Prayer for Hope Week 1

#30 days of Prayer for Hope
##Starting this Sunday October 8th

Because of all the tragedies we have experienced of late, and especially the bewildering events of this past weekend I have spent time in prayer and I feel this is what God has brought me to. We need more hope.

Please join me this month in 30 days of prayer for hope, yes hope or more specifically for the world to see the hope that we have in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. People do what they see as desperate actions out of a state of despair. When you look up the definition for the word Despair you will find these definitions; feeling of hopelessness, cause of hopelessness, and to lose hope. We as the church however, have the task to be Jesus to the world, a world in which the ‘thief’ comes to steal and destroy, and he steals our hope as one of his most affective weapons. This may be through crushing debt, an unfair boss, a loss of a job, a loss of a home due to a hurricane, or any number of other hope stealing events. In John 10:10, Scripture teaches us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Therefore, it is clear that Jesus came to give life not to steal our hope. So, if we are truly to be the hands and feet of Christ we need to be full of hope as He was. As we read in 2 Corinthians 4:10-11 “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 be revealed in our mortal body.” Meaning that we live for Christ because He died for us, so again if we are truly going to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world we are also to bring life and Hope to the world as He did. Therefore, again I ask that we the Church spend 30 days in praying, as the Body of Christ, to be renewed daily and filled with the hope we have in Jesus to an overflowing level, so that that which is in us overflows to all who know us. In this way, we can daily bring Hope into a world that desperately needs it.

Remember also scripture also tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:8-11 (NIV) “I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. … If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven–if there was anything to forgive–I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Yes, we are in a spiritual battle and the enemy wants to steal hope because he knows how powerful of a weapon it is.

Therefore, I also have a short reading assignments for you to read and meditate on during these days of prayer. Please read 2 Corinthians 4:1-18. It is also attached below for your continence.

Blessings, Pastor Perry


##Treasures in Jars of Clay
###2 Corinthians 4 (NIV)
“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
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 be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”