Final Prayer Guides from Acts

I’m catching up on posting some of these prayer guides from our church’s Wednesday prayer gathering.  Posted below are the last two guides that we used from the book of Acts.  I went through that book of Scripture and found every passage with an occurrence of prayer, and used those passages to guide our own prayers.  There ended up being 17 weeks of those guides.  Here are weeks 16 and 17.  I hope they are helpful to you!  They could be used in an individual or group prayer time.

Prayer in Acts, Part 16 – Prayer Meeting 05112016

Prayer in Acts, Part 17 – Prayer Meeting 05182016

 

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Paul, Gospel, Evangelism, Love, Faith, Sovereignty, Miracles, Hospitality, Encouragement

Prayer in the Book of Acts, Part 15

Here is our fifteenth prayer guide from the book of Acts.  We have been studying every instance of prayer in the book in order to guide our own Wednesday church prayer meeting.  Tonight’s passage is Acts 22:1-20, where Paul has just been arrested in the Temple at Jerusalem and shares his testimony of turning from persecutor to apostle.  It’s a powerful example of using common ground (in this case, his Jewish background and religious zeal) to connect with the audience; the extremely hostile crowd hushes and listens closely – at least until Paul mentions his ministry to the Gentiles.

There is a particularly interesting prayer exchange between Paul and the Lord in verses 17-21.  It shows again that prayer should be conversational – talking and listening.

This prayer guide could be used by an individual or group.  May the Lord bless you as you pray!

Prayer in Acts, Part 15 – Prayer Meeting 05042016

 

Tags: Acts, Acts 22, Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Paul, Persecution, Stephen, Evangelism, Witnessing, Common Ground

Prayer in the Book of Acts, Part 14

Posted below is our fourteenth prayer guide from the book of Acts.  We have been studying every instance of prayer in the book in order to guide our own Wednesday church prayer meeting.  Tonight’s passage is from Acts 21, where Paul meets with believers from Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea on his way to Jerusalem.

This prayer guide could be used by an individual or group.  May the Lord bless you as you pray!

 

Prayer in Acts, Part 14 – Prayer Meeting 04272016

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 21, Paul, Church, Faith, Obedience

Prayer in the Book of Acts, Part 13

Here is our thirteenth prayer guide from the book of Acts, using every instance of prayer in the book to guide our own Wednesday church prayer meeting.  Tonight’s passage is from Acts 20, where Paul meets with the Ephesian church elders for the last time, exhorts them, and prays with them.  It’s a beautiful, transparent, emotional passage.

This prayer guide could be used by an individual or group.  May the Lord bless you as you pray His Word back to Him.

Prayer in Acts, Part 13 – Prayer Meeting 04202016

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 20, Paul, Ephesus, Elders, Ministry, Pastors

Prayer in the Book of Acts, Part 12

Posted below is our twelfth prayer guide from the book of Acts, using every instance of prayer in the book to guide our own Wednesday church prayer meeting.  Tonight’s passage is from Acts 19, where Paul meets some disciples of John the Baptist and prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  The passage also features some other aspects of the Lord’s work through Paul in Ephesus.

This prayer guide could be used by an individual or group.

Prayer in Acts, Part 12 – Prayer Meeting 04132016

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 19, Paul

 

Two Prayer Guides from Acts

Posted here are Parts 10 and 11 from our church’s study of prayer in the book of Acts.  Part 10 was from a couple of weeks ago; Part 11 will be used at tonight’s Wednesday prayer meeting.

Part 10 looks at Paul’s second missionary journey, including the first part of his time in Philippi.  Part 11 picks up in that same city, working through Paul and Silas’s imprisonment and the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his household.

God bless you as you read His Word and pray!

Prayer in Acts, Part 10 – Prayer Meeting 03232016

Prayer in Acts, Part 11 – Prayer Meeting 04062016

 

Tags: Acts, Acts 10, Acts 11, Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Trials, Persecution, Suffering, Evangelism, Joy, Paul, Silas, Timothy, Philippi

Prayer in Acts, Part 9

Tonight is Part 9 of our study on prayer in the book of Acts.  The next two instances of prayer in the book of Acts occur as bookends to Paul’s first missionary journey.  At the beginning of chapter 13, the prophets and teachers in Antioch are fasting and praying (“ministering to the Lord and fasting,” it says), and the Holy Spirit calls out Barnabas and Saul.  The disciples obey through more fasting, praying, and sending them out, and the Holy Spirit does glorious things through them on that missionary journey.

