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Family Prayer-groups
“Where two or three are gathered in
my name…”
Family Prayer-group Journal
Suggested theme for your family prayer-group: unity and health in our family and its
members, spiritually, and physically, as well as for the Church.
“Jesus’ promise to you”
Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say to you that if two of you agree
on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my
Father in heaven. For where two or
three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Notice: Due to the highly personal and
sensitive nature of the information contained within any family prayer-journal
you may keep, remember it is a personal family journal, not to be seen or passed around to anyone
outside of your family. If you’re
keeping a journal on your computer, this example below might be a way to keep
things straight. Whatever works
best for you and your family. A
blank journaling notebook can be bought in most stationary or Bible book stores
as well, and you can devise your own system for recording and keeping track of
answered prayers. Dating the
prayer requests is essential, and also dating the answers received helps to
keep a time-line flow of events between prayer requests and answers
received. In using physical
notebooks for journaling, always leave sufficient space below each prayer
request you pray and record, to have room to record the answer to that specific
prayer request when God answers it. You will begin to see God work, answering the prayers your family prays
together, and this will help build the faith within each family member in your
family prayer-group, as well as building solid prayer habits within your
children. You will be teaching
them the essentials of prayer which will follow them for the rest of their
lives. Below is an example of how
our house-church is journaling within our focused prayer-group, which you may
find useful.
Legend:
Bold
black print: Prayer Requests
(numbered sequentially and dated)
Bold green print, and dated: The answer to that Prayer Request
(ongoing, prayer is in process of being answered)
Bold Dark red-brown print: Answered Prayer Requests (prayer
request answer is completed, fulfilled)
“God fights for us when we pray”
2nd Corinthians 10:3-6, “For though we walk in the
flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your
obedience is fulfilled.”
Generally, you keep praying
for a prayer-request until it is answered by God. Explain to your children that it is important to try to pray
for things you know are within God’s will. Example, say one of your children wants to pray for a
full-size aircraft that he or she can fly (and your children are young), that
may not be immediately within the scope of God’s will (but don’t laugh, it may
be later on in their life, and serve a good purpose). But be careful not to stifle your children’s requests or
faith in God. Most of the time you will find that their childlike faith is far
greater than yours, and can move mountains, whereas ours can’t seem to move
ant-hills. Thus your children are
the most important part of your family prayer-group. Also by doing this, you will be instilling within them the
powerful habit of prayer and showing them how to pray by your very example in
front of them. Below are a few
suggested prayer requests, but this is not hard and fast. Let your children pray about whatever
they want to pray for, as well as guiding them to pray for real needs within
your family, and also your local church congregation.
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Suggested prayer requests
1.
Healing or solving of any spiritually or doctrinally divisive issues within the
family, be they caused by an individual or a belief that’s taken hold that does
not belong.
2.
Healing or solving of any bad or dangerous situation with any family member
(whether they’re believers, or not).
3.
Healing of family members from serious and/or life-threatening illnesses and
diseases. Healing of sick people
in our church.
4.
Calling of unconverted mates, and intervention in their lives or the lives of
their friends or co-workers which may contribute to their calling:
5.
Calling of our siblings, real and adoptive, and intervention in their lives or
the lives of their friends and co-workers which may contribute to their
calling.
One
example of how God can work, a working example of that, where dynamic answers
are in progress:
John, my
son’s boss, his wife Deb has inoperable cancer. Chemo seems to be working. Please let it work and drive it into total remission.
Answer
so far: So far, Deb has been through a serious
brain operation that most don’t survive,
and did ok. Just recently the doctors told her “the cancer
markers” were diminishing, which
equates to
the amount of cancer in her body is going way down. She’s been on chemo and radiation treatment
for about two months, and they say most patients
don’t have their “cancer markers” start to go down
for at least 8 months! Originally
their prognosis
was that she was going to die. Now
their prognosis is she’s
going to live. She’s not out of the woods yet, so
please keep healing her. Also, Deb
has just broken her hip due to low
calcium resulting from her
medications. Please intervene and
help her hip mend as fast as
possible.
(my
son and even my daughter-in-law are very aware the prayers of our prayer-group
are being dynamically answered here in the above instance, even though they
both are non-believers.)
6. Finding of jobs for members or their
families members out of work.
7. Father in Heaven, please bless our
church with unity, both spiritual and in understanding of the Bible.
8.
Father in Heaven, please draw into our church any Church members who may be out
there, going it alone, anyone in spiritual need who may be out there within
range of our house-church.
9.
Prayer for the safety of every family member, especially on the road, riding
bikes, or driving in cars.
10.
Father in Heaven, please bless our pastor and inspire him through the Holy
Spirit, as he preaches and teaches us from the Word of God, both during
services and throughout the week. Convict members through his preaching to grow in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ, and convict non-believers to come to Christ through his
preaching from the Word of God.
At
the beginning of each prayer-meeting, be sure to give thanks and praise to God
for answers to prayers which have come in that week.
For
congregational prayer-groups, see:
http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/Prayer-groupGuidelines.htm
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