Prayer was difficult for me for the longest time. I knew I needed to pray more and to pray better but I struggled with the practice. I knew I needed to give thanks to God and praise him, but those parts of prayer seemed to be token offerings as I quickly devolved into praying over my lists. I grew weary of list-based praying because it went it against my understandings of God. I knew that God was not the "cosmic Santa Claus," looking to grant my wish list, and I struggled to connect with him.
You can read more about my journey in prayer here.
Eventually, through the ministry of Strategic Renewal and the 6:4 Fellowship, I learned a method of prayer referred to as scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based prayer. We begin with the Bible, letting a passage of the Bible inform what we pray for. We are led by the Spirit of God to pray spontaneously for whatever He brings to mind. We worship God by seeking his face first, before we seek his favour. This form of prayer, as taught by the above organizations, follow a fourfold pattern of Reverence, Response, Requests, Readiness.
Here is an example of me leading this form of prayer with some other pastors from the 6:4 Fellowship.
You can read more about my journey in prayer here.
Eventually, through the ministry of Strategic Renewal and the 6:4 Fellowship, I learned a method of prayer referred to as scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based prayer. We begin with the Bible, letting a passage of the Bible inform what we pray for. We are led by the Spirit of God to pray spontaneously for whatever He brings to mind. We worship God by seeking his face first, before we seek his favour. This form of prayer, as taught by the above organizations, follow a fourfold pattern of Reverence, Response, Requests, Readiness.
Here is an example of me leading this form of prayer with some other pastors from the 6:4 Fellowship.
I've modified and simplified this format for my Learning Circles. Now, we teach and pray the "3 Ps": Praise, Petition and Power.
I encourage our Learning Circle participants to pray like this daily. We currently participate in morning and evening prayer together on weekdays. Our morning prayer times are closed to our group but we post our evening prayer reflections at our Love First Movement YouTube channel. I encourage you to subscribe to our channel and pray with us on weekday evenings.
I also publish our weekly prayer guides. You can welcome to use these guides to help you or your group pray.
- Praise: How have the praiseworthy characteristics and attributes mentioned in this passage intersected with your life? Give praise and thanksgiving to God for those.
- Petition: How does this passage lead you to petition God for yourself and others?
- Power: What aspect of God's power needs to be seen in your life, the lives of others, or in the world? Appeal to God to respond with his power.
I encourage our Learning Circle participants to pray like this daily. We currently participate in morning and evening prayer together on weekdays. Our morning prayer times are closed to our group but we post our evening prayer reflections at our Love First Movement YouTube channel. I encourage you to subscribe to our channel and pray with us on weekday evenings.
I also publish our weekly prayer guides. You can welcome to use these guides to help you or your group pray.
I would love to talk to you more about prayer leadership, or to lead a prayer gathering for your group or church. Contact me to talk further about this.