Saturday, January 28, 2012

January 28, 2012 - Prayer Focus

Prayer Focus for January 28-February 3, 2012

Southwest Quadrant
Houghton Elementary
Peace Lutheran Church
Fellowship Baptist Church

Sometimes our prayers need to involve more than just our words.  As we commit to living righteous lives that will please the Lord our lives become a prayer that touches the heart of God.  Not that we can do anything in our own strength, for we desperately need His Spirit within us and His mercy upon us. But when our hearts are full of a desire to please Him, our actions will follow.

Isaiah 59:14-19  tells us what happens when justice and judgement in a society becomes turned around backwards.  When Truth falls.  When public opinion strays from righteousness then those who desire to live a righteous life become a target.  We see this happening more and more today and we need to pray that God's people take a stand for truth and righteousness anyway, without fear.  This is not a time for God's people to become complacent or lukewarm.  It's not a time for us to allow our children to be indoctrinated with lies. It's time to draw close to the Lord and bring our children and families with us.  It's time to wage war against the unrighteousness in our society by living holy lives, separated for God, and not giving in to the pressures of unrighteousness.  When we do, and the enemy comes in like a flood against us, then the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him!  Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our fear of the Lord, God does this for us!

Pray that God's people turn to the Lord more than ever before, drawing the strength, love, peace and joy needed to uphold truth and righteousness in our everyday lives.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

January 21, 2012 - Prayer Focus

This week's prayer focus:

The Southwest Quadrant of the Township
Oakland Community College
Hope Community Church
Four Towns United Methodist Church

Pray for the churches in this quadrant.  That they have fresh vision and direction from the Lord.  For the members to experience deliverance from whatever might have them bound. 

Pray for the families, that people prioritize and make choices that put God and His ways first in their lives.  That people stop the busyiness and routines that have become meaningless.  That they take time to re-evaluate, re-prioritize and examine what they are doing so their lives become more meaningful.
For people to have quality times of rest which will bring the strength they need.  That the families experience financial recovery and their jobs make use of their God given talents and gifts.  That adjustments are made so they are fulfilling their calling and destiny.

Pray for the businesses in the region.  That they become healthy businesses that bring blessing to the community.

Pray for the Presidential election.  That it becomes clear who should be the next president.  That God's anointing rest on this person and that it becomes obvious who he is.  That people see that and vote for him.

Pray for the government from the Federal government down to the Township government. And the schools--children, staff and school board members.  That's God's principles are in effect. 

Pray for the State Educational authorities, that they are more concerned with being both historically and biblically correct in their resolutions then with being "politically" correct.

Have a great week!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

January 14, 2012 - Prayer Focus

This week's prayer focus:
The Southeast Quadrant of the Township
Sandburg Elementary
Ascension Lutheran Church
Oakbrooke Church

Pray that people be free from all the things that would blind their minds.  Things like deceptions and complacency for all residents, families, groups, businesses, schools and churches. 
That we all take steps closer to the Lord--His truth, righteousness and holiness. 

That we displace the false influences that are out there with Truth as we live our lives.
We fight the good fight of faith as we choose the ways of God in our own lives over the false and deceptive influences that are out there.  This is how we wrestle against principalities and powers like the Bible says. 

Let God hear His people cry out to Him that we need Him and that we want His wisdom and truth to be revealed to us!
Let us return to our first love and not be lukewarm, but passionate in our hearts towards Him.

Pray that every governmental position in the Township, County, State and Country be filled with truth, holiness and righteousness and that each position is filled by those anointed by God to do that job.

