Week 3 of our January Prayer Month

We are excited to dedicate the month of January as a Month of Prayer at Antioch. This week, we will be focusing on praying for God’s ministries and leaders at Antioch. Join us in our daily prayer focuses, memorization of Ephesians 1:15-17, and on online Prayer Meeting this Wednesday, January 20th at 8:30pm.

If you’d like to join in with our Prayer Team as we dedicate each day to prayer and Scripture reading, we’ve put together a great outline of our focuses for each day this week below:

Sunday, January 17

• Prayer Topic: Relationship with Christ
• Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-17
• Devotional thoughts: Leaders who are faithful and loving are a gift from God. Paul reminds us to give thanks to God for this blessing, and petition for his Holy Spirit, the source of true wisdom.

Monday, January 18

• Prayer Topic: Confidence with Christ
• Scripture: Colossians 1:9
• Devotional thoughts: How can we act boldly, knowing we are acting according to God’s will? According to the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church in Colossi, by being filled with the knowledge of his will. No, knowledge alone is not enough, yet without knowing God’s will, we cannot walk according to God’s will in a way that is pleasing to Him.
• Guided Prayer: Lord, let our leaders grow continually in the knowledge of you, reading your word with wisdom and discerning, so they may rightly teach and apply it. Let them rightly challenge this church to live boldly for Christ, and not be conformed to this world, but transformed.

Tuesday, January 19

• Prayer Topic: Steadfastness
• Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:58
• Devotional thoughts: What does it mean to be steadfast? The word means firmly fixed in place: immovable. So, what does a steadfast person look like? Someone who is reliable, faithful, and true to the end. We need our leaders and ministries to be steadfast in God’s truth in order to continually build up the church no matter how hard or uncomfortable the circumstances.
• Guided Prayer: Lord, let Your love immerse our leaders and ministries in Your truth. Help them stand firm in that truth. That they be steadfast and immovable in Your ways.

Wednesday, January 20

• Prayer Topic: Unity among our leaders
• Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-3
• Devotional thoughts: Here Paul reminds the leaders of the Ephesian church the importance of maintaining peaceful unity. Yet, he calls not for a false unity based on trendy teaching that seeks to accommodate the deceitful scheming of men (Eph. 4:14), but rather, true unity comes from speaking the truth, patiently and lovingly (v2, 15)

Thursday, January 21

• Prayer Topic: Protection
• Scripture: 1 Peter 5:8
• Devotional thoughts:1 Peter 5:8 is a good reminder to us of the spiritual warfare in which we are constantly engaged. Satan does all he can to distract us with the everyday minutia and anxieties of this world. Thus, Peter exhorts us to remain sober and watchful, not distracted but “on mission” every day.

Friday, January 22

• Prayer Topic: Strength & courage for our leaders
• Scripture: Joshua 1:9
• Devotional thoughts: Why do we fear? Because we think about the things that could happen to us. Satan wants our minds on the things of the past or what could happen in the future. But God wants us to be in the present moment. He has commanded us to be strong and courageous. For us to be obedient to God and faithful in every circumstance we must listen to that call to be strong and courageous and remind ourselves that God is always with us. He tells us “Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Therefore, let us be filled with strength; let us be filled with courage.
• Guided Prayer: Lord, help our leaders and ministries be strong and courageous as they lead our church and the surrounding community.

Saturday, January 23

• Prayer Topic: That our leaders clearly see & follow God’s direction
• Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6
• Devotional thoughts: The true simplicity of this advice embodies wisdom. Why would we, mere mortals, think our own wisdom superior to God’s? Yet as sinful men, and heirs of Adam’s original sin, we find ourselves over and over doing just that. Pray for our leaders that they are granted great faith to see God’s wisdom and follow without fear.