Information can be found on the following:

Why we pray
Times of prayer
Prayer for a street

Why we pray

Prayer is the most important activity of our lives.

• It helps us to develop a close relationship with God - just as talking to a human helps build rapport, talking to God helps us to know Him better and to understand what He wants us to do
• It is good for our health - we can talk to God about anything and He is always there to listen to us as we get things off our chest and thus helps us to feel more at peace
• Just as in a human relationship we sometimes spend short times together talking, but at other times we set aside special time to talk, so it is with prayer. We can talk to God as we go about our daily activities, asking for help with our job, our family and social activities. But we also need times set aside to be with God by ourselves or with others to focus on God and to listen to what He has to say to us.

Does God always answer prayer?

Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

God's heart is to bless us, and his word to us is that if we spend time listening to him and ask according to his will, then we have what we ask for. However, if there is unforgiveness or unconfessed sin in our lives then this can put a barrier between us and God and we may have to wait for an answer tour prayer until we have put ourselves right with God.

1 John 5:14 "this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him"

Times of Prayer

We meet for prayer at the times shown below. Prayer also features largely within our church services and cell groups. We also have the 'Prayer for a Street' prayer initiative.

Prayer for a Street

Many of us in the fellowship have felt an increasing burden for prayer and a desire to reach out to our neighbours who live in the streets around the church. A new prayer initiative to which the cell groups are committing themselves is called Prayer for a street and will help us to both pray for and reach out to our neighbours.

Prayer for a street is quite simple: every second month we choose a particular street in our locale and pray for the residents of that street. At the start of the month we will deliver a leaflet through each door in the street informing the residents that we will be praying for them, as well as giving an opportunity for them to send in particular prayer requests that they would like us to pray for. Requests can be sent by post, email, telephone, or brought personally to us. The leaflet also shows a list of our various meetings throughout the week (with a warm invitation to come and join with us) as well as giving a brief testimony that God has answered many prayers in our lives.

There is a human life-story and the need for a Saviour behind every door in the street and we must allow the Lord to touch our hearts with this need. While we won’t actually be physically knocking on doors, we do offer the opportunity for earnest seekers to contact us and for the residents to be made aware that we care enough to pray for them. My experience is that many non-churched people appreciate being prayed for, and for their situations to be lifted up to God in prayer.

The Lord wants to increase our vision - both for ourselves and for our neighbours. Prayer does make a difference - many of us are realising this more and more and are committing ourselves to a deeper life of prayer. And prayer works! We will see specific answers to prayers and so will those whom we pray for.

This prayer initiative offers an exciting opportunity for us to ‘step out in faith’, calling upon the Lord to bless our neighbours - and He will! It is imperative that we, as God’s holy people, are a Holy Family of Believers who meet together in a House of Prayer with a Heart for Outreach.