Preparing Our Hearts: Four Weeks of Prayer
by Tommy Bailey, Lead Pastor
As I reflect on 25 years of fruitful ministry at TVC, I can’t help but notice an inseparable link between the church’s health and the centrality of prayer in our community. For any church to remain healthy and fruitful, it must stay close to the Shepherd through His word and prayer. John Knox was right when he said,
“The strength of the church lies not in its numbers, but in its cries to God in the assembly of prayer.”
Four Weeks of Prayer at TVC
As we look ahead to our first All-Church Retreat we are inviting the whole church to commit to four weeks of focused prayer, seeking God together for grace to know Him with more depth, mature in Him with renewed faithfulness, and rest in Him with a greater assurance of His love. This invitation is for everyone, including those who aren’t able to join us for the retreat this year.
Prayer Guide
Our team has developed a personal prayer guide that is organized around a theme for each week from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Each day provides an invitation to pray for a particular area of life, including personal needs, family, friendships, our places of work or school, our city, and our church. If you haven’t already received a printed prayer guide, you can pick one up for free at the church, or download a PDF here.
This guide is not meant to be practiced alone. Connect with a friend or your home group and pray for one another over the next month. Perhaps read the day’s prompt at the dinner table. Let it shape how you pray with your kids at bedtime. The Lord often uses shared times of prayer to knit a church family together while He works in and through each one individually. ¹
Jesus and Prayer
When we open the Gospels, we can scarcely turn a page without seeing Jesus slipping away to pray. Sometimes the disciples had to send out a search party to find Him! ² When Jesus taught, His underlying assumption was that prayer would be a regular rhythm in every disciple’s way of life. He would say things like, “When you pray…” ³
But why?
Prayer is, before anything else, about being in the presence of the Father. Paying attention to Him. Communing with Him. Worshipping Him. Bearing our souls to Him. We were made to live attentive to the presence of God. In all its mystery, beauty, and challenge, prayer is a gift of grace for the life of the believer. And we are invited into a lifelong apprenticeship of learning how to pray from Jesus. ⁴
“What is prayer, then, in the fullest sense? Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through His Word and His grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with Him.”
Tim Keller, Prayer
The focus of our All-Church Retreat is to consider together the promise that, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” ⁵ This promise is rich with grace. God is the initiator, the prime mover. But as we study Philippians, we will find that the work He began in us by grace produces growth that looks like greater trust, obedience, and love for God and for our neighbor. As we prepare our hearts for our upcoming retreat, or whatever season you may be entering, perhaps these next few weeks of focused prayer will be life-giving as we come to the throne of grace together, asking for a fresh measure of growth and renewal as He continues to form us more into the likeness of Christ.
— Pastor Tommy
¹ Acts 1:14
² Mark 1:35
³ Matthew 6:6
⁴ Matthew 6:5–14
⁵ Philippians 1:6
