Ian Cole shares four themes to focus on as we journey through 2024.
As we start 2024, the World Prayer Centre team has agreed that throughout this year, amongst our many activities, we would seek as individuals and collectively to weave four themes into our lives and ministry. There is no particular sequence or order in which they will be undertaken, they will come and go in the pattern of our individual and collective lives.
It is important to say that each theme is not the latest good idea that can be worked out with human energy and ideas. As a team, we are asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us as we journey together day by day, week by week, month by month, praying for His help to understand what each theme means to us and how they can be worked out in our lives.
We know that we will go through many challenges as we journey through the year. As we look at the local, national and international picture, we know there will be uncertainty, distrust, fear, and conflicts in communities, in nations and between nations. Political, social, economic and spiritual powers will seek to control by stealth or force, our attitudes, beliefs, the way we spend our money, our family life, how we raise our children and grandchildren, how we should live our lives, even what we should believe or not believe.
The great truth about the Christian life is that although we are not immune to all this pressure, thanks be to God we are not controlled by them. By His grace, through the life, death and resurrection of His Son Christ Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit we can live free of their influence and control.
So, we weave our four themes into our ongoing journey of faith:
- Conform and not contradict
- Confirm and not confuse
- Contend and not concede
- Connect and not control
We endeavour to be more like Jesus, believing in God and His living word, standing against human and spiritual powers of darkness and by word and action, journeying alongside our brothers and sisters around the corner and around the world.
By God’s grace and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we shall demonstrate in our oneness and unity that Jesus was sent by His Father who loved and still loves the world.
We shall update you as our journey unfolds but we hope you can join us in praying these four things. You can join us in praying for these at our next Global Prayer Watch.
Ian Cole is the founder of the World Prayer Centre. He, and his wife Pauline, network globally in prayer.
