Love/Unity - Lord, I lift up our love for one another as a body. Help us purify ourselves by obeying the truth so that our love for each other will be sincere, deep and from the heart. May our love for one another prove that we are Your disciples. Give us a spirit of unity so that we may glorify You with one heart and voice. Help us accept one another as we clothe ourselves in love. [1 Pet. 1:22; Jn. 13:34-35; Ro. 15:5-7; Col. 3:14] (from Life Giving Prayers for Your Church)
Prayer is as essential to the Church as water is to the human being. Prayer is life-changing, not because it changes God but because it changes us. Prayer is our way to express the depths and breadths of our heart and soul.
I want to invite you to join me in praying for our General Conference and for our Jurisdictional Conference. The General Conference will be May 10 - 20, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. There will be many petitions, resolutions, requests, and so much more placed upon the delegates that it will be overwhelming to complete the needed work, unless you and I pray. In the past, there have been fights and protests and even ugly words spoken at previous General Conferences, and this could happen again, unless we pray.
I am calling on all pastors and all laity to pray that the Holy Spirit will fall fresh upon each delegate as they step onto the ground in Portland and that the same Holy Spirit will melt all hardness of heart. I am asking that you, as a United Methodist, who may never go to Portland or to any General Conference, take your responsibility to heart at this time and pray with such fervor and such hope that God will be blessed by our admittance that He alone can empower the General Conference and allow there to be unity and love among the sisters and brothers.
After all, this in not OUR Church; it is the Church of Almighty God, and without God's generous outpouring of the Spirit, we will come away wounded and weary.
I hope you will join the North Georgia Day of Prayer on February 24 and sign up online to be a part. I also hope you will attend one of the many Prayer Services in the district. Finally, I hope, and I plead with you to pray daily for God's will to be done and for The United Methodist Church to be one in the Spirit and one in the Lord.
Will you pray?
Dana