Prayerful

Prayer is one of our main priorities as a church and as individual disciples of Jesus. We meet weekly (Sunday at 0730) and monthly (last Thursday at 1945) in addition to the Sunday morning services which are grounded in prayer. Weekly small groups also have prayer as a foundation for all other activities.

This page is intended to inform and support our ‘outward-looking’ prayer agenda, the nature of which should become evident from the list of items below. This contrasts with the daily prayers of all of us as individuals which are orientated towards our personal communion with God and discipleship, as well as family and friends who are closest to us.

Before we get specific, it seems wrong not to remind ourselves of the amazing and marvellous privilege of direct communication with the living God who made us and everything else. This is only possible because we can pray in the name of Jesus, who paid the penalty for our sins and has reconciled us to God through his death and resurrection. Let us never forget this amazing miracle of God’s grace in sending his Son to save us and enable us to live a life of prayer, in direct contact with God the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit. Why would we not want to live a life of prayer and exercise this wonderful privilege?

So that’s what informs our drawing up of this list, to which contributions are welcome, both for new items as well as news and information on existing items. Please send to… (connect@seaford.life)

There is no order of priority in this list even though the items are numbered. Whenever we have an opportunity to pray, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us as to the specific matters on which we call out to God for his kingdom to come and his will be done.

1. International/global vision and mission

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world

as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt 24:14 ESV)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20 ESV)

LCS is part of the New Ground Churches organisation which plants and supports churches across Europe as well as in Brazil and South Africa. ‘We believe that God has called us to play our part in His great mission to see many churches planted across the world and to see communities transformed by the love of Jesus’. https://newgroundchurches.org/

LCS also has a special connection with churches in Turkey, developed with our friends Joel and Amy Kendall, recently returned from eight years planting a church in Turkey and now headed to do the same in East London. A number of us have visited and contributed to the work in two Turkish cities.

2. International/global peace

Psalm 46 and other parts of the Bible look forward to a time when all wars and conflicts within and between nations will end and there will be eternal peace as God’s appointed king and his kingdom comes fully and finally to Planet Earth.

In the knowledge of God’s ultimate purpose of peace and the reign of King Jesus, we give ourselves to praying for the end of wars in our lifetime so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed unhindered and that the fundamental conflict that underlies all others, is resolved by changing people from the inside so that they are reborn as God’s children (see John 1:9-12). Since man’s first rebellion against God (Gen 1-3) violent conflict has spread throughout the world and we pray for wars to end so that the way of peace with God can be proclaimed.

Additional resource: Pray for Peace and an End to War

3. Persecuted Church

It is a staggering fact that more than 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimination - that’s one in seven believers worldwide. The New Testament teaches us (eg. 2 Cor 1:3-7) that despite all the different expressions of the Christian Church across the world, we are identified with all those who believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God and

saviour of the world and we share the responsibility of praying for all our suffering brothers and sisters across the world.

Organisations such as OpenDoors and Voice of the Martyrs provide excellent information on the nature and extent of the persecution of Christians to provide fuel for our prayers on persecution across the world.

4. Good government at home

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be

made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live

peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and

pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a

knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:1-4 ESV)

Like prayers for peace across the world, the Apostle Paul here gives a strong

and clear instruction for all his hearers to pray for peace at home as

conducive to God’s will that all people be ‘saved and come to a knowledge of

the truth’. Of course we all have an interest in good government irrespective

of who we vote for, and this passage from 1 Timothy (see also Rom 13:1-5)

suggests that we have no reason to think that we can expect good government if we don’t follow this instruction in our prayers.

Additional resource: https://www.christiansinparliament.org.uk/get-involved/pray/