In the past, Detroit Church has set up a prayer room with various prayer stations for individuals and groups to come and have space to engage with God. As we seek a fast that is pleasing to the Lord, we are encouraging our Body to bring the active creative prayer to our homes. We humble ourselves before Him in prayer. We put our faith in action to love those around us. We give ourselves to the relentless pursuit of justice. We step out of the common rhythms of life to engage God in prayer. Below are ways we can make space for more creative prayer and action in our daily lives. 

BOTH WEEKS
For both weeks, we have set daily prayer rhythms using the model ACTS - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Below are ideas for you and your family for each of these categories. These can be done any day and over the course of the fast.

Adoration:

  • Spend time reading the psalms, write a poem/ song to the Lord

  • Sit and color/paint/draw while listening to worship music

  • Spend time in nature and worship the Creator of it all (when the weather is safe to do so for you)

  • For families (can be done by individuals as well): Go through the ABCs of God’s attributes. You could do this around the breakfast or dinner table, discussing a couple of letters each day (26 letters over 14 days). Another way you could go about this would be to make and hang a poster with the letters of the alphabet that you and your family add to each day, allowing for multiple words for each letter. Look up scriptures that exemplify these attributes and read them together.

    • For help thinking through some letters, you can find several different lists online that people have created. Here is one example.


Confession:

  • Ask Holy Spirit if there is anyone in your life He is asking you to apologize to. Depending on the person, geography, and situation, ask Him how He would have you go about it: a phone call, meeting up in person, an email, a message, a letter, etc… We are called to reconciliation that usually comes through our own humility, going low, and repenting to those in our lives where we have caused pain and separation.

  • Bring light to darkness. Go into a dark room in your home and keep the light off. Light a candle or turn on a flashlight. Even the dimmest light illuminates the darkest spaces. Sin and broken thinking are bigger, scarier, and more powerful in the dark than it is in the light. Is there something you are leaving in the darkness - thoughts that you haven’t shared (fears, worry, unkindness, etc…) or hidden iniquity in your life? Begin by bringing those to God in repentance. Then call a trusted brother or sister in Christ to confess it to them. Break the power of darkness by bringing these things into the light.

  • For families: Pour some sugar or flour on a cookie sheet in a smooth layer. Using your finger, write something in the sugar/ flour you need to confess. Gently shake the cookie sheet and watch the word disappear. This is the forgiveness of God, His mercy, as you repent before Him.

  • For families: As we have done in the prayer rooms, have a bowl of water, paper towels, and washable markers. Write down your confession on the paper towel and then swirl it in the bowl of water, watch it wash away. The same is the forgiveness of God when we repent of our sins to Him.


Thanksgiving:

  • Write down 10 things you are thankful for each morning and each evening.

  • For families: Thankful fingers and toes (10 of each). With your child, think of 10 things they are thankful for each day, using their hands and/or feet to count them.

  • Every time you are stuck at a red light, think of three things you are thankful for.


Supplication:

  • Create a prayer list (can be incomplete now) and put it somewhere that is frequently in your line of sight throughout the day to be a reminder for you to pray. Places like your refrigerator, your bathroom mirror, above your kitchen sink, somewhere in your car, the lockscreen on your phone, etc... You could also use all of these spaces and have different prayer requests in different places. You can use post it notes, pictures, or paper and tape/magnets for these reminders. Pray each time you see the reminders.

  • Paper chain prayers: cut different colored paper into strips. Assign the colors to mean different things you are praying for: family, the lost, the world, thanksgiving, repentance, etc… write on a strip and make it into a circle using glue, tape, or staples. When you make your next circle, link it to the first before connecting the strip into a circle. Keep going. As the days pass, your paper chain will grow. This can be done as individuals or as families.

  • For families: Having recently wrapped up the Christmas holiday full of wish lists, we can explain prayer lists to our children. Different from a wish list, we write down prayer lists to remind ourselves and God of things we are praying for. Make prayer lists with your children at the start of the fast and pray through them each day with your kids.


DAILY PRAYER THEMES

During this time of prayer and fasting, we will also have a theme we are praying through each day. These theme specific ideas can be done on the day for that theme or another day as you’re able.


Monday January 15 - Family 

  • Write down each name in your family and the good you see in them. Thank God for how He made them. Share and encourage them with this good if possible, whether in person or via technology.


