Week of Prayer: 9-13 September 2024
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Dan 12:3)
What creates vision?
Vance Havner said: “vision must be followed by venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” Someone else said: “vision without execution is hallucination!”
But what creates vision that then leads to action?
As we read Acts 17:16-34, there are two key ingredients that created this vision/action combination for Paul in Athens. He saw the need (“the city was full of idols” – verse 16) and saw the opportunity (the synagogue, the marketplace and Areopagus – verses 17, 22). So seeing Need and Opportunity led to Vision and Action. This acronym provides a useful little way of remembering the challenge to be involved in global mission (the same is true for local gospel work).
Actually, this star imagery (for that is what a NOVA is) reminds us of a couple of verses in the Bible related to sharing the Gospel.
Paul refers to living in a crooked generation and the need to “shine among them like stars in the sky” (Phil 2:15). It is quite possible that he has in mind the same analogy from Dan 12:3 (“those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever”). Stars are big and bright and beautiful. For the week of prayer we will be looking at various types of ministry under the heading of “Shining like stars in the sky.”
Themes of the week:
Monday: evangelism
Tuesday: church planting
Wednesday: medical ministry
Thursday: majority world mission sending
Friday: training
And our prayer for all our mission partners is that as they obey “Let your light shine before men” many will “glorify our Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:16)
Praying for gospel progress
To that end, we are delighted to be planning our second UFM week of prayer (9-13 September). It will follow a similar format to last year with a daily email and opportunities to join us each day on Zoom (12:30 and 19:30). We will hear of gospel progress in different areas of ministry across different parts of the world and pray into these situations. Do join us during the week and maybe you could arrange a physical UFM prayer meeting where you are based!
Recently we asked for feedback on both the prayer calendar and the 4 Corners magazine. To receive comments like: “very informative and interesting – it gives a broad view of UFM’s work” and “increases our knowledge of partners, situations and needs” and “always look forward to hearing about the latest from some of the people I’ve been praying for over many years – feel I almost know them!” is so encouraging.
We trust that the week of prayer will also help in sharing, in a little more detail, about how God is working across the world through our mission partners.
How to join us
For more details and to discover more about how you can get involved click the ‘sign up’ button below. We’ll also keep this page updated as our plans progress.
In the meantime, if you don’t receive our regular prayer calendar, then please get in touch and we can send you one.
The prayer calendar is also available through a really helpful app called PrayerMate. Download this app to organise your own prayer diary and subscribe to organisations such as UFM (praynow4.org/ufm). Why not try out this tool and encourage others to do the same?