What do I say?
Have you ever prepared to meet with a friend and wondered what you would talk about? We can have the same difficulty in our prayers to God. We can wonder, “What will I say?” This Prayer Focus page gives you some “conversation starters” that will be renewed regularly.
Of course Jesus has taught his disciples the basic pattern for our prayers:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
Please pray for me.
If you have concerns that you would like to share with the pastoral staff so that they can be praying for you, please write them on the back of the blue attendance card on Sunday morning or email Cindy Riggle at cindyriggle@crossroadspca.net
Help me pray for others.
Each Sunday morning at Crossroads, during the pastoral prayer, we pray for our congregation, community, country, and world. We are often more aware of our own community’s needs than we are the needs of others around the world. To help focus our prayers for others around the globe, we are moving alphabetically through the list of nations as found at www.operationworld.org. Please visit this site for specific items to lift to God in prayer.
Monthly Prayer Focus Updates
Prayer Focus for Japan – Sunday, March 19
Japan, Asia: The missions vision of Japanese Christians is noteworthy. There are up to 300 Japanese serving in 34 lands around the world. However, churches generally have little vision for missions and little understanding of the challenges facing cross-cultural missionaries. Mission training programs for prospective Japanese missionaries are increasing, both in Japanese and in […]
Prayer Focus for Jamaica – Sunday, March 12
Jamaica, Caribbean: The country finds itself in the midst of moral and social collapse. Powerful South American drug cartels, using Jamaica as a transshipment point for cocaine destined for the USA, wield great influence. This fuels violence, putting Jamaica fourth globally for murders per capita. Rape and domestic abuse are widespread. As part of an […]
Prayer Focus for Israel – Sunday, February 19
Israel, Asia: Followers of Jesus in Israel are likewise a mix of Messianic Jews, foreign believers and Arab-Israeli Christians. All three groups have grown recently – especially Messianic and expatriate believers – the result of both immigration and conversion. There are over 120 Hebrew-speaking gatherings. Russian-speaking congregations are the next-largest number (as many as 50), […]
Prayer Focus for Iraq – Sunday, February 5
Iraq, Asia: The Church is characterized by fragmentation – denominationally, ethnically and politically, despite the great opposition all Christians face. The majority are in the Catholic-linked Chaldean Church, but others are part of the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Protestant denominations or even a Muslim-background believers’ network. Some in the historic […]
Pray Focus for Iran – Sunday, January 29
Iran, Asia: The Iranian Diaspora is around four million. Most have found refuge in the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Turkey, Gulf States and other lands – where they can be evangelized. Western countries are making it harder for Iranians to immigrate. Pray for: a) Diaspora churches. There are probably about 800 Persian-speaking Iranian churches and […]
Prayer Focus for Indonesia – January 22, 2017
Indonesia, Asia: A spiritual conflict rages for Indonesia. Ancient and strong occult powers seek to oppose the influence of the gospel, while modern Muslim stratagems seek to eliminate Christianity and remove the presence of the good news. Pray specifically for the binding of these powers and for continued growth of the Church in the midst […]
Prayer Focus for Haiti – Sunday, December 18
Haiti, Caribbean: Evangelical Christians have steadily grown in number over the decades, through evangelism, love in action and by openly standing against voodooism and the spiritual forces behind it. Vision Haiti (HAVIDEC), a concerted prayer movement that includes many denominations and organizations, is determined to see deliverance for Haiti through prayer. The power of the […]
Prayer Focus for Guyana – Sunday, December 11
Guyana, Latin America: Most Afro-Guyanese and mixed-race Guyanese are Christian, but nominalism is widespread, stable two-parent families rare (a legacy of the time of slavery) and syncretistic and deviant beliefs common. Obeah Spiritism and witchcraft, Rastafarianism and foreign sects as well as the racist Nation of Islam are influential here. Pray for the true and […]
Prayer Focus for Guinea – Sunday, December 4
Guinea, Africa: The Christian population is still a small minority and concentrated in Conakry and the southeast forests. It is overwhelmingly Kissi, Kpelle and Toma in composition. The Evangelical Protestant Church (EPEG) – primarily affiliated with the CMA and MPA – has long been the largest Protestant group. Pray that their influence might be […]
Prayer Focus for Guatemala – Sunday, November 27
Guatemala, Latin America: The future of evangelicalism is uncertain. While there has been great growth since the 1960s, especially among Pentecostals, much of this growth is superficial, impressive only in number. Discipleship is sorely lacking as a deep value in most evangelical churches. Syncretism is nearly as common in many evangelical churches – particularly among […]
Why don’t we pray for countries that really need our prayers? Countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine. Countries like Russia and United States?
We pray for countries in alphabetical order every week throughout the year. If there is a particular need or event in a country we will break with the schedule and resume it the following week. This way all countries and people around the world are in our prayers.