Day 19, January 19 2019
Prayers for Our Community
FOCUS: to experience God’s presence and power
Psalm 43:3-4:
Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
A testimony of a friend:
I remember the first time I really felt the presence of God. Not those moments of ‘Jesus Chills’ where you know the Spirit is leading you on to something, but the first time there was weight and a person alongside, that Presence when the Holy Spirit wasn’t just prompting, but came down in force. It all happened when I was 17 and had just met up with the person I was dating at the time. We were living in separate towns over the summer, and our relationship wasn’t a good one. We were untrusting, bitter, and often vaguely angry at each other, so most times when we met, it was an opportunity to fight like cats and dogs. However, that day instead of the bitterness and anger I expected, I saw peace in her eyes. I saw a change; I saw someone with depth. We talked for two hours and then parted ways. While I was starting my old maroon Ford Tempo to go home, I muttered a quick but sincere prayer of, “God I don’t know what she has with You, but that’s what I need.” I then started to drive home.
And then it happened. It felt like something descended on my little car, and for the first time I knew peace. I felt so relieved, I laughed to myself and then I cried, realizing all the hurt I had done to others. I then realized that people who were laughing and crying should probably not be driving 60 mph down country roads, so I pulled the car over and prayed about what was happening. I talked to the Holy Spirit as He dwelt in my little Tempo... and life has never been the same.
REFLECT:
• Have you met and encountered the Holy Spirit of God? When and where was that? What led up to that encounter?
• How are you different because of that moment? What has changed in and around you because of that?
• As we begin to draw our time of fasting to a close, where has God shown up?
PRAYER:
God, I pray that Your Spirit comes down in real and powerful ways in my life. Come alongside me today and demonstrate who You are. Show me the power of Your radical love, show me who I am because of what You have done, and show me how that can impact those around me with Your will and love. Come alongside me in my interactions with others, in my conversations with You, and in how I treat my Family and my friends. Be near to me, show me Your presence and Your power, and make me a different person because of how You love me. But more than anything, I pray that You show up in my life. I acknowledge that there is no church, there is no faith without You, and so I pray that You are present and vibrant in all that I think, say, and do.