A prayer based on Acts 1:12-26.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Our gracious and merciful God. We praise You for the salvation we have, because Your Son came not to be served but to serve us by giving His life up as a ransom for many. We thank You that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That His name is Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. And we thank You that as this good news is preached: People are being rescued. Disciples are being made. And a depopulation of the dominion of darkness is taking place.

We are amazed that You would involve us as a church in this wonderful work You are doing right now. For the mission Jesus has given to us, of being fishers of men and makers of disciples of all nations.

How we need Your help and Your guidance if we are to do this in a way that pleases You.

We ask, that by Your Spirit, You will make us a prayerful church. A local church that is challenged and encouraged by the example of those first 120 followers of Jesus in Jerusalem who joined together constantly in prayer. Who were convinced that You would keep all the promises You have made, and so pleaded with You to do what You said You would do. We pray that like them we would be united in calling out to You, Lord, to use our efforts and plans for Your glory and the good of others. We pray that like them, we would be persistent in praying together. May our weekly prayer meetings be a crucial part of the life of this church and something which we are all committed to.

We also ask, that by Your Spirit, we will be a listening church. A local church which is committed to hearing You speak. That listens carefully to the voice of the Good Shepherd, to His words found in the Scriptures, as they are read and taught and proclaimed. And that we would be keen to have them explained and applied faithfully. We pray too, that as we hear what the Holy Spirit says, both as individuals and as a church, we would not harden our hearts. That we would act on what we have heard. That we would be obedient to all that You call to us to do. Trusting that Your Spirit will give us the power we need, to both walk in Your ways, and to be bold in our witness for the Lord Jesus.

It is our desire that more and more people in our community and beyond would repent. That they would turn away from, and rid themselves of all their offenses, so that sin would not be their downfall. That they would get a new heart and a new spirit by coming to Jesus and believing in Him. We long that they would repent and live! So, use our feeble and weak efforts to bring Your mercy and grace to the lives of those who do not trust in Christ, that they may praise You the God who calls people out of darkness and into your wonderful light.

Amen.

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