Tuesday January 16 - The Lost

  • Each time you go to grab something or are “looking for something,” use it as a reminder to pray for the lost today. Some examples can include: going to find your keys, your phone, your water; a Daniel fast snack; looking for your shoes or your kid’s shoes; going to grab that thing you need for your child; going to grab a diaper and wipes; going to grab your laptop or work notes; looking for a book or resource; looking for a spice in your spice cabinet; looking for all the ingredients your need to cook a new Daniel fast friendly meal, etc… 

  • For families: Give you child coins, legos, beads, etc.., could be all one kind or various kinds depending on the child and what you have available. It’s best if it is something that they value. Take one away and ask what they would do to get it back. This is how God feels about each person and why He sent Jesus to come: that all may be saved. Explain this further using Luke 15 to them: God searches for the one lost coin until it is found. God leaves the 99 for the 1. He cares about each of His children. Take time to pray for the lost together, those far from God. Ask them if there is anyone in their lives who they know do not believe in Jesus and pray together for them by name.


Wednesday January 17 - Detroit

  • If you live in the city, get out of the house; go somewhere in the city - park, museum, library, cafe, local business, big business, etc… and pray for the city. Choose somewhere you love, somewhere you rarely visit, somewhere that holds significance to the city’s history. Let where you choose guide how you pray for the city.

  • If you don’t live in the city, pull up a map of the city on your phone or computer and pray for the city as you study and look at the map. Praying over specific roads, areas, neighborhoods.

  • Prayer walk/ drive for 30 minutes in your neighborhood and/or the city.

  • Pray for your neighbors. Put your prayer and love in action - Is there something tangible you could do to love them and see them in this season? Make them cookies, shovel the snow from their driveway/ sidewalk, take them a meal.


Thursday January 18 - DPSCD

  • Do you live near a DPSCD school or have a relationship with any teachers, admin, or students within DPSCD? 

    • Pray for them by name. Pray for their classrooms.

    • Call the main office or reach out to a teacher you know and ask if they are in need of any supplies that you could donate. Many elementary schools in particular this time of year are in need of more tissues and disinfecting wipes in their classrooms. Ask how to best bring these supplies for donation.

  • DPSCD has meetings open to the public to hear about what is going on in the district. Go to the District calendar and see if you can join some of these virtual and in person meetings over the rest of the school year to learn what is going on, what is coming, and how to pray. There is a Parent Listening session next Tuesday 1/23 at 5pm. Click the link via the calendar to join.


Friday January 19 - Business and Economy

  • We are quick to take part in the broken systems of business, economy, and consumerism. It is the natural way of our society. Take time to dismantle this ideology in your own home by trying one or more of these approaches to our consumerism:

    • Choose a drawer, a bookshelf, a closet, or a room in your house to clean out, getting rid of what you do not use, need, or want any longer. Check out some of the places listed here or here to donate your no longer needed items for those in need.

    • Choose to not make any purchases during the course of this fast with the exception of food/ liquids needed or most basic household items (toilet paper, paper towel, hygiene) that you will need during the time of the fast. Try to do this in as few shopping purchases as necessary. We can spend so much time not just making purchases but considering what things we want to buy. Be intentional to limit these purchases and thought processes during the fast.

    • Take inventory of where and how you make your purchases throughout the year. Are there purchases you could source differently to come from a small business owner, locally owned or sourced, fair trade? 

  • Google Fortune 100 companies and choose two or three that impact your life regularly. Pray for those companies, leaders, and employees. Pray that they would have and use the wisdom of heaven. Pray for justice in their practices and policies. Pray that they would seek to use their power and influence to impact our world for the good of people and the environment.


Saturday January 20 - America

  • Look at a map of the USA. For as many states as you can, write down one word that comes to mind when you think of that state. Take time to reflect on these words. Ask Holy Spirit if there is a different word He would use for that state. Is the word you think of how God thinks of them? If not, repent before Him and ask Him for His eyes and ears to see rightly. 

  • Choose one aspect of American culture: Media (Radio, TV, Streaming, News, Journalism, etc…), Entertainment (actors, athletes, content creators, etc…), Arts (music, literature, physical art, etc…), Business, Education, Health and Wellness. Consider names and entities who are leaders or of influence in those aspects and pray for them. Pray for salvations, for favor for believers within those industries, for God’s Kingdom to breakthrough in our culture. That culture would be more impacted by the going forth of the gospel than the church is by the culture going forth in our midst.

Sunday January 21 - CREATIVE PRAYER STATIONS @ 9:30am PRIOR TO OUR SUNDAY GATHERING

Monday January 22 - Government Authorities

  • Choose a branch of government (city, state, federal, Congress, SCOTUS) and write down the names of key leaders within that branch of government. Learn their names, look at pictures of their faces, perhaps read some biographical information, understand better their roles and key decisions they are facing, if possible. Pray through those names after your research of each one.

  • For families: Rather than in depth study of one branch of government, as is age appropriate, study main individuals at each level: Mayor, Governor, Lt. Governor, Michigan AG, District congressperson, Senator, President, VP, Main cabinet members, SCOTUS (by name or in concept). 

  • Reflect on the following verse as you prepare your heart to pray: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” - 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Tuesday January 23 - Global Affairs

  • We can’t carry every burden or crisis. Only God can do that. Which one is tugging at your heart? Take time to pray for that one today, knowing that God sees each and carries them. He is Lord of all. 

    • Make a cross using a whole piece of paper or a larger one with non-translucent tape on a table. With other computer paper, cut out several hearts small enough that all could fit in the cross you make, but large enough for you to write a few words. As you consider various nations and global affairs, write the names of the nation(s) in a heart. Pray for that nation or situation. Take time to color the heart, write prayers you pray, hopes you have, etc… Once you are finished with that heart, place it in the cross. Surrender the burdens of this world to the only One who can carry them all. Consider these verses as you lay them at His feet.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:7

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” - Matthew 11:28

  • For families: Depending on ages, you can still do this activity with a focus more on praying for various nations rather than global affairs and crises.


Wednesday January 24 - American Church

  • Each of us has our own story, upbringing, church context, denominational history. Take time to reflect on your journey with the Lord and how He first drew you to Himself: Where were you? How old? What kind of church did you first attend? What songs impacted your walk early on? Take time to listen to a meaningful song from that time or perhaps a recent sermon from that denomination or church. Thank God for His church in America and how He meets people throughout it faithfully.

    • For families: Parents, take time to share some of your testimony and history with God and His church. Play a song from early in your walk that still holds a special place in your heart. Worship God together.

  • Despite the brokenness we may see in denominationalism, Christ has come to cleanse His whole American bride. Using a paper towel and a washable marker write all or part of Ephesians 5:25-27. Then, write down the names of different Church leaders and denominations. Once you have listed those that come to mind, dip this paper towel into a bowl of water and watch the paper towel return to white - without spot or blemish. Thank God for His sanctifying work in His church.

    • “...as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” - Ephesians 5:25b-27

  • Allow Holy Spirit to lead your prayer for His American church: How is Holy Spirit praying for the church? He may inspire you in your own creative venture to consider this part of His Church, how He sees it, and how to best pray for it. 


Thursday January 25 - Persecuted Church

  • Go to https://www.icommittopray.com/# - In the menu is a button for “View all Prayer Requests” or underneath people can select to view by country and pray for specific prayer requests as well as nations in which the church faces persecution globally. You can also download their app here (Apple) or here (Android). The app sends a notification daily to pray for different countries where Christians are being persecuted.

Friday January 26 - Church in Detroit

  • There are somewhere between 600-800 churches in the 138 sq miles that make up the city of Detroit. Many of us live barely down the street from at least one. What’s a church you frequently pass by in your daily rhythms of life? Take time to look up what you can about the church - any history, denomination, current pastor/ leaders, programs/ events they have going on, etc… Take time to pray for that church: pray for their leaders, the body, the programs they have and how they seek to share the Gospel in the city and love people as Christ’s ambassadors.

Saturday January 27 - Detroit Church

  • Choose a leader (pastors, elders, DC kids, set up/tear down, first impressions, marrieds, 3130, Men of Iron, YD, etc… ALL leaders) and pray for them specifically. Write one a short note of encouragement or a thank you.

  • Meet someone new on Sunday 1/21 and pray for them by name all week. Check in with them intentionally again on Sunday 1/28.

  • Ask Holy Spirit how you can commit to show up for the body at Detroit Church this year. Write it down. Tell someone. Do it.