Scripture: John
10:1–10
Having had this reading earlier in the week, please resist
the temptation to skim it over (although if you have time for nothing more,
please skim!) and take your devotion time to re-read the Gospel lesson slowly.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read the
Scripture lesson, and ask him to teach you to pray, opening your heart and mind
to pray according to God’s will.
Prayer
On Fridays you will be encouraged to pray for a variety of
prayer requests. The hope is that through these prayer requests we will,
obviously, intercede for those who need prayer, and that we will learn to think
more broadly in our prayers. If time is short, you could simply pray the Lord’s
Prayer.
Pray for the flock to listen to
the Shepherd’s voice; that all Christians would hear God’s Word, be
strengthened in faith, confronted with their sin, comforted with Christ’s
forgiveness, and guided to live to righteousness.
Pray for those outside of the
flock to hear the Shepherd’s voice; that people will hear Jesus’ call to faith through
the Word of God in the witness of God’s people, that the Holy Spirit would
create faith in them, and that many will be saved and come to the Shepherd and
Overseer of their souls.
Pray for comfort and trust as we
go through times of suffering; particularly for the persecuted, but also for
those who suffer strained relationships, hurt feelings, disapproval, and the
verbal abuse because they seek to live according to God’s will.
Pray for the sick, the dying, the
grieving, the hurting, and the hopeless.
Pray for Christ’s protection and
provision as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death; understanding
that the valley is both this life we live in and the time of our physical
death.
Pray for pastors and all who
serve the Good Shepherd to lead the flock and to proclaim his Word to his
people; that they would do so humbly, boldly, faithfully, skillfully and
joyfully.
Pray that the mission of Christ
to give life in abundance to all who believe in him would always be contrasted
with the thief’s work of stealing, killing, and destroying in our minds and in
our worldview so that we would never see death as the solution to our problems,
but we would seek to bring life and faith into all situations.
Pray that the people of God
would be devoted to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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