Making Prayer a Priority

We give glory to God for ushering us into the year 2019. We continue to trust for His guidance, provision and protection.
I read a beautiful piece on prayer in the 2018 edition of Our Daily Bread, a devotional material. I am paraphrasing part of the write up for our reflection.

Prayer is an action in which gives God the priority He deserves. Prayer must permeate our actions by being a continual part of them as we consciously live in God’s presence. We are easily distracted, and we must fight to keep this perspective continually. It is not just a matter of making time for God; it is the realization that all of our time is in His hands and that we are constantly before Him where we are and whatever we do. This is what it means to live day by day in a relationship with Him, and this realization with Him help us pray increasingly without ceasing.

Learning to give prayer a priority takes time. It hardly happens immediately because we are already rooted in self-reliance, old habits. We have to do away with old habits and patterns of thoughts. God desires us to be prayerful people of action: people who pray first then act in response to His leading. All of us have varying stages of keeping the balance. Sometimes we tell ourselves “I am not much a praying person.” But because Jesus was a praying person, you and I are intended to be like Him.

Prayer and action are two sides of the same coin of a mature and Christ-like faith. We can’t have one without the other. Action without prayer, even if it’s done for God, too often misses the mark.

Once again, I wish to remind users that, The Prayer Bulletin, as we all know is a guide. It is designed to cater for the individual petition as well as interceding for others. It is to encourage members of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana to pray for themselves and also for others. It must be stated that this material does not debar members and Congregations from praying on other issues. When we pray for people, we focus our thoughts on them. We take the burdens of people we pray for upon ourselves. We also sacrifice our time for people we intercede for. Most importantly, we demonstrate true love and compassion for them. Prayer of intercessory should, therefore, be considered equally important as our personal petitions. I, therefore, urge you all to continue to intercede for the nation, the Church universal (and particularly for the Presbyterian Church of Ghana), and many others.

The prayer points in this edition were prepared by the following:

Rev. KLM Ansah – January

Rev. Esther Oduro – February

Rev. Yaw Adu Boadu – March

Rev. Lawrence Tete – April and June

Rev. William Akotua Opare – May

The Department of Mission and Evangelism is grateful to them for making time to raise the prayer points without demanding any financial compensation. It is my prayer that we continue to use the Prayer Bulletin to enhance our prayer lives. God bless you.

The Department is grateful to the following Congregations for their financial contributions for the production of this edition of the Prayer Bulletin: Eben-Ezer Osu, Grace Tema Community 11, Emmanuel Congregation North Darkuman, Calvary Congregation Nungua North, Christ the King Saprepor, Bethlehem Tsui Bleo, Taifa Congregation and Accra Newtown. God bless you all.

“…those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40: 29-31.

Rev. Felix Akresu-Anim Danso

Director, Mission &Evangelism