Apostles Church

Concert of Prayer

In the face of growing fears of a global recession and while people are suffering losses and experiencing rising fears about the future, we turn our hearts to God in prayer.

2Cor 1.8-10 ESV “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9) Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10) He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”

We must set our hope on God. You might not be feeling a great burden today, but this life is fragile and you will at some point. It may not even be the financial crisis that has your heart in knots today. It could be another trial, struggle. So we turn to him in prayer today.

The first movement in Prayer is an acknowledgement of Who God is. In Isaiah 6, the nation is facing a crisis as the King has died. But Isaiah sees the Lord, sitting on a throne, High and Lifted Up, the train of his robe filling the Temple, and creatures that if we saw them we would be tempted to worship them were flying around in constant service to God crying Holy, Holy, Holy. Take a moment in silent prayer acknowledging God and honoring him as the God who is above all things.

Psa 145.1-3, 8-9 ESV “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2) Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. 3) Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. 8) The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9) The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

He is a merciful God. All around us, we see signs of mercy. But his mercy has been seen most clearly in Christ. Our sins have cut us off from this God, but he has reconciled to himself through the death of His son. And for those who have Christ, we have God as our God and our King – Great and Gracious. Mighty and Merciful; Holy and Abounding in Steadfast love. Take a moment in prayer and worship God as King with whom you can entrust the entirety of your life. Bless him and praise his name.

Confession. When we draw near to God, we realize how unlike him we are. When we come into the light of his holiness and goodness, we see the darkness of our own hearts. We feel somewhat what Isaiah felt – woe is me. This is the movement God wants to take us through. God wants us to come face to face with him, but also face to face with ourselves. He will use trials to reveal our hearts to us and lead us to acknowledge our need for His mercy and forgiveness. We need to pray as the Psalmist prayed:

Psa 139.23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24) And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Take a moment and be still before the Lord and ask him to search your heart and reveal anything in your heart that is out of sync with Him and his intentions for you.

It is no secret that at the epicenter of this financial crisis there was a lot of greed and excess. Though we might not have been at the epicenter of this crisis but what was at the epicenter of the crisis might be in us. God wants us to face our own greed and excess.

Heb 13.5-6 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6) So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?””

Today many of us will need to confess that we have not been content with God. We have not been satisfied in Him and have looked outside of him for our joy and security. We have turned away from the true God and turned to idols, trusting and treasuring things above him. God may be using this trial to remind us that He is ultimately what we need. He might seriously scale back our standards of living to force us to find our joy in Him and our strength in him. Take a moment and if you need to, confess to God that you have not been content in him. Ask him to free you from the bondage of things you feel you need for joy and ask him to satisfy your heart with his presence and his promises.

I have been challenged by how much I have thought of myself through all of this. Trials can often reveal to us our self-focus. We begin to worry about our possessions and our happiness. I was in an email exchange with a friend who works in the financial sector. He wrote, "truly feeling a lot of contentment and peace. meditating on the gospel promises has been the difference. ironically, my feelings lately haven't been of anxiety or insecurity. they've been about how we (my family) can move further away from a self-serving lifestyle. this may sound corny, but i've been thinking about how I want my family to find our "wells in africa". what's that thing we can circle around and get passionate about, taking our thoughts away from ourselves and focusing it on Christ via those in need?....as in Matthew 25, which has been on my mind a bit lately....
Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

As we continue in prayer, maybe you need to take a moment and confess the sin of self-focus and ask God to give you a heart for others that would transcend the natural response of self-preservation that we are going to see in our culture. Ask the Lord to open your heart to those in need.

Comfort: We have worshiped God as our Holy and Sovereign God, our God who is Mighty and Merciful, Great and Gracious. We have confessed our sin to him and ask him to free us from self-focus and the sin of self-preservation. We have received his forgiveness and trusted that he would give us the strength to delight in his will and walk in his ways. But we also need to hear his promises today and be filled with faith and encouragement as we face these challenging times. I want to remind you of a beautiful truth: God is for You. Listen to the promise of Rom 8.28-39

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” 31) What then shall we say to these things? [these beautiful Gospel promises] If God is for us, who can be against us? 32) He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

God is for you. He has proven that. He has given his Son for you and He intends to accomplish his good and benevolent purpose for your life. He will not spare you any pain that will make you all he intends you to be; and he will not let anything touch you that will not ultimately in the end bless and renew you. So the passage goes on to say,

35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38) For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39) nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Take a moment and ask God to bring these truths to bear upon your heart and to give you peace and increase your confidence in His great love and care for you.


Psa 145.14-20 ESV “The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. 15) The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16) You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17) The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. 18) The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19) He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. 20) The LORD preserves all who love him,”

Church, fear not. Let your heart be strengthened by these words.