Your Prayer Guide for the Week of Sunday, January 25

​Welcome to the WeekThe fourth week of a new year is neither the breathless start nor the weary middle, it’s the place where resolve begins to meet reality. This week, let prayer be less about striving and more about communion. Come to the One who already knows your struggles and your faith, your strength and your weariness. Here, in the greatest depths, you will find that the most honest prayer is not eloquent speech about God, but simple conversation with him.

At the profoundest depths in life, men talk not about God but with him. (D. Elton Trueblood)

This Week’s Scripture

• Lamentations 1:1-6
• Psalm 137
• 2 Timothy 1:1-14
• Luke 17:5-10

Adoration

Luke 17:5-6

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty (verse 1)

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Take time now to offer God your praise and worship.

Confession

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. (2 Timothy 1:8-12)

As David did in Psalm 139, ask the Lord to search you and know you through and through. Confess the sins God brings to mind, knowing you are forgiven and that He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Thanksgiving

Accept, O Lord God, our Father, the sacrifices of our thanksgiving; this, of praise, for Thy greater mercies already afforded to us; and this, of prayer, for the continuance and enlargement of them; this, of penitence, for such only recompense as our sinful nature can endeavor; and this, of the love of our hearts, as the only gift Thou dos ask or desire; and all these, through the all-holy and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ Thy Son our Savior. (John Donne)

Spend some time reflecting on the prayer of thanksgiving above and then thank God for who he is and the many ways he has poured out his goodness and grace in your life.

Prayer Prompts

Use the following prayer prompts to encourage you to pray beyond your usual prayer requests. These prompts are included here to help get your own creative juices flowing and not to be regarded as strict and legalistic requirements. Use them or do not use them according to your need. May the Lord bless you as you go deeper with him in the holy communion of prayer.

Petition – prayers for yourself

• Spiritual Warfare
• Growth in Christlikeness
• Increasing faithfulness in the spiritual disciplines
• My health
• For my ordinary appointments and activities to become divine appointments and activities.
• Other needs

Intercession – prayers for others

• My Family
• Mercy for those who are poor and hungry
• Justice for those who are oppressed and persecuted
• Love for those who oppress and persecute others
• Peace for those in the midst of war, crime, and violence
• Other needs

Almighty God, give us grace, that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, (in which thy son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility;) that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy ghost now and ever. Amen. (Thomas Cranmer)

A Word as You Go

The prayers you offer this week have been heard, not by a distant judge tallying your performance, but by the faithful One who guards what you’ve entrusted to him. As you return to the rhythms of your days, remember that faith the size of a mustard seed is enough. You don’t need more eloquence or more certainty; you need only to keep talking with him. He meets you in the ordinary, transforms your appointments into his purposes, and walks with you through whatever lies ahead. Go in his grace.