Prayer Diary for February 2012
The letters of the Apostle Paul contain powerful prayers for the Church. Paul shared the passion that the Lord Jesus has for His Church. Our prayers this month reflect those of Paul. We are praying for one another, for the Body of Christ. We are praying for the Kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done so that His purposes can be worked out in and through His Church. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s heart in the prayers you pray. Know that, when you ask anything according to the will of God, He hears you, and when He hears you, you know that you have what you have asked of Him (1 John 5:14).
[Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Anglicisation copyright © 1979, 1984, 1989. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited.]
First Passage – Ephesians 1:15-23
1st WEDNESDAY
Ephesians 1:15-16
1. 15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
2. Think about the Christians you know. You may think of them within their church groupings. You may think of them as individuals. There will be some who pursue their faith in a different way to you. They may worship differently or have different views on some issues.
As you think of them, thank God for them. Thank Him that they are your brothers and sisters in Christ. Ask Him to increase your love for all God’s people.
2nd THURSDAY
Ephesians 1:17
1. I keep asking.
2. Paul knew the power of prayer. He knew that he needed the prayers of the church as he lived out the life to which God called him. He knew, too, that the church needed his prayers. Are you faithfully praying for your Christian brothers and sisters? Ask the Lord to give you grace to always keep on praying.
3rd FRIDAY
Ephesians 1:17
1. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
2. Jesus came into this world to restore the relationship between man and God. He died to destroy every barrier that got in the way. Through Jesus we can know God, and the desire of His heart is that we get to know and experience Him in a deep and intimate way.
Pray today’s prayer for yourself but also pray it for others, for your church, for other Christians you know.
4th SATURDAY
Ephesians 1:18
1. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you . . .
2. Our God is a God of hope and we can overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). There is so much negativity and despair in the world that we need to be people who overflow and release hope!
Think of Christians you know who are struggling with some kind of hopelessness. Pray that the eyes of their hearts may be opened and that they will be filled with overflowing hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5th SUNDAY
Ephesians 1:18
1. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know . . . the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
2. Focus on Jesus. You are a joint-heir with Him. Every promise God has made is ‘Yes’ to you in Christ. Meditate on what this means – who you are in Christ, what you are, where you are, what you have been given. Thank God for your inheritance, then pray for your brothers and sisters that they too may grasp the wonderful truth of what it means to be a New Testament saint.
6th MONDAY
Ephesians 1:18-20
1. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know . . . 19 his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
2. The New Covenant church is meant to operate in supernatural power, as demonstrated in Acts. Sometimes we try to do things in a human way, using our own strength. It doesn’t work. Sometimes we fail to grasp the magnitude of the supernatural power he has invested in us. Pray that our eyes be opened that we might know, really know, this power, and that we would be willing to rely on it to fulfil everything the Lord asks us to do.
7th TUESDAY
Ephesians 1:20-21
1. . . . he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
2. The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). He was abused, ill-treated, and executed in a shameful death upon a cross. His broken, pierced body was taken down and laid in a tomb. But . . . But God, by his mighty power, raised Jesus from the dead and the glorified, risen Christ is seated in glory at the right hand of God in the heavenlies. Every power and principality knows that their end is near because the one who cried out, ‘It is finished!’ on the cross is now reigning in glory.
Think about the Saviour you serve – not a broken man on a cross, but the one who reigns in majesty. The one who has shown that he is the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. Ask him for a fresh revelation of his majesty. Spend some time just worshipping him for who he is.
8th WEDNESDAY
Ephesians 1:22
1. And God placed all things under his feet . . .
2. The one to whom God has given authority over all things is the Saviour who gave himself for you. Just think about that. Whatever is happening in the world, whatever is happening in your personal life, God is in control. Thank him that he is working everything out. Thank him that he knows best. Pray for his kingdom to come and his will to be done. Thank him that he will answer your prayer.
9th THURSDAY
Ephesians 1:22-23
1. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
2. Jesus is the Head of the church. No matter what labels we place upon ourselves as Christians we are part of his body. If the body is to function as God intended, as a representation on earth of the fullness of Christ, then we all have to support each other and rely on each other.
Pray for a unity in the Spirit within the local church. Pray for each grouping or denomination and thank the Lord that we are united in a confession of faith in Jesus Christ, by whose death and resurrection we are saved. Pray that any barriers caused by differences in how we do things and by the traditions of men be broken down.
