This past weekend I completed the sermon series, “Patterns of Prayer.” I hope the lessons learned and the prayers answered during the series will remain with me and our church for years to come.

I closed this series with a message from Acts 4:23-31 where the first church prayed together for boldness and for God to affirm his gospel with divine power. In the story, God answered powerfully.

Praying is a glorious privilege. To think that the God of the universe invites us to pray together and participate in his work is humbling and convicting.

Here are some further answers to prayer that I trust will encourage you as you pray this week:

• God has answered in the midst of church members’ health concerns. In one situation, God gave strength and healing to a member recovering from stints. In another situation, God is helping a member who’s been isolated to feel better and be more able to strengthen her body and mind through physical therapy.
• One church member prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel with a DOT worker. This week, God opened a specific door for him to hear the gospel.
• Another church member is traveling out of country with Samaritan’s Purse. The team will be setting up a hospital and offices and has had tents locked down in customs in the Sudan. Their family, team members, and Sunday school class have been praying for the tents to be released and the work to begin. This week, customs released the tents and the work started.
• A set of parents in the church have been praying for their adult children to walk with Christ more closely. Their daughter has struggled over the years with addictions, esteem, and poor decisions even after making a profession of faith. Her parents never stopped praying. In answer to this prayer, their daughter reached a breaking point and called a family friend for help. That call led her to listen to a sermon that made her faith in Christ real. To quote her mom, “God OPENED her eyes in an instant to SEE.” She’s confronted troubling spiritual issues of her past and surrendered to Christ’s Lordship. Now she’s on fire in her walk with God.
• Adam and Ruth Huntley, serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators for Central Africa. They are mission partners with Wilkesboro Baptist. They’ve been in the states due to civil conflict in their mission country as well as Covid-19. They have prayed specifically to be able to check their translation work with the Bhogoto translation team in the Central African Republic while in the states. God opened that door, and Adam and Ruth are able to translate while in the states and check their translations with the team in country.

God answers prayers. Will you pray specifically this week?

If you need something to pray for, pray that I (we) at Wilkesboro Baptist will have opportunities to share the gospel this week and will speak the word with boldness.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash