Prayer for December 2010

This term we've been firming up our foundations of the the kind of community we want Encounter to be: We've been going "Back to our roots", looking at Acts chapter 2 - the account of the earliest believers who - through the saving work of Jesus and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit became the New Community of God's People".
They based their life on
- Looking to Scripture, as God's word to his people, for instruction, guidance and inspiration
- Turning to Prayer, tuning into God's presence and purpose for his people and his world
- Giving God thanks in our Worship, as our response to the death and resurrection of Jesus
- Building the community life of the church - as a body of people learning to love as God loves us

As a result, the fruits of their life together was
- Demonstrating the love of Jesus through their generosity and compassion for people in any kind of need
- Demonstrating the power of Jesus as God revealed his ability to heal and work beyond our wildest imagination to bring the world in line with his plan and purpose.

It was an amazing era for the church - their life together was so appealing that people were turning to follow Jesus and joining this new community .... every day. I long for the church across our land - and especially in Marlow - to also be so appealing that people in Marlow flock to become part of our churches !!

So this is my prayer

Heavenly Father
We thank you that you have drawn us together as a community of your people
    We pray that you guide us and direct us as we seek your voice amongst us.
We thank you for the gift of the Bible to teach us and train us as your people
    We pray that, as we seek to get more out of your word, we might be true to your calling
We thank you that Jesus died to bring us new life,
    We pray that our lives will reflect our desire to worship you in Spirit and in Truth
We thank you that your Holy Spirit enables us to love as Jesus loves us
     We pray that our love for one another will be an appealing example to others

And as we align ourselves to your will and purpose
we pray that you will make our witness fruitful
as our life together overflows in sharing the love and power of Jesus
in our neighbourhoods and networks
and that you grow your church as a witness to your work
and a sign of your rule in the world
Amen

Intro - what is this?

Hi all
This is a first attempt to encourage the members of Encounter and the Marlow Anglican Team to
"Pray with understanding" - gathering our prayers together on specific topics.

We hope that we can use this on two levels
Level 1 - You can use this just to see what prayer topics are on the minds of the writers (well, me [ Paul H ] at the moment)
Level 2 - You can post your own prayer topic as a comment to the current month. Please be aware that the topics are open to the world, so if there's something confidential, or you want to keep names of people to yourself, just use general terms (eg Please pray for my friend who's just been made redundant / been diagnosed with man-flu)

As well as using it to ask God to do stuff, Philipians 4 tells us "Tell God your needs and don't forget to thank God for his answers", so please post your rejoicing at answered prayer in "Thank you" prayer comments

We'll review how this goes over the next few months