That God raise up and reveal who is the best person to be the next President of the United States and that He prepare and equip that person now with all he needs to do the job.  That the office of President itself come with a blessing of wisdom, truth, holiness and righteousness from God for whoever is in that position.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Ephesians 6:12-13

Saturday, January 7, 2012

January 7, 2012 - Prayer Focus

As soon as I started praying for Waterford today I felt a very strong sense of God's peace which lasted the whole time I prayed.  I thank God for His love, mercy and grace towards all of Waterford.
Pray for the Christians to draw closer to Him and to be the salt and light that Jesus says to be.  That we don't compromise just to be "politically correct." Pray that the peace, love and presence of Christ shine from God's people. 

Pray that all the residents receive His peace, quietness, calmness and stillness and move away from the hustle and bustle of the Holidays.  Rest brings strength and as we enter into His rest we have the strength we need to live as we need to.

Pray that the kids and teachers in the schools experience this same peace and calmness.  That they take the time to slow down and listen and get priorities in order.  That they all see that what's in a person's heart is more important than what's in their head.

That the Federal, State, County and Township governmental people also experience this peace.  That they see the big picture and get priorities in order. 

That we all "Selah" which means to "pause and think calmly" about whatever it is that God wants to get through to us.

School Focus this week: Donelson Hills Elementary
Church Focus: Life Tabernacle and St. Benedicts

Sunday, January 1, 2012

January 1, 2012

Kids are so close to the heart of God. As we pray for Waterford, Oakland County, Michigan, the United States and the world this year we need to include children and families in our prayers.
As parents, teachers and mentors there are two things we can teach our kids:
  • To know right from wrong.
  • How to choose right over wrong.
And then there is a third thing each person can only do for himself:
  • To want to do right.
To teach our kids to know right from wrong we need to know what the true standard of right and wrong is. Doing what is "right" is called "righteousness." Righteousness is either spelled out clearly and without compromise in the Bible or it is heartfelt where God leads each person by his own convictions. (Romans 14).Examples of clear-cut "wrong" from the Bible would be selfishness, greed and sexual sins to name a few. Homosexual behavior is one example of sexual sin. We don’t want our children to be lulled into thinking that homosexual behavior is normal or right. The Bible clearly says that it’s wrong. (Romans 1). What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of how much God thinks it is wrong. (Genesis 19). When a child has thoughts or feelings that could be considered "homosexual" then we shouldn’t encourage that any more then we would accept or encourage thoughts or feelings of selfishness or greed. Kids need to clearly know it’s wrong.

There may be some things that the Bible is not clear-cut about. For example, who a person should marry, where they should live or what career they should choose. The Bible doesn’t give a right or wrong for these things and each person needs to find God’s direction for themselves in these areas.

To teach our children to choose right over wrong, a child needs to learn not to follow every thought, feeling or whim that he has. Everyone will have unrighteous thoughts from time to time. Just because you have a thought or feeling doesn’t mean it’s right and you need to follow it. If your kids are playing cops and robbers do you encourage the one playing the robber to follow those feelings and become an armed thief? I hope not! If your child doesn’t feel like eating a healthy dinner but wants to eat chips and chocolate all day do you let him "explore" that behavior for a while? He will end up obese! If your child decides he doesn’t want to say please and thank you is that O.K. with you? The point is, we train our children to not only know what is right and wrong, but to choose right over wrong. Kids must learn to reject thoughts and feelings that are not healthy for them and that are not righteous. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Ultimately, a person, child or otherwise, must want what’s right. He must hunger and thirst for righteousness himself. He can receive some of this hunger from a parent or mentor’s example and most definitely our prayers for him will open doors and remove obstacles for him to draw closer to God. But he needs a touch, a drawing, a relationship with God himself in order to have the passion for God’s ways that will be necessary to keep him from all the distractions in life that would lead him away from what’s right. When a person sees the goodness of God and falls in love with Him, he will want to live a life that pleases God and will see for himself that God’s ways are the best. (Matthew 5:6, John 6:44, John 7:37, Romans 2:4, 1 John 4:19).

Please don’t forget children, parents, teachers and families during your prayers for this year. We need strong families! The Lord said about Abraham: "For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." (Genesis 18:19).