Day 3: Vision

Along with many in our association, our congregation is beginning 2022 with three intentional days of prayer. On this third day, we ask the Lord to fulfill his vision through us.

Genesis 12.1-3  Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Deuteronomy 6.4-9 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Malachi 4.5-6  “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Luke 1.11-17  And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²And Zechariah was troubled when he him, and fear fell upon him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷ and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Ephesians 5.25; 6.4  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Prayer: Gracious and almighty Father, so much depends on the family… you have set it in place as the foundational estate. As goes the family, so goes the neighborhood and the nations. You have chosen and sent the families of your church – including the leaders of our congregation and my own family – to be a blessing to all families of the earth. I ask that you would use us then to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, that instead of exasperating or provoking them, they would raise them lovingly in your living Word and diligently teach them your ways, talking about them at home, reading your Word around their family table and as they go. Teach us to demonstrate particular compassion to single parents, that they may experience for themselves your love and the truth of your Word. Turn the hearts of the disobedient to you and make ready for yourself a people prepared for your arrival. I ask all this in the name of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now I may go freely into the day and the work you put in front of me Lord; thank you.