Second Passage – Ephesians 3:14-21
10th FRIDAY
Ephesians 3:14
1. For this reason I kneel before the Father.
2. Jesus revealed to us the Father. He revealed the Father’s heart towards us, a heart filled with a love that will never fail. A love that will never love us any more or any less no matter what we do or fail to do. That’s the God who Jesus reveals.
Take time to talk to God as your Father. You’re a son or daughter of the living God. Let that sink in afresh. Thank him for his love. Ask him for a deeper revelation of his love. Receive from him and then pray for others that they too may know the love of the Father more and more. Be led by the Holy Spirit as to who you pray for and how you pray.
11th SATURDAY
Ephesians 3:14-15
1. 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name
2. Our God is a God of relationship. There is relationship within the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God created man because He desired relationship. He created man to be a relational being. Family is God’s idea.
Family relationships can come under strain in times of economic difficulty. Pray for any families you know who are struggling or where there may have been family breakdown. Ask God to heal and restore broken relationships.
12th SUNDAY
Ephesians 3:16
1. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.
2. Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon us and we would be his witnesses even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The inner strength that his presence brings enables us to reveal Jesus to the world.
Pray for every believer in your area that they would be impassioned with a desire to share Jesus and that they would be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to do it.
13th MONDAY
Ephesians 3:17
1. . . . so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
2. What a privilege it is to be a dwelling place for God himself. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come to be with us for ever, and, if we loved him and kept his word, that he and his Father would come and make their dwelling with us (John 14:16, 23).
Do we live in the light of that amazing truth? Pray for God’s people that they will grasp this truth by faith and walk in the light of it.
14th TUESDAY
Ephesians 3:17
1. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love . . .
2. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus that has brought us out of darkness into God’s kingdom of light. It’s his love that makes us firmly rooted and grounded in the kingdom of God.
Take time to read 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4 to 8. Substitute “God” for the word “love” (This is legitimate since we are told in 1 John 4 that “God is love”). This is God’s love for you. Thank him for loving you the way he does. Spend some time just worshipping him.
15th WEDNESDAY
Ephesians 3:17-19
1. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
2. God’s love, so the passage tells us, is beyond knowing. Paul prays, though, that the Ephesians may grasp or comprehend the vastness of this love. We can only do this through a revelation in our heart. Ask the Lord to increase the revelation of his love to your heart. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ that they, too, may know this love in their hearts.
16th THURSDAY
Ephesians 3:17, 19
1. And I pray . . . that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
2. Imagine a church where every believer is filled to the measure with all the fullness of God. Leaking the kingdom wherever they went. Drawing countless people to the Father. Changing atmospheres – dramatically changing our world.
Pray for your church and other Christians you know. Pray that they may be filled with all the fullness of God. No half-measures.
17th FRIDAY
Ephesians 3:20
1. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . .
2. How often do we limit our expectations of God because we look at our own inability to fulfil the things he would ask of us. Yet he is able to do amazing things through his power at work in us. Read the words of Jesus recorded in Mark 16:15-18. He is prophesying the things that will come to pass in the New Testament church. Ask the Lord to give you a revelation of how these things can be fulfilled in your journey of faith according to the power that is in you.
18th SATURDAY
Ephesians 3:20-21
1. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
2. Paul loved to write doxologies in his letters. That’s because his heart was to see God glorified, especially in the church. We were created for God’s glory and he even shares that glory with his covenant people (Isaiah 60:1-3).
When our hearts are for God’s glory then the church gets its focus in the right place. Think of the congregations of believers in your area. Pray for each one that the Lord will give them a passion to see him glorified in their church. Pray the same for yourself too.
Third Passage – 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4
19th SUNDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:3
1. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so . . .
2. We’re back to thankfulness again (see February 1st). I don’t think Paul made thanks a part of his prayer as a matter of rote. I think he genuinely had revelation of the Father’s heart towards the believers he was praying for. I think that he had a revelation of God’s great love for them, despite their faults, and of how God saw, prophetically, his plans for them fulfilled (the God who calls into being that which doesn’t [yet] exist – Romans 4:17). Paul couldn’t help but give thanks for them because he was sharing the Father’s heart.
Think about Christians you know. Ask the Lord to reveal to you his heart towards them. Allow thankfulness to well up in you and release it in prayer.
20th MONDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:3
1. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more . . .
2. Paul must have recognised that the faith of the Thessalonians was growing because of the reports he heard about them. We hear of good things happening in the church all over the place. It can make us jealous – why aren’t these things happening here Lord?
We need to rejoice when any of God’s people bring about good things through faith. As we give thanks for the faith of others then he will build faith in us (sowing and reaping). What good things have you been hearing about the church in your area? Thank the Lord for them and pray that the Lord will increase the faith of those Christians even more and do amazing things among them.
21st TUESDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:3
1. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because . . . the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
2. Don’t you love it when you encounter Christians who really show that they love each other? When they live out 1 Corinthians 13 in their fellowship? Think of your own fellowship. Give thanks for the love that is demonstrated among you. Declare that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that love is increasing and will continue to increase.
22nd WEDNESDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:4
1. Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
2. We thank God for the freedoms we enjoy as Christians in this nation. We thank God that real persecution is rare. Our brothers and sisters in some other parts of the world do not share this freedom. For some, perseverance in the faith can lead to martyrdom.
Think of brothers and sisters where persecution can happen (for example, Jezreel India). Thank God for the perseverance they show in the face of opposition. Pray for God to protect and strengthen them.
(For information on praying for the persecuted church go to http://www.barnabasfund.org/UK/News/Prayer-Focus-Update/ )
Fourth Passage – 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
23rd THURSDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:11
1. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling.
2. God was doing wonderful things through the Thessalonian church as they responded to him with faith and perseverance. Paul recognises the high calling of God on their lives, a calling to do even greater things.
God always has plans for his church. Plans that often seem outrageously ambitious. But can anything be too ambitious for the God with whom nothing is impossible? Pray for your church fellowship. Pray that the church grasps the vision that God has for them and that he will find them worthy of this calling on their lives. Make it a regular prayer that your church completely enters into God’s vision for its ministry..
24th FRIDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:11
1. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that . . . by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours.
2. We all have “good purposes.” The Lord often plants them as ideas in our heads, ideas that germinate through the working of the Holy Spirit into strategies and plans. Then they have to be implemented – but, ‘not by might, or by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.’
Pray for the church in your area, including your own. Pray that the leadership will be guided by the Holy Spirit and that every plan will be God’s plan and done in God’s way.
25th SATURDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:11
1. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that . . . by his power he may fulfil . . . every act prompted by your faith.
2. God loves faith. Without it, it is impossible to please him (Hebrews 11:6). And faith equals risk.
Thank God for brothers and sisters who are willing to step out in faith, even if at times they seem crazy. Pray that God will honour every such step of faith and release his kingdom power through it. Ask the Lord how you can step out in faith too.
26th SUNDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:12
1. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.
2. Another call for glory to God through the church (see February 18th). As we enter fully into the ministry God calls us to in partnership with him, Paul prays that we might be glorified in Jesus Christ as well as he being glorified in us. That’s some prayer. Pray it for your church. Pray it for every congregation you know in the locality. In Jesus’ mighty name!
27th MONDAY
2 Thessalonians 1:12
1. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. You and I are praying these prayers today through the grace of our God. Ephesians 2:8 says that it is by grace we are saved. The Message Bible puts it like this: Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish!
Spend some time thanking God for his salvation. Thank him for his grace, his unmerited favour. Thank him that you have a covenant with him through Jesus Christ and that you are under his favour.
Fifth Passage – Romans 16:25-27
28th TUESDAY
Romans 16:25-26
1. 25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—
2. In a world of uncertainty, our nation needs a church that is firmly established on the truth of the word of God like the house built on rock in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 7:24-27).
Pray for the churches in your area. Pray that the word of God be held in honour and preached from every pulpit. Pray that the message of the gospel would be proclaimed clearly. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open the hearts of people to hear the truth of the gospel.
29th WEDNESDAY
Romans 16:25, 27
1. 25 Now to him . . . 27 to the only wise God be glory for ever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
2. It’s all for Jesus. Another doxology of Paul’s, glorifying God. Look again at February 18th as well as these verses. Pray again that the church would have a passion to see God glorified and then ask the Holy Spirit to show you what to pray that God be glorified in your life and in the lives of those in your fellowship.