Take It to the Lord in Prayer

A lot of ministry at Holy Cross happens publicly. Pastors Brauner and Meinz preach sermons in front of the church each Sunday, and we hear the choir and worship teams sing. We can see volunteers handing out food from our pantry, and children, youth, and adults fill our classrooms each week. A lot of ministry at Holy Cross also happens privately. One such ministry group is our faithful prayer warriors who are part of our email prayer chain and/or our intercessory prayer group.

By Connie Bond

Our intercessory prayer group has met for the past 8 years. A group who prays together stays together! We spend 45 minutes in study and digging deeper into difficult questions that arise. Then we pray for about 45 minutes. Often, we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and sometimes we are wiping tears by the time we say Amen. We are filled with peace and strength knowing God has heard our prayers and we trust Him to answer these prayers according to His will.

Our group welcomes anyone, and you don’t have to pray out loud.
We pray in random order over anything that the Holy Spirit lays on our heart.
We usually begin by acknowledging the attributes of our Sovereign Lord such as all knowing, all powerful, being everywhere, being loving, being merciful, and being caring; and often someone will read a Psalm to ground us in our purpose.

Praying keeps us aware of the needs of our Holy Cross family and friends. We pray for our church and school staff, families of the staff, our church boards, church ministries, our school and Sunday school classes. We pray for the Honduras team, our youth, and our outreach ministries. We pray for our local, state, and national government. We pray for missionaries far away and in our neighborhood. We pray for those harmed in earthquakes, floods, and fires. We pray for our prodigals. We pray for our military and first responders.

Now you say, “And you do this in 45 minutes?” We try. Each month brings different situations and needs for prayer.

Is there a burden or problem you are carrying and would like it to be lifted to God in prayer? Do you have an ache in your heart for a prodigal you would like us to pray for? The Lord tells us to pray without ceasing, and we have family and friends we lift in prayer over and over. Do you have a situation in your family, at work, in school, or with friends that needs prayer? Let us know, and we will bring it to the Lord in prayer.

What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer.  Have you heard that before?  It’s in one of my favorite hymns:

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!

Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear

All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.

I can’t NOT tell you about my experience in prayer this last year. As I prayed about my cancer diagnosis, I became more aware of God working and orchestrating my life; one blessing of coincidence/providence after another. No matter what happens in my life, I KNOW that God is here with me.

If you have a prayer concern, we also have a prayer chain of 35 members of our church who are contacted by email as soon as possible to raise your concern in prayer. Just contact Marcy with this request.

Prayer is so powerful, and we have many options at Holy Cross for you to connect.