50 Days of Prayer for Fellowship CRC

Acts 4:24-31, “They raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord…”

Please take a moment to read the entire Scripture passage. This prayer by Jesus’ original disciples is a model for us in many ways. Here are three.

First, they prayed together. It is important of course to pray on our own. But there is power in praying together, in welcoming the Lord into your midst, in hearing the faithful prayers of another person expressed, and in agreeing in prayer.  Keep finding times and places to pray together, not just in Sunday worship, is crucial for the life of the church.

Second, they prayed Scripture. This kept their prayer grounded in truth.  Then they understood that these attacks were aimed at Jesus (the one anointed as Messiah), not at them.  Praying Scripture helps us when we don’t know how to pray.  Praying Scripture gives God’s own authority to our prayers.

Third, they prayed specifically for what they needed, which was boldness. Interestingly, boldness is exactly what those who were attacking them had noted about them (verse 13). Yet they knew that the attacks would continue and that they would only need greater boldness, so they asked for that.  We can follow their example and ask specifically for what we need to do God’s work and will.

So we pray,
Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, we ask for your powerful hand to go before us in our work as a church, and that your Spirit would fill us with boldness for prayer, action and speech.  We pray this as well for the persecuted church worldwide, that you would care for them while you give them courage and faith, and that you would help us all to follow the disciples’ example in prayerful witness.  Amen.