Day of Fasting and Prayer

Tomorrow I will observing a day of fasting and prayer and would like to invite anyone who would like to participate.

It doesn't take long for us to realize how badly our world is hurting. People across the globe are in need of our prayers and the healing of the Holy Spirit. Some qualify prayer as "the least they can do" but prayer is the first thing we should always do. Before we give advice, donate money, cook a meal, go on a mission trip, protest injustice or make any decision, we should be in prayer. It seems like an overwhelming task to be in prayer constantly, but the more you practice it, the more it becomes like breathing to you and you realize that you actually never stop praying, you're just in a constant dialogue with God. Prayer is a powerful agent of transformation in our world and not only touches the prayed for, but also the pray-er.

A list of things I will be praying for tomorrow are listed below. Please let me know if there is anything I can pray over you about. Also, let myself and those reading know if you will be praying and fasting with us and what things you might be praying over. God bless all of you this day, and may the presence of Christ be felt in your lives.

Prayer List

• Robin - who suffers from MS and is considering a new and risky treatment. Also for Robin's family and direct caregivers that they made me strengthened and confident in the will of God.
• For marriages across the world - for those about to be married, newly married, happily and unhappily married and for those marriages ending in divorce.
• For those suffering in Uganda, Rwanda, Darfur and other parts of our aching world who are in such great need of hope and love and healing.
• For the women of Afghanistan who have been sentenced to marriages condoning rape and who are being stoned for protesting.
• For the women, men and children who are being trafficked around the world in the labor and sex slave trades.
• For the families around the world and here in the United States who are suffering because of lost jobs, lost retirements, a sluggish economy and who are in need of hope.
• For inmates in our prison systems that they might seek and find the face of God. That redemption and salvation may surround them and those who are in danger of being a part of the prison system. We also pray for the families of victims as well as the families of perpetrators. We pray for those who serve our prison systems with honor and those who disgrace it with their hatred and prejudice.
• For those who desperately long for a family but are faced with infertility. Those who cannot afford expensive treatments or adoption.
  
• For those in the armed forces and government who take seriously their oath to serve and protect as well as for those who have lost sight of their call to service and integrity and have fallen into corruption.
• For the teachers who wake up every morning in the face of adversity to teach our children and who grow to love and nurture our children into the people God created them to be. We pray also for those teachers who lack the commitment to make a difference and who become stumbling blocks to students.
• For doctors and nurses, pharmacists and techs who work around the clock in their mission to seek out healing and wellness and to serve the sick. We also pray for our pharmaceutical companies, crooked doctors and insurance companies who often stop believing and having faith in the power to make a difference in lives of those around them.
• For public figures who could do so much good with their fame, yet choose only to spread ungodly behavior. We also pray for those public figures who strive to live a righteous life, one of honor and dignity and class.
• For the leaders of our states and nations, that they may be led by the Holy Spirit and not by their own will. That they take their leadership seriously so to make a real difference in this world. We pray that they understand the importance of caring for humanity, of seeking peace and resolution, not war and torture and chaos. We also pray that they lean not on their own understanding but on God's.
• For those who have been lost and are not yet found. We pray that these, our brothers and sisters, take a step out in faith and get to know Jesus as we have gotten to know him. We pray for their salvation, for their transformation and for their enlightened walk. We also pray for the friends and families of these brothers and sisters, and ask God's blessing on them all.

This is just a short list of all that I will be praying for. In encourage you to add your prayer requests to this list and to consider joining me tomorrow in prayer and fasting.