Fasting and Prayer Guide

September 13th, 7p–14th, 6p

This guide is meant as a tool to help you pray, so please make it your own! The point is to get our church praying and fasting together and asking God to do great things this next academic year—because we believe God’s kingdom only moves forward as he is pleased to act.

I look forward to this season of prayer and fasting with you, church family. Don’t be surprised if the enemy tries to make it hard for you to pray and fast. He doesn’t want to see the Lord’s children praying that their Father would move powerfully for his glory. But he has no power before King Jesus who has overcome. So let’s pray in confidence, knowing our God delights to hear and respond to his kids who “look up” to him asking that he would help them “look out” on his mission.

—Pastor Kent

  Sunday Afternoon   |   Sunday Evening   |   Monday Morning   |   Monday Afternoon  

Break your fast with us at 6p Monday evening with a potluck dinner, followed by a prayer meeting to steep the coming year in prayer. If you haven’t yet, sign up to bring food here.

Sunday Afternoon: Preach Christ

Self

  1. Pray that the Lord would give you (and your family, if applicable) a greater hunger for his word and prayer and use the time you spend with him to show you more of himself and cultivate your love for him.

  2. Pray that the Lord would give you such a contagious love for him that leads you toward others. Pray that Jesus would become the glory and boast of your life, so that your words, priorities, and everyday decisions all point others to him.

  3. Pray for one nonChristian in your life who needs to know Jesus. Ask that the Lord would allow you to have some good gospel conversations with them this year that might draw them to him.

IWC

  1. Pray that all who occupy the pulpit on Sunday would clearly and lovingly point us and our weekly guests to the Lord.

  2. Pray for our liturgists and worship team as they lead us in worship each Sunday, that their efforts would clearly and worshipfully point us to Jesus every week.

  3. Pray for the leaders involved in adult discipleship at IWC. Pray for Paul Frick as he continues building out an Adult Education plan; pray that the Lord would raise up teachers and a location for this class to meet.

  4. Pray that the Lord would stir up an evangelistic fervor in our church.

Other

Pray for the witness of other gospel preaching churches in our area that we have a relationship with:

  • New Story

  • JRNY (our neighbors)

  • Iglesia de Dios del Evangelio Completo or Full Gospel Church of God (the Hispanic church that uses our facilities ever other Sunday evening)

Sunday Evening: Love One Another

self

  1. Pray that the Lord would expose any self-interest at work in your acts of service, so that you are free to “love one another” for the good of others rather than for recognition, praise, or any other kind of personal advantage.

  2. Pray that your love for Jesus would find expression in a self-sacrificing love for his people. Pray that the Lord would guard you against ever harming his people through the destructive uses of the tongue: like gossip, lying, complaining, self-promotion, cutting others down, crude joking (as we saw in the devotional on Proverbs).

IWC

  1. Pray that our home groups would be the centers of discipleship and care they are meant to be. Pray that the Lord would richly bless the home group leaders and hosts who give their time and space to serve our church family this way.

  2. Pray for the elders as they care for the shepherding groups in our church. Pray that the Lord would give them capacity to connect with each member of their shepherding group and wisdom to care for them well. 

  3. Pray that each member of IWC would 1) recognize their essential place in Jesus’ family, 2) discover the gifts God has given them, and 3) gladly use those gifts for others.

  4. Pray that the Lord would continue growing us in the grace of generosity––in all ways.

 
 

Monday Morning: Serve the City

Self

  1. Pray that God would expose what lies at the heart of any fears or discomforts you may have that make you reluctant to serve your neighbors with the good news.

  2. In what ways have you allowed yourself to give into complaining, especially when mission becomes difficult, discouraging, inconvenient, or costly? Bring this before the Lord and pray for a renewed sense of being on mission with him.

  3. Pray that the Lord would enable you to see your everyday labors, relationships, and responsibilities as occasions to participate in God's mission, rather than primarily as ways to build out your own comfort.

  4. Pray that the Lord would give you one life-giving way this year to serve him in your broader community.

IWC

  1. Pray for the work of the Phoenixville Refuge, a ministry in our church that cares predominately for the immigrant communities in our area through food distribution and housing resourcing.

  2. Pray that our church would faithfully do good both to the “household of faith” and to the broader community, refusing to allow weariness, discouragement, or inconvenience to excuse us from God's mission (Galatians 6:6-10).

  3. Pray for the church officers as they continue crafting a vision for “serving the city.”

Other

  1. Pray for our relationship with Renaissance Academy, that we would share each other’s space well and respectfully.

  2. Pray for the different organizations we have partnered with in the past, that the Lord would use these for great good in our area:

 
 

Monday Afternoon: Plant Churches

Self

  1. Pray that God would restore passion where you have grown bored, disappointed, or complacent toward him, so that your sense of mission springs from a delight in him rather than cold duty.

  2. See the final reflection on Acts 13:1-3 in the Repentance Prayer Guide. Think through your “bests” and pray that the Lord would enable you to hold your “best” to him with open hands and willingly give them for the sake of his mission.

  3. Pray that the Lord would being preparing you now for any sacrifices he is calling you personally to make as our church renews it’s church planting efforts.

IWC

  1. Pray that God would cultivate in our church a wonder-filled view of his greatness and remind us that church planting is ultimately about seeing God honored and worshiped among the nations.

  2. Pray the the Lord would raise up 1) a church planting target and 2) a church planter for us within the coming academic year.

  3. Pray that the Lord would be preparing the church planting target for a future church plant, creating a hunger there for him.

  4. Pray that the Lord would enable us to multiply leaders at all levels so that we can send out a church plant with members who are equipped for the work.

  5. Pray for the good work the Lord is doing through our overseas partners:

    • Good Tidings India Hope (GTi Hope), an organization that focuses on evangelism and equipping native church planters.

    • HopeCo in Kenya and Tanzania which provides wrap-around care primarily for needy children and women.

Other

Pray that the Lord would continue to foster a spirit of cooperation and trust at the presbytery level as our sister churches seek to partner together in church planting.

 
 

Break your fast, Monday night at 6p

If you haven’t signed up to bring food to the potluck and prayer meeting, please head over here to do that. Whatever you’d usually cook on a weeknight is fine (including pre-made Costco lasagnas!).

We’re excited to worship with you!