At the end of chapter 14, Barnabas and Saul pray in each church that they have established, having appointed elders and committed these new believers to the Lord in Whom they had believed.  They return to Antioch and report all that God has done.  Clearly, this was His plan, and all for His glory.

 

Prayer in Acts, Part 9 – Prayer Meeting 03022016

 

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 13, Acts 14, Barnabas, Saul, Paul, Holy Spirit, Missions

Prayer in Acts, Part 5

Tonight we are walking through Part 5 of our study on prayer in the book of Acts.  We are doing this study at our church’s Wednesday night prayer meeting – letting each instance of prayer in Acts guide our own prayer time.

Tonight’s entire study is from Paul’s (Saul’s) conversion story in Acts 9.  Both Paul’s and Ananias’s conversations with God are prayers, and they illustrate the importance of listening during our times as prayer.  The prayer guide is attached below.  God bless you!

Prayer in Acts, Part 5 – Prayer Meeting 02032016

Tags: Prayer, Prayer Meeting, Acts, Acts 9, Paul, Saul, Ananias, Gospel, Conversion

Finishing Well

Here’s the link for a video and article that are very ripe for illustrative purposes – both for finishing well and for the value of Christian accountability in discipleship.

http://www.runnersworld.com/world-championships/infeld-euphoric-huddle-devastated-after-world-champs-10k

I won’t summarize the whole story because you can read about and watch it at the link.  Clearly, this could illustrate passages about running well, finishing our race, fighting the good fight, and more.  Don’t forget about narrative contexts that this could fit with – like the lives of Saul, Solomon, Uzziah, Judas Iscariot, or Ananias and Sapphira.

But on top of that, notice what Molly Huddle said after losing: “I thought there was no one battling me down the home stretch…”  Do you think she would have taken third place if she knew that Emily Infeld was right behind her?  I’m sure of it.  So, this story could also illustrate the Scriptural principle that we must “stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).  Molly’s awareness of someone “battling” her down the stretch would actually have caused her to win a medal!  That’s a good kind of battle, like iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17).

 

Tags: Saul, Solomon, Uzziah, Judas Iscariot, Paul, Ananias and Sapphira, Finishing Well, Discipleship, Accountability, Faithfulness, 1 Samuel 13, 1 Samuel 15, 1 Kings 11, 2 Chronicles 26, Proverbs 27, Matthew 26, Matthew 27, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13, John 18, Acts 5, Philippians 1, 2 Timothy 4, Hebrews 4, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12

Paul and Tim Tebow – Two Abnormal Births

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is speaking of the absolutely essential nature of the resurrection with regard to our faith.  Along the way, he gives strong evidence for the resurrection and discusses his own “abnormal” or “untimely” spiritual birth.  Tim Tebow’s own unusual birth story is well-known, so I won’t explain it here: here’s Randy Alcorn’s summary if you want details.

Tebow’s physical birth is a huge story of God’s grace and power, just like the story of Paul’s spiritual birth.  This is how I worded the connection between them:

“Tim’s birth was abnormal.  He almost died twice – once at the hands of the strong medicine, and once through the doctors’ medical advice.  But this situation wasn’t too much for God; it wasn’t too late for Him to intervene and bring His magnificent, glorious grace to the situation.  In Tim’s physical birth, and in Paul’s spiritual birth, He has shown that He is a God of great grace.”

From there, I think it is relatively easy to use both of these stories as pictures of God’s great grace in saving ALL of us.  My heart was no less in need of redemption than Paul’s heart.  In fact, I wasn’t preaching on 1 Corinthians 15 as my main text when I used this.  I used that passage as a cross-reference to my primary text, and then I used the Tebow story.

So, this illustration could be used for a lot of passages that deal with the miracle of God’s grace: Romans 3, Romans 5, Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Galatians 1 (also about Paul’s story), Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, 1 Timothy 1:14, 2 Timothy 1:9, and many more.