To kick off the new year, we are inviting everyone at Sound City to a month of dedicated, collective prayer. Each week, we will have a different area of focus as disciples: 1) relationship with God, 2) relationship with self, 3) relationship with the church community, and 4) relationship with the unbelieving world around us. Please set aside time each day to pray along the lines of the guidance provided below. The focus of this week’s prayer is our relationship with God.
Thank you God that your Holy Spirit is ever present with us. Mold my heart to be shaped by your story, by knowledge of who you are, and by the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. I pray that I would allow your gospel to transform me, my identity, and my whole life. Thank you that I am a new creation in Christ. Renew me Lord, to greater faith and obedience to you.
Day 1 (Jan 2) focus: God’s glory in creation
Today’s prayer focus is God’s glory in creation. All creation has the fingerprints of God’s power and his goodness. Spend time praising God for his creation. Consider taking a nature walk or a hike.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? — Psalm 8:3-4
Pray thanking God for his power and beauty that are on display in creation.
Give thanks that the sun rises and sets, that he orders the universe, the moon and stars, that he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Day 2 (Jan 3) focus: foundation of the gospel
Today’s prayer focus is the gospel as the foundation of our lives. Jesus, the Son of God and the work he completed through his life, death and resurrection gives those who believe eternal joy as the recipients of grace and mercy. Spend time singing and praising God for this good news!
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. — Romans 10:9
Pray that your life would be increasingly built upon the foundation of the gospel.
Pray for a heart committed to the gospel and strengthened in Christ.
Pray that God would help you to joyfully submit to the rule of Jesus who has loved and served you.
Day 3 (Jan 4) focus: Holy Spirit’s presence
Today’s prayer focus is the Holy Spirit’s presence. Through the Holy Spirit we have been baptized into one body! Let’s remember to lean and depend on the Holy Spirit as our helper in all that we do. Spend the first portion of your prayer time in silence and solitude asking that God would make you aware of his presence there with you.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. — Galatians 5:25
Pray that God’s Spirit would do a work of renewal in your heart.
Ask the Holy Spirit for a deeper experience of Christ’s love and power shown in his work on the cross.
Pray for an increased awareness of the Spirit’s presence as you go about your daily life.
Day 4 (Jan 5) focus: gratitude for good gifts
Today’s prayer focus is gratitude. Everything that we have is a gift from God, so let’s give him thanks for those blessings. Spend some time journaling and reflecting on God’s blessings in your life from this past year.
Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. — Colossians 3:16
Pray, thanking God that your truest, deepest needs are met through Jesus' work on the cross.
Ask God to help you make a regular practice of slowing down to reflect on all of his blessings.
Pray that a spirit of gratitude and awe would well up in you and flow out into the way you approach your daily living and interactions with others.
Day 5 (Jan 6) focus: lifestyle of repentance and faith
Today’s prayer focus is repentance and faith. Let's remember the forgiveness of our sins, and the gift of faith that helps us to see the beauty and glory of God more clearly. May this lead us to a continued life of repentance and faith. Spend time singing and praising God for the forgiveness of your sins.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:9
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” — Romans 1:17
Ask God for the gift of repentance and the grace to walk in obedience.
Pray that God would make you increasingly aware of your own sin and selfish motivations.
Praise God that even when we are surprised by our own sinful hearts, he never is, and already paid the penalty for us at the cross.
Pray that God would encourage you by showing you the ways that he is growing and changing you in sanctification and faith.
Day 6 (Jan 7) focus: perseverance through trials
Today’s prayer focus is perseverance. We are reminded that in this lifetime, suffering and trials of various kinds will come our way. Let’s remember that we are never alone, that God is with us, equips us and shapes us in his image. Spend some time journaling the ways you’ve seen the presence of God in the hills and valleys.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. — James 1:12
Pray that you would not grow weary in this life of many trials, but instead would have God’s perspective and be strengthened in him.
Thank God that our trials are used to accomplish his purposes and make us more like Jesus.
Day 7 (Jan 8) focus: commitment to truth
Today’s prayer focus is commitment to truth. Let’s remember that Jesus is truth and that through him we receive all truth. Spend the first five minutes of your prayer time in silence and solitude.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” — John 14:6
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. — John 17:17
Pray that you would be diligent in reading and studying God’s word so that you would know the truth.
Pray that God would help you to worship him as he truly reveals himself to be in Scripture and not the god of your own personal or cultural projections.
Pray that God would help you not to believe the gospel in your head only, but that it would work its way down into your heart and flow out in your behavior.