Prayer
Resources
Orange County
Crafted Prayer
In Jesus’ name, I pray for each local church in Orange County and the pastors and leaders in those churches.
Heavenly Father, please turn our hearts and affections to you and help us to see our need for your grace and mercy in our personal lives and in your Church. By your grace help us to respond to your kindness and generosity by choosing to walk together in unity and in mutual submission.
Lord, please forgive us for the times we have chosen to promote our own agendas and branding at the cost of pursuing collaboration in the spirit of Christ. Lord, have mercy on us.
Forgive us Lord for the times that we neglected to seek justice for those who have no voice. Lord, forgive us for neglecting the poor. Have mercy on us.
Gracious Father, I ask you to bring your Church into healing and wholeness. In your mercy rescue our children and the youth in our churches and in our cities from hopelessness and depression.
Lord we are desperate for a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit to bring a fresh wind of revival to your Church, please hear our prayer.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Here are some things
you can pray for…
Increased dependence on God and unity among all believers in our county.
That our communities and cities would be transformed by the love of Jesus through the witness and unity of His people.
All the details and logistics of the SEEK WEEK gatherings to come together and be protected.
Encouragement and protection for the leaders, staff and volunteers who are involved with SEEK WEEK.
For every person who attends to feel strengthened by the presence of God and encouraged by gathering with His people.
That the Church of Orange County would look more and more like Jesus!
DAY TWO
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Before we continue on through this passage, let’s recap. Through Jesus, God has done something completely new and unexpected. He has made Jesus to be both our high priest, who intercedes for us in the presence of God, and our atoning sacrifice, whose blood purifies us and restores us to right relationship with God. And the result of all this is that the door into the Holy of Holies is wide open. The place where once only the high priest was allowed only once each year is now accessible to every Spirit-filled follower of Jesus at all times. God has made a way for us to be with him!
And if all that’s true, I’m not sure, “Let us draw near,” is the best way to translate the sentiment the writer of Hebrews is trying to convey. I mean, it’s technically correct, but given the magnitude of what is available to us through Jesus, “Let us draw near” seems very polite and formal and stuffy…
Daily Devotionals
DAY FOUR
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
One last time, let’s recap:
As our heavenly high priest and our atoning sacrifice, Jesus has opened a way for us into the Most Holy Place. The presence of God is the inheritance of all Jesus people. And with that staggering truth in mind, the writer of Hebrews (strongly) encourages us to three courses of action. First, as we discussed on Tuesday, run to him! If the Way is open, then the very thing we’ve all been searching for our whole lives, the meaning of life, the key to complete joy and abundant life is available to us. Second, from yesterday’s conversation, don’t settle for anything else (less). Even though it’s all true, sometimes it doesn’t seem like it is. The world is loud and difficult and distracting, and it does everything it can to keep us from him. “Don’t let it,” the writer of Hebrews tells us. “Don’t veer off course. Run to him!”…
Each of the hosted gatherings for SEEK WEEK 2023 will be anchored in calls to the collective Church found in Hebrews 10 - “Let us draw near”, “Let us hold to hope”, “Let us spur one another on”.
Josh Harrison, pastor of Canopy Church in Costa Mesa, will walk us through this passage over the next four days through devotional reflections that help align our hearts and take the journey of seeking God together.
DAY ONE
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