Additional Thoughts:

Prayer should not be regarded “as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”  E.M. Bounds

In Exodus 17:10-13 we are given a picture of a type of prayer:

“So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”

Just as Aaron and Hur physically held up Moses’ hands to help win the battle so we can hold each other up in prayer to help win battles.  Our battles come in many different ways.  Sometimes we are surprised by how much we have to fight.  Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

At Emmanuel we want to be a church that prays for each other:

•  Sunday mornings opportunity is given for people to come forward to have prayer.
• Sunday mornings there are people praying during the services for all who are in the building ministering as well as those who are in the pews.
• We have prayer chains that take requests and intercede one at a time.
• We have teams who sign up to pray for a pastor and they receive e-mails of specific prayer requests to help them know how to pray, and a prayer/fasting team.
• Our Life Groups are also key “prayer meetings” for our church family.

The prayer ministry is not “up front” and in the spot light, but rather a quiet  yet powerful ministry of support.  If you are interested in getting involved in our prayer ministry please contact the Church office.