Prayer For The Church

PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH

When Christ followers join together and demonstrate the love of God to the world by sharing the gospel, serving the poor, seeking justice and peace, and making disciples, this body (the church) is an unstoppable force for good in the world. The church can, however, get caught up in the things of the world: the divisiveness, insults, cynicism, and fear that mark our culture today. The church can grow insular and unwelcoming instead of being a light in the darkness. As Jesus neared his death, he prayed these words for the church:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

John 17:20-26, NIV

• Spend a few minutes now praying for the church—the worldwide body of Christ. Join in Jesus’ prayer that the church would be united and hold to its mission to proclaim and demonstrate God’s love.
• What are the things creating division in the church? Pray for the reconciliation and resolution of those things. Pray that the church would be a light to the lost and the searching—a place that welcomes and invites people to come to know Jesus.
• Now pray for your particular church. What needs exist? What could use strengthening? Pray that God would open your eyes to the role you are to play in your church and provide you with a next step for contributing.

May your Kingdom come, may your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.