Jan 2 – This week our focus is on the Kingdom Building vision which is at the heart of this month of prayer, fasting and abstinence. As we start the New Year, as we have done so for a number of years, we call the church to come together to pray as we step into 2023. The prayers are partially drawn from my 2015 blog on Redemptive Pathways.

Father, thank You for the joy of stepping into a new year with Jesus. As we follow Jesus walking in the Spirit, we are blessed. We walk into our future together in faith because of our relationship with You through our Lord Jesus.

Knowing that not only do You love us from afar, but You love us up close, each one personally because we are found in union with Your Son. This is an utterly overwhelming truth, a transforming realisation which calls us to live out our salvation with faith and godly fear. We are in Christ, we are His and He is ours.

As we consider this month of prayer, fasting and abstinence – we ask for this truth to permeate the lives of all in our church, in person and online. As we begin our Alpha course in church on Tuesday 17 January, may it be a course that leads many to Christ, and others into the joy of a lifetime of reaching and winning the lost.

As we pray for the coming of Your Kingdom, seeking to build Your Kingdom here in and through Telford Elim, may every part of society in this Borough of Telford & Wrekin, and way beyond through our online ministries, come to hear the Good News of the Gospel.

As we pray, minister and live out our faith on the frontlines of our interactions and work in the world, may Jesus as Saviour and Lord touch human hearts and minds by Your Spirit, and as a result, many come to salvation becoming good disciples of the Master. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Jan 3 – Father, at the heart of the Gospel is Redemption in Christ. Redemption is Your work in the sinner whereby, through the finished work of Christ on the Cross, she or he is turned from a rebellious sinner to a person who truly knows Christ, and enters Your Kingdom. Thus, the sinner is, and is being, delivered from slavery to sin and is born unto righteousness and godliness.

This is the method You use to redeem, that is to deliver us from the three ‘Ss’ that have always been too powerful for human beings to overcome: Sin, Self and Satan, plus the lure of the world and its carnal ways.

As we pray in this month, we are asking that human responsibility will not be overlooked in our witness – that men and women, young adults, young people and children will know that they need to repent and believe in Jesus as Saviour and Lord; neither will Your divine grace and power to redeem be neglected as we point people away from themselves to Jesus the Redeemer.

We ask that we will preach about Your redemptive pathway under the Spirit’s anointing, pointing many to the human actions of repentance, faith/belief and obedience based in the finished work of Christ’s Cross.

We ask that what we say, do and highlight as a church, will be really clear to many who as yet do not know that this is Your call to them to come to You by Your Way of salvation in, and only in Christ.

It is at the Cross whereupon You punished Christ as the guilty One for all the sin and wrongdoing of sinners, after all, all have been born in sin, and have committed sin.

Thank You that Your perfect justice was perfectly upheld in Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross, and is outworked in our lives as we follow the Way of the Cross.

In fact, You punished Jesus in the place of everyone who will believe, repent and be converted, including me – may many more do so because of Telford Elim. We pray that many will follow Your Redemptive pathway. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Jan 4 – Father, thank You that Your Son was not redeeming or buying back from Satan the souls of men, women, young adults, young people nor children – You owed him nothing. No, it was Your Son paying the penalty Your word demands for the guilt that was mine in order that I can be accounted free and right before You – death, an atoning death.

We are asking You, as the party wronged and offended, against God we sin – the One demanding that justice be upheld against the guilty offenders, that many will be saved through Telford Elim’s people and ministries in 2023, and thus pass from under Your judgement to standing in Your grace and favour in Your Son.

Thank You that He satisfied perfectly the demands of divine justice – what a Redeemer. All praise, honour and glory to Him. Amen

Jan 5 – Father, a Christian cannot simply choose to be different, he or she is made different by what Your Spirit and word does in them in response to their belief and faith, as they obediently follow Your Son.

May many more people across this Borough, as a result of Telford Elim’s people and ministries, in person and online, ‘be found in Him (Jesus), not having their own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that they may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, they may attain to the resurrection from the dead’ (Philippians 3:9-11).

Thank You that this ‘righteousness’ means a right or good standing before You because it is Jesus’ perfect works and obedience which established it – His righteousness not my own – given from above, not as a result of my actions, which leads to individuals, families, and society being redemptively transformed.

We ask for many to be saved across our Borough and County as a result of our church Kingdom Building vision. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Jan 6 – Father, at the heart of Your redemptive pathway for the believer is the Cross of Jesus – it is central. Help us as a church to always keep the Cross central in all our ministry, worship, serving, giving, discipleship and fellowship.

Lord, we are not merely asking for the people we reach with the Gospel to change, non-Christians around us in this Borough and County who are in great need. No, after all, they are caught by the world, sin, self and Satan in the trap of enmity with You and therefore cannot reform themselves. As we consider this, it elevates our prayers for sinners so that they may be saved.

We pray for the blessing of the creation of a redemptive pathway which will ultimately lead them humbly to the Cross of Jesus in repentance and faith, and into Your family. We are praying for the salvation of our Borough and County. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Jan 7 – Father, a Christian is one whose expectation is elevated even beyond the really important and perfectly laudable hopes for a better life, better marriage, better job, better income or better health, to living in the centre of Your will.

Being in Your Son means that all of these things can be ours as we work out, in partnership with Your Spirit, the salvation Jesus has worked into our inner being.

The danger is that it is also possible to get caught in the trap of striving for things which are important but which really are only of secondary importance like a better prayer life, or better ability to read and understand the Bible, or to give more to You and Your work.

These are important spiritual disciplines which do positively change our lives and should be implemented. However, Your first call on each one of us is to seek first Your Kingdom and righteousness, and to live out of our right standing with You.

May our church, throughout 2023, instil this truth deeply into the hearts of children, young people and young adults, women and men across this Borough and County, and beyond, bringing many into Your Kingdom, and into Your churches as a result. In Jesus’ name and for His glory. Amen

Jan 8 – Lord Jesus, the central focus of this year is our Kingdom Building vision. I believe, this focus is not what we can do to improve our Borough and County; rather, it’s focus is equipping many more people to be Kingdom Builders – people who can lead others into saving faith in Christ, and a life of Discipleship which is Father God’s will for His people.

As we pray, fast and abstain, it is laying hold of You, Lord Jesus, following and serving You which enables us to overcome the world, Sin, Self and Satan. We pray that many will walk this redemptive pathway in 2023.

As we deny self, following You daily taking up our crosses – You replace these imposters with Your righteousness, Your Kingdom values, sharing Your qualities daily with more and more people here and online, and Your Spirit’s power and presence changing individuals, and tens, fifties, hundreds and even thousands across this Borough and County as they are saved, redeemed, and turned into disciple making disciples.

May Your salvation flow like a mighty river in and through Telford Elim, in person and online. In Your name. Amen