This is our final post in our partial fast to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the world's poor. We hope you will join us tomorrow for our Global Missions Fair, with a heart prepared to learn how God would have you engage and serve among the poor around the world. Hopefully these posts have helped you to form a habit of praying for the poor. I would love to hear about your experience with family meals of rice and beans and how God has moved your heart this week. Please post in the comments anything you don't mind sharing. And now, back to our prayers.

Luke 14:13-14
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

• Pray that God would give you opportunities to engage the poor relationally. Ask God to help you love them the way God loves them: unconditionally, as precious children.
• Ask God to move you beyond a general love for the poor and into true friendships with those God has called you to serve. May God move you beyond compassion into brotherhood.
• As you befriend those who are poor, may you be blessed beyond measure. Although they cannot repay you financially, they often have so much to teach us about generosity, loyalty and authenticity. Ask God to provide and preserve deep friendships that cross economic and demographic divides.

As we continue this partial fast to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the world's poor (see previous posts for details), we hope to develop regular habits of praying for the poor.

Proverbs 28:27 He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Living in suburbia, it can be easy to push the issue of poverty to the recesses of our minds. We get caught up in the busy-ness of many good things, but our lives are far removed from the plight of the poor around the world.

• Pray that we will not "close our eyes" to the poor living in the Majority world. Pray that God would help keep them on your heart and mind, and as a focus of your prayers and generosity, on a regular basis.
• Pray that we would, as VRBC's missions strategy says, "intentionally [go] where we would not otherwise go" even here in the Metroplex. Pray that we will not "close our eyes" to the blighted communities around us. Pray that God would remind you to pray for our partners at Cornerstone and for all those who are working among the poorest places in DFW. Pray that God would provide you with opportunities to get directly involved yourself in these areas.
• Pray that we would not "close our eyes" to the poor in our own neighborhoods, schools and communities. Especially in this downturned economy, many are still living in homes and driving cars that are now far above their means, trapped in a lifestyle they cannot afford. Their poverty may not be obvious, but they may be struggling to put food on the table, caught in a cycle of despair and disgrace. Pray that God would open your eyes to their plight and give you opportunities to serve then with compassion and generosity.

Today we continue our partial fast, to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the poor around the world. For more details on what we have invited the VRBC congregation to do, please see previous posts from this week. Check this blog each day this week for Scriptures and suggestions to help guide our prayers.

Is poverty our problem? Sometimes it is tempting to disassociate, to think about it as someone else's problem, especially if it's not right in front of our face every day. Consider the following Scriptures:

Jeremiah 22:15-16

“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord.

• Pray that God will take away your lust for "more and more."
• Remember that it is God who has provided you with food and drink. Pray that God will teach you "the secret of being content" (Philippians 4:12).
• Pray that God will show you what it means to truly know God, a knowledge not just of right belief but of right actions, to do what is right and just and to defend the cause of the poor and needy.

Luke 12:48b


From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

• Remember that "your" possessions are really gifts from God, and that God has chosen you to steward these gifts. Thank God for entrusting you with these gifts.
• Jesus spoke this verse to define what it meant to be a faithful and wise steward. Ask God to shape your identity as a steward, rather than an owner, of all that God has entrusted to you.
• Ask God what you are to do with what God has entrusted to you.

Luke 3:7-11
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “...Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.... “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

• As we consider all that God has done for we who didn't deserve it, pray for a spirit of repentance and gratitude.
• Ask that God would shape your gratitude into generosity.
• Ask that God would teach us this kind of sacrificial sharing with those in need.

 

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pray-ers :)

Thank you for continuing in our partial fast--minimal amounts of beans, rice and tap water--in order to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the world's poor. Today's prayer suggestions will be a little different. John Robb of World Vision once wrote, "Wherever in the world there is significant development--people coming to Christ, health improvements, economic opporunities, adoption of kingdom values--it is the direct result of Christians praying." May that be true of us!! We want to build a habit of praying for the poor, so that we can say like Samuel, "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12:23). Today we hope to give you some practical suggestions and habits for praying for the poor on a daily basis.

First, it is important that we ask God to give us a heart for the poor. The righteous Job, even in the midst of terrible hardships himself, could say, "Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?" (Job 30:25). Have you wept? Has your soul grieved? Ask that God would break your heart for the same things that break God's heart.

When you are ready to pray with a heart full of love and compassion for the poor, here are seven steps toward integrating prayer for the poor in your daily life (excerpted from The Hole in Our Gospel, pg 291-292). By the way, these are great habits to form with your kids as well!

1. When you take your morning shower, pray for families in poor countries who do not have access to clean water, forcing mothers to spend hours collecting inadequate water and causing children to suffer and even die from water-related diseases.
2. When you pack your lunch or your child's lunch, pray for the one billion people who are chronically hungry in the world today.
3. As you commute to your job, pray for the adults around the world who can't find consistent work to feed their families, or pray for the millions of children forced into harmful or exploitative labor.
4. When you drop off your child at school, pray for children around the world who cannot get an education because of poverty or discrimination.
5. As you take a vitamin, pray for the families without adequate health care, leaving them and especially their children vulnerable to preventable diseases.
6. When you arrive home after work, pray for the children and families who are homeless due to poverty, conflict, or natural disasters.
7. As you tuck your children into bed, guide them to pray for the millions of children who have lost their parents around the world--especially the fifteen million AIDS orphans around the world, many of whom must survive without guardians.

Today we continue our partial fast to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the world's poor. For more information on our invitation to join us in the subsistence diet of minimal amounts of rice, beans and tap water, please check out previous posts from this week. Be sure to check this blog each day for Scriptures and prayer suggestions.

Prayers for Tuesday, September 25th:

Luke 4:18-19

He has sent me...to release the oppressed,

• Pray for those who have no voice, who are unable to speak out against their oppressors.
• Pray for those who are held captive in slavery, including those who are trafficked for sex or forced labor.

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

• Pray for Christians around the world to be united in love and charity, that those of us who have much would pour out blessings on those who have little.

This week we are inviting everyone to join us in putting ourselves in the shoes of the world's poor. We are committing to eat a subsistence diet--a minimal amount of rice, beans and tap water--in order that we might share the burden of those battling hunger and malnutrition around the globe. Decide with your family how you'd like to participate: one meal, one meal each day, one day this week, or even all week. Use this partial fast to focus your attention and prayers on behalf of those living in poverty around the world. Each day we will post Scripture and prayer prompts to help guide your prayers.

Prayers for Monday, September 24th:

Continuing from Luke 4:18

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
• Pray for those who languish in captivity but have committed no crime. Pray for those who are imprisoned for their faith in Christ and for those imprisoned due to injustice.

and recovery of sight for the blind,
• Pray for those with no access to health care.

• Pray for those who have been intentionally maimed due to malice, because of gender, race, or class.

• Pray that those hardships that blind people to the love and light of Christ might be removed.

Identifying with and praying for the poor

Scripture is replete with commands to love, serve and give generously to the poor. This year, VRBC's Global Missions Fair will center around Jesus' mission statement in Luke 4:18, "to preach good news to the poor." Most of us have never had to wonder where our next meal would come from, or where we would lay our head at night. Even those who grew up in poverty in the US had access to health care and a basic education. It is hard for us to identify with the poor around the world.

This week, we challenge you to eat a subsistence diet--a minimal amount of rice, beans and water. Decide with your family whether you will do this for one meal, one day, one meal/day, or even the entire week. Consider it a partial fast, a way to focus our attention and our prayers on behalf of the poor around the world. Each day, we will post some Scriptures and/or thoughts on this blog to help guide your prayers. At the end of the week, when we come back together for worship, Bible study, and the Global Missions Fair, we will have hearts and minds prepared for what God would like to teach us.

Prayers and Scripture for Sunday, September 23rd:

Luke 4:18

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

• Pray that the Spirit of the Lord would lead you in the path of Jesus. Ask that the Spirit would guide you, teach you, and give you a heart of compassion for the poor.
• Pray that God's Spirit would make clear your "anointing"--your calling--to the poor.
• Pray that God would reveal to you what truly constitutes "good news" to the poor. Be assured that the gospel is good news, but it is good news to the whole person, not just to the soul.