Prayer Guide: Tuesday, January 4
Multiplication of Leadership: A Prayer Guide in Preparation for 2022
This prayer guide is given for us to seek the face of our Father together as we enter 2022. Our theme for this year is the multiplication of leadership. Each day the focus is on one of the areas of leadership we will be discussing throughout the year.
Please read the Scripture of the day and read the little devotional. Then use at least one of the prayer prompts in each section. We are following the “four x four” pattern of prayer:
Reverence: Praising God for something He has shown us about Himself.
Response: Responding to what God has shown us, to do His will.
Requests: Asking Him for healing of relationships and resources to accomplish His will.
Readiness: Asking God to lead us to accomplish it.
This prayer guide is given for us to seek the face of our Father together as we enter 2022. Our theme for this year is the multiplication of leadership. Each day the focus is on one of the areas of leadership we will be discussing throughout the year.
Please read the Scripture of the day and read the little devotional. Then use at least one of the prayer prompts in each section. We are following the “four x four” pattern of prayer:
Reverence: Praising God for something He has shown us about Himself.
Response: Responding to what God has shown us, to do His will.
Requests: Asking Him for healing of relationships and resources to accomplish His will.
Readiness: Asking God to lead us to accomplish it.
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| Photo by Gus Ruballo on Unsplash |
Tuesday, January 4: Ephesians 5:21-6:4
Reverence:
Understanding and practicing leadership in the home sets the pattern of response in relationships outside the home. A key to understanding the pattern is to acknowledge the interdependent roles God has designed in the home. This is not a power structure. It is a discipling structure. It is not authoritarian; it is servant based. Verse 21 is the key: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
Wives serve their husbands by cooperating together and showing respect. Husbands serve their wives by loving and cherishing them as Christ does the church. Parents don’t frustrate their children but train them up to know and see through modeling what it is to be a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. And children learn from their parents, including the discipline of being under authority, a benevolent authority, but authority none the less.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 gives additional guidelines and practices that fulfill this pattern in the home. The root cause of brokenness in the lives of many people can be traced to the breakdown of this discipleship pattern in the home (absentee fathers or mothers, divorce, abuse, or failure to discipline or guide the children). While home can be a broken root, it can also be a tree of life that bears much fruit. A godly home gives security, peace, confidence, joy, and tools to tackle the challenges of life by faith.
Reverence:
- I revere You Lord for __________. (v. 21)
- I praise You Lord for showing me Your love by __________. (v. 25)
Response:
- Out of reverence for You Lord, I commit to loving my wife __________ the way You love the church. (v. 25)
- Out of reverence for You Lord, I commit to respecting my husband __________ as the church respects You. (v. 33)
- Lord, I pray You will continue to cleanse me from __________ so that I am more like You, holy and blameless. (v. 26-27)
- Lord, give me wisdom so I do not frustrate our children by __________ but to instruct them with your wisdom (6:4)
- Lead us all to learn more about this mystery Lord, that our homes should reflect the love between Christ and the Church. (5:32)