By Matt Huey

This week we had between 16 men gather together to seek the Lord Jesus. Pastor Cliff led us this week, and began by talking about some of the things we can expect during this prayer time in the future, including splitting up in smaller prayer groups, and even walking throughout the building and neighborhoods praying for our church and the homes in the surrounding community. We then opened it up for a time of sharing of the opportunities God had orchestrated in the past week to meet and invite unbelievers to our church (e.g., Tuesday’s Mars Hill BBQ and neighborhood block parties were great opportunities) and/or share the good news of Jesus Christ with them through word or deed. We then continued to walk through the book of Colossians, and this week we meditated on chapter 1, verses 9-14 (below):

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Reflections on this passage included that we should be exceedingly thankful that God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness” and has removed the veil over our hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:16). Our resulting desire should be to prayerfully intercede for others, as Paul did, to change our communities for his glory as people turn to Jesus and bear fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galations 5:22-23). If we find it difficult to pray for our communities as Paul did here for the Colossian church, we can start by asking God to change our hearts to do so. We were also encouraged to have a vision through prayer for each of us to experience knowledge, good fruit, endurance, patience and most of all joy in Jesus.

We then moved into our time of prayer by getting our hearts right with God through silent and vocal confession, and then focusing outward through intercession for our church and surrounding communities of West Seattle.

Prayers this week:

• Pray that all of West Seattle would know that Mars Hill exists in this part of the city. Pray that God will bring many unbelievers to our church on Sundays, into our community groups during the week, and to our summer gathering events as they are planned. Pray that each person would hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray against Satan, his tricks, and divisive attempts to hamper the mission of Mars Hill and lead people astray from the truth.
• Pray for the pastors that will be preaching the upcoming sermon series on the book of Jonah. Pray that God will use them to boldly make known the mystery of the gospel (Eph 6:18-20).
• Pray that God will bring people before each Sunday service to pray and intercede for those that will be coming to church and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that he will grant the wisdom of Heaven to the prayer team that prays for people during communion, and that he will bring more men to the prayer gathering on Wednesday mornings.
• Pray for the launch of the 5pm service – that God would grant wisdom to the launch team on how to prepare, and will continue to rise up volunteers to help with the logistics. Pray that God will bring many people to the service that could otherwise not attend on Sunday mornings.
• Pray for the Mars Hill elders – that there would be a spirit of love, unity and humility among them as they pursue the will of Jesus Christ in their own lives, the lives of their families, and the life of our church.
• Pray that God would instill a heart of mission in everyone attending Mars Hill. Pray for our community group leaders to have strength and perseverance as they continue to shepherd and encourage their groups to be on mission by reaching out to unbelievers in their lives, and by embracing parts of their communities through constant prayer and service.
• Pray for the specific neighborhood in which God has sovereignly placed you (Acts 17:26,27), and the specific individuals that you have met in those places.
• Pray that the hearts of the believers at Mars Hill would be focused on Jesus such that it becomes a joy to faithfully and sacrificially give of their time, talents, and treasure to the mission of Jesus Christ at Mars Hill (2 Corinthians 9:7).