{"id":447,"date":"2016-08-08T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=447"},"modified":"2016-08-07T19:31:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T01:31:40","slug":"prayer-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=447","title":{"rendered":"Prayer – Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Today marks the beginning of a 10 day journey we are going on as a church. Every year in August, we challenge each other to spend 10 days seeking the Lord in prayer. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seek the Lord in prayer for the rest of the 355 days out of the year. This is simply a way to get all of us as a church focused on and praying for the exact same things.<\/p>\n

Being on this journey with you, I want to encourage you with four things.<\/p>\n

One, set aside time each day specifically for prayer. The Bible tells us to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pray without ceasing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1 Thessalonians 5:17), which means to always be in a state of prayer. I have also learned over the years that if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t carve out that time for prayer, my prayers will be more reactionary, rather than intentional and specific. Carve out time every day to spend time in prayer. If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the morning, the evening or every hour on the hour.<\/p>\n

Two, write down a few things that you are asking God to do specifically in your life or the life of your family.\u00c2\u00a0 Write down these prayers so you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget them and during your prayer time each day, pray specifically for these things, as well as the items we are praying for as a church, which I will post on my blog. \u00c2\u00a0Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see how God shows up in our specific and intentional prayers during this time.<\/p>\n

Three, share what God does in your life during this time. \u00c2\u00a0Be willing to share with someone, with social media and with the church what God is doing in and through this time of prayer. How is God changing you? What is God saying to you specifically? How has God showed up in your life during these 10 days? Sharing what God is doing in you, will encourage others to pursue Him in their lives.<\/p>\n

Four, allow yourself to pursue God through not just prayer, but through reading His Word. When we supplement one with the other, powerful things can happen. If you haven’t already, sign up for the\u00c2\u00a0Front Range Reading Plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited to be on this journey with you. Let it begin.<\/p>\n

Prayer Focus – Day One: Teachers and Administrators<\/strong><\/p>\n

As classes being in many schools this week, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s be praying for our administrators and teachers. God has given them a great calling to influence and impact the next generation. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray God would guide them and direct them over the next school year. In addition, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for grace and peace as they work hard and invest their lives into new families. To all the teachers and faculty members in our church, THANK YOU!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the beginning of a 10 day journey we are going on as a church. Every year in August, we challenge each other to spend 10 days seeking the Lord in prayer. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seek the Lord in prayer for the rest of the 355 days out of the year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}