21 Days of Prayer
2023 Prayer Guide
Day 20
February 20, 2023 • Genesis 2:15
PURPOSE: Being created in God's image means that when we work, we partner with God in creating. PASSAGE: Genesis 2:15 "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it". PRACTICE: a prayer of gratitude for the privilege of work
Day 18
February 18, 2023 • John 14:15–21
POINT Jesus loves you and sends you help. PASSAGE John 14:15-21 15 “If you love me, keep my commands.16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” PRACTICE We practice Lectio Divine and are led in prayer by St. Augustine.
Day 17
February 17, 2023 • Pastor Paul Shim • Luke 19:37–44
POINT: More than knowing God, or doing for God, Christ wants us to love God. Our greatest priority is to love Christ and out of that love to love others. PASSAGE: Luke 19:37-44 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." PRACTICE: 1. confess and repent from the sin of defining ourselves and one another based on what we know and what we do rather than the love of Christ. 2. surrender to lead with the love of Christ rather than any other human constructed way of living.
Day 15
February 15, 2023 • Pastor Glenn Adams • Psalm 119:103
POINT: Get hooked on the good book (God's Word), that is sweeter and healthier for your soul than the other messages and media in our world. PASSAGE: Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! PRACTICE: Reading God's Word is a form of praying. You are listening directly to God's Word! Cultivate the practice of regularly reading the same way you do with prayer: find a plan, place, and time.
Day 14
February 14, 2023 • Psalm 85:6–7
POINT: We give to God an unhurried, undivided, heart, mind, and body, without any agenda other than Him. PASSAGE: Psalm 85:6-7 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. PRACTICE: Be still and give to God your listening ears, heart, and spirit. Who knows? God may send us a revival too.
Day 13
February 13, 2023 • Ephesians 3:14–21
POINT: The apostle Paul prays that we, the church, would be filled with the fullness of God and through it, the fullness of His love. PASSAGE: Ephesians 3:14-21 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father,15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. PRACTICE: We hear Zion's take on prayer and we receive the apostle Paul's prayer as our blessing for the day.
Day 11
February 11, 2023 • Dr. Peter Lee
POINT: Jesus "Great Commission" was for all his disciples - even the doubting ones. PASSAGE: Matthew 28:11-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” PRACTICE: We reflect on how to live out Jesus' commission to go and make disciples of those around us; obey everything he's commanded; and teach others to obey as well.
Day 10
February 10, 2023 • Jeremiah 29:4–7
POINT: The best way to love the city that God calls you to, is to pray for her. PASSAGE: Jeremiah 29:4-7 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” PRACTICE: We focus on a giving, externally focused love and we pray for the city that God loves - Chicago!
Day 9
February 9, 2023
We place our own needs and prayer requests aside as we focus externally on Syria and Türkiye. Please join with the global church in praying for God's mercy over these countries as they continue to respond to the devastating earthquakes. Please pray: - that emergency and medical personnel have the capacity and resources to respond adequately and will reach survivors quickly. - for families left homeless by the earthquake, that they may receive shelter and much-needed emergency supplies soon. - for wisdom for the Turkish and Syrian governments, that they will provide support where it is needed most. - that there will be no more aftershocks and that families will have heat and winter supplies to keep them warm. - for humanitarian organizations working in the region, that they can be a source of comfort and refuge for all who are struggling from hunger, poverty, and injustice.
Day 8
February 8, 2023 • 2 Timothy 1:6–9
POINT: The Holy Spirit does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. PASSAGE: 2 Timothy 1:6-9 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, PRACTICE: We practice Lectio Divina - a way of contemplating and praying through Scripture
Day 7
February 7, 2023 • 2 Corinthians 4:7–12
POINT: We are empty vessels that need to be filled. PASSAGE: 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. PRACTICE: We start with praise and we pray for God's filling.