I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer as we approach our Wisconsin
District “Houses of Prayer” week February 12-16.

I sincerely hope you will pray for revival beginning with yourself.
Then allow God to broaden your horizons as you pray for your
family, our church, our cities, our counties, our state, our country,
and our world. We must begin by examining ourselves because
if we are not walking in God’s will, then he does not hear
us…unless we pray for repentance.

Sometimes if you don’t know how to begin, the Psalms are good
Scriptural prayers to reflect on. Many of them are written by the
Israelite King David and he did not hold back in expressing his
emotions to God. David was called a “man after God’s heart”, but
he was not without faults. He committed adultery and then had
the woman’s husband murdered. Psalm 51 records his prayer of
repentance after those acts.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according
to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I
know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in
your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified
when you judge. …Surely you desire truth in the inner
parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me
with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter
than snow. …Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a
steadfast spirit within me.”

As we enter the 40 days before Easter and remember what Christ
did for us, may we let him give us clean hearts.

Pastor Cindy