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 3 – Day 15

Seeking His Light to Awaken the Lost
Seek God for the city… for revelation leading to repentance

“For those who have heard about You but remain stone-cold to You… Vindicate Your reputation by disclosing Your mighty mercy… that their stony hearts melt in view of how determined You are to love them. Cause them to behold Jesus…”

Encountering the “stone-cold” is a challenging experience in the life of a believer. Alive with the fire and passion given to us by Christ, it is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes maddening to witness others walking in firm rejection of God. If you are like me, you may approach the hard-hearted like a special project. If we just have the right words, the right program, the right strategy, we can break through and “win one for Jesus.”

Facing an apparent failure to break through, sometimes we turn defensive. These “rejecters of God” become the enemy. We may give them several labels… secular humanists, faces of the culture of death, nazi-feminists, godless liberals… I think sometimes we hide behind the labels and battle lines out of fear of what it would cost us to be the Church who reveals the God who is determined to love the stone-cold.

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Let us have a fresh perspective today of seeing the stone-cold not as enemies whom we need to organize against but as an incredible testimony that God is writing. Let us approach those who would oppose or slander the work of the Kingdom determined to love them. May our approach to vindicating God’s reputation not be in our protests, our petitions, or our carefully crafted talking points but in disclosing the mighty mercy of the Father through radical love. My prayer is that as we collectively love them, in us they would behold Jesus.

Katie Sandquist
Aid to Women

Monday, February 22 – Day 6

Seeking His Life to Revive the Church
Seek God…to impart His life-giving Spirit

When Brother Charles asked me to write on day 6, he had no idea about 3 passions of my life. The first passion is “to impart His life giving spirit”. "I am sending you, just as the Father has sent me." ²²Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:21-22 The second passion is the Athletic Industry. ²⁴You know that many runners enter a race, and only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! ²⁵Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever. ²⁶I don't run without a goal. And I don't box by beating my fists in the air. ²⁷I keep my body under control and make it my slave, so I won't lose out after telling the good news to others. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. These 2 verses are life verses in my journey with God.

The third passion is praying for Haiti. I recently returned from Haiti as being part of the National Disaster Medical System. I deploy as a Dr of traumatic stress specializing in psychological disorders and as a Chaplain representing Christ in a faith based response to a disaster.

We are asked as a nation to seek God for the city. We are witnessing three events taking place right now under our eyelids; the Olympics, the devastation of a nation with catastrophic results of death, injuries, and loss, and the Holy Spirit available and willing to breathe life into the hearts of those drawing near to God. The prayers today encompass these three events.

I was schooled on faith in Haiti. I was surrounded by a people of faith because that is all they had. This is a nation that was maimed, lamed and shamed. This is a nation broken physically and emotionally. The Holy Spirit was imparting life all around me in a sea of death. I am humbled in pure faith and changed as a result. As we watch our Olympians compete and a nation survive an earthquake, my prayer is that we keep our purpose : seeking God, Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; disciplined in prayer, I do not fight like a man beating the air; and available for divine appointments, No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Lord Jesus, breathe life into our dead bones that we might rise from the depths of despair. Ignite a flame in us to consume those around us with your power and presence. May we learn lessons from the Olympians and Haitians in their journey for survival. May we become a city desperate for You. May we become a people humbled to a pure state of faith, hope and love.

Jim Coyle
Neighborhood Church, Cedar Rapids, IA