Doctrine: Prayer

Our doctrine this week is prayer...

In our scripture this week we see Jehoshaphat facing an overwhelming battle and His response was to seek the Lord- to pray...

As I look around these leadership circle- I know there has been an overwhelming heaviness-

Every single one of you is in a battle.

A battle for your time. A battle for your devotion. A battle for your love.

For some of you the battles you are facing may feel manageable.

For others- you may being feeling like Jehoshaphat- the battle is surrounding you- and you do not know what to do…and you are wondering if you are going to be consumed.

Satan is longing for us to try to fight the battles we face on our own. To turn to anything or anyone other than God.

He is using anything and everything to try to get us to take our eyes off of God.

He wants you to feel discouraged- like you are alone in the battles you face.

He wants you to feel overwhelmed and question what God has called you to.

He wants you to throw your hands up- to give in to the temptation to sin

So when the battles comes- we know that the battle is not fought through striving- running to the things of this world to solve our problems...

…the battle is fought on our knees. through prayer. to our sovereign and faithful God who already has the victory over every battle we are facing.

When we pray- we pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, who prays with us, in us, and for us.

When we speak to God in prayer, He listens, understands, and acts on our behalf.

Prayer is more than presenting our list of requests to God. Through prayer, we praise and thank God, confess our sins, proclaim His promises, and present our needs.

As we pray, we align our hearts to God’s heart. We do not pray to conform God’s will to our own, but to surrender to Him in faith and loving obedience. So today…I’m going to stop talking…and we are going to pray.

But we are going to pray a little differently today..1st. I want you to get into groups of 2 and share a battle you are facing right now. Big or small..doesn’t matter.

In about 1-2 minutes, I am going to open us in prayer and I want you at that time to pray together for each other.

From there we will pray in a big group..but today we are going to pray through parts of Jehoshaphat’s prayer together....

- We will start with Adoration...

then we are going to move into a time of thanksgiving- but specifically a time to thank God for his faithfulness to us...

then we will end with supplication as always..

In our leader’s circle we have the blessing and opportunity to take each’s others battles to the Lord- we fight our battles together…because we are united under the mighty name of Jesus...

So share your current battle with a sister sitting next to you- and then- together, in just a few minutes- we will fight on our knees through prayer.