permission” some of us cringed because we know that God can do whatever he chooses. But we also know that God is a gentleman and he doesn’t force himself on us. So, after David revels in the wonders of God’s consuming presence, and gets excited about the potential he has with God he gives God permission to examine his life and if necessary realign it with His.

I wonder if in these 40 days of prayer if what we may need to do is give God permission to search us and know our hearts; to test us and know our anxious thoughts. To see if there is any offensive way in us so that He can purify our hearts and lead us in the way everlasting? So, does God really have permission to do that in your life?

Pastor Tim Carter, First Church Of The Nazarene

Tuesday, February 23 – Day 7

Seeking His Life to Revive the Church
Seek God....for Christ's resurrection power

Seek God on behalf of Marriages

As they moved briskly through the quiet, cool, early morning air the two women dare not speak. The sun glistened across the dew drenched olive branches and combined with the early morning fog, any ordinary morning one would stop and enjoy the serenity. But, this was not an ordinary morning and there was little to stop and enjoy. In Luke’s account of the story of the Resurrection of Jesus, he deliberately used the words, “…very early in the morning….” Whether it was a sleepless night, a hint of hope, or just part of the grieving process, these two women got up early and went deliberately to what they envisioned to be a closed tomb (indicated by the spices they brought).

As I was reading in our prayer guide that our focus of prayer was on Christ’s resurrection power, specifically on behalf of marriages, I was quickly drawn to Luke’s account of Resurrection morning. I had one of those moments where the following words found in Luke 1:6 jumped off the page and slapped me in the face, “Remember how He told you.…” I can almost sense an impatient frustration on behalf of the angels as they cannot fathom why the two women would doubt the promise of resurrection given by the Creator of the universe.

I just got off the phone with a man I am mentoring who is ready to throw in the towel on his marriage. He had already begun his journey to the tomb, called divorce, ready to bury the promise of God behind a stone of pain, bitterness, and regret. In our conversation, I found the Holy Spirit guiding me to pray the resurrection power of Christ over his marriage. What seems lifeless, hopeless, and meaningless is confronted with the words, “Remember how He told you….”

Our prayer today is for the countless marriages represented in this city that desperately need to hear the words, “Remember”. Remember, that Jesus is the Resurrected Savior who has overcome death and the grave. Remember that on the third day, in the darkest hour, there is hope, there is life, and there is a new day!

Pastor Dave DeHaan
Community Life Pastor, First Assembly of God
“Where Faith Comes To Life”

Wednesday, February 17 - Day 1

Let’s get the party started!  Day 1 of 40 days of prayer.  The story of the prodigal son is really about a radically generous Father of prodigious love and two wayward sons.  One son runs away living a self-centered life and wastes his Father’s gifts and the other son stays home living a self-centered life taking his Father’s presence for granted.  Yet the Father remains constant, vigilant, with open arms of love to both.  What a Father!  What a love!  The Lord is never pointing his finger at you, He is always opening His arms.  He is not the accuser of the brethren, but the first born of many brethren.  You have a merciful, faithful Father God, a savior and brother in Jesus, a powerful guide in the Holy Spirit all living in you and for you!  The Lord is not worried about your worries.  You are more loved than you know.  You are more secure in that love than you feel.  Come away from ‘’far country” of a self-centered life and surrender afresh to His Christ-centered life of joy!  Come to Jesus in these 40 days, take only His yoke upon you, and learn from Him.  Come receiving His expanding heart of love for the whole world, one person at a time, including you.  What vigilant love!!  Let’s get the party started!


Richard Speight, Come Rest Ministries