Week of Prayer

‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV)

As the excess and expectations of the Christmas season in the world overwhelm me in December, there is always a quiet yearning in my spirit for the week that right now lies before us. Not because I have New Year's resolutions; I learned long ago I will not keep them. No, it's because of 17 years of the Week of Prayer at my church.

We "tithe" the first week of the year to the Lord by fasting and gathering each night to pray for an hour as a church family. We usually have a banner verse or theme that frames the week: this year it is Jeremiah 33:3, above. We start out the first night humbling ourselves in corporate repentance, asking for His fresh forgiveness and a new start. The rest of the nights are focused on things like church needs, personal needs, healing for our sick, and praying over our leadership. One of the nights we come to the front of the church with our families for special prayer over them. And we never fail to pray for Israel.

We also, together as a church, start fresh in our Bibles reading in the book of Matthew. We are a Bible-reading, Bible-believing church, and our pastor exhorts us to read an hour a day, every day...more on that in tomorrow's blog!

This is the sweetest week of my year, and I know most of my MVCF friends would agree. There is something cleansing physically (as we fast together), emotionally (as we laugh and cry together), mentally (as we read our Bibles together) and spiritually (as we pray together) about this week that not only brings personal but also corporate renewal as we begin another year together.

Are you an MVCF-er? Then I will see you there. Not an MVCF-er? Then I invite you to come join us. If you aren't local, you can join us by reading in your Bible, starting in Matthew, an hour a day...praying daily...perhaps even fasting. Call to God! He will answer you, and show you great and mighty things you do not know.