Every Day Faith – Praying for Single Minded Focus on Christ’s Mission in January

Tuesday January 3, 2017, 13:47 PM

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Here’s how we’re praying in January. You can contact our order desk at 905-542-7400 ext. 3223 or via email at orderdesk@paoc.org to get copies for your ministry context (just shipping charges apply). We also continue to encourage regular visits to www.everydayfaith.ca for encouragement in the disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, generosity and sharing our faith in word and deed.

Thanks for your continued engagement with Every Day Faith.

January 2017 (Spiritual Vitality)

For single-minded focus on Christ’s mission

That we will prioritize our time and energy around eternal purposes.
That we will recognize and respond to God’s invitations for intimate relationship through prayer.
That we will hear and understand our part in God’s plan for our families, communities, nation and the world.
For courage to be consistently obedient to God’s leading.
That we will grow in our love for and understanding of His Word.
That the transformational presence of God will be in all of our churches and families.

PASSAGES TO PONDER:

Matthew 22:34-40
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 25:31-40
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ ”

Isaiah 30:19-22
People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

Isaiah 65:1-2
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
    I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
    I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
All day long I have held out my hands
    to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
    pursuing their own imaginations…”

Next month's prayer focus: For a strengthened sense of unity and community (http://everydayfaith.ca/?page_id=1487).