I just received and opened an email from my friend Kathryn in London. Kathryn is a member of the most wonderful church, Holy Trinity Brompton, and the women of HTB are once again beginning the year with a 40 day fast to pray for the men! When I met Kathryn in June of 2011, she told me that there were noticeably few marriages in their large church among people in their 30s and 40s, so the women decided to start praying for the men.
This year lets make it a global community of prayer, to bless and encourage men all over the world who are called to marriage - with us!
WE START TOMORROW!!!! I am sorry for the late notice, but I think it is important that we are all praying the same things each day. Please let me know if you are participating, and I will send you the 40 days prayer points document. Barbarasn@gmail.com January 13th is the "night of indulgence" and the day we begin praying.
The email from Kathryn:
Hi Barbara,
Happy New Year! Hope you are well and rested after the festive season.
I thought I would let you know that we are kicking off our 40 day fast tomorrow night - basically we invite everyone along to bring whatever it is they are going to fast (think of a large group of ladies with a lot of chocolate and wine - we take this seriously!) to have a final night of indulgence, bit of vision stuff (we are praying to build up the men in our church community, for them to have courage and conviction, and for Godly marriages) and testimonies, then pray. We also have a mid-fast gathering (obviously no wine and chocolate...) and then an end of fast gathering - usually at a pub - to celebrate together.
Attached are the documents we use... Just in case this is something any of your group might be interested in joining in. Would be fun to create a global community of people doing the same sort of thing!
Lots of love,
K xx
And the first document:
FAST
Choose one thing to fast from for the 40 days (i.e.: coffee, drinking, chocolate)
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning.”….Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love…Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing….Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. (Joel 2)
Fast from saying any negative things about any Christian man we know (or any Christian man we don’t know)
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving on another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4: 29-32)
2 Chronicles 14: “If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”
CHOOSE TEN MEN TO PRAY FOR
The idea here is that we are just aiming to bless. As we look at the calling of the 72 we learn some important points about blessing
- Jesus calls his followers to bless those they came in contact with
- Their blessing didn’t always “work” so to speak but they should expect that and not allow that to discourage them
- God has given His believers authority and power to bless
- In the end both Jesus and His followers were over-joyed with the blessing mission
- Our ability to be instruments of blessing, amazing though it is, isn’t as awesome as the redemption we have in Christ (its just bonus!)
Luke 10 (selected)
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. "When you enter a town…heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." He replied, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
SUPPLICATION
We are just going to ask, with thanksgiving, daily, just because we can.
We are going to ask for ourselves, if you would like to be married
We are going to ask for God to pour out kingdom marriages on the church
We are going to ask for massive revival of the men of London (and your city!)
We are going to ask for God to stir men’s hearts all over the world -- for a closing of the gender gap in Christiandom, but beyond that men who currently don’t consider themselves Christians come to know Christ, rise up and be instrumental in revival. Globally. If you see what I mean.
"The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:5-6
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there." 2 Chronicles 7
No comments:
Post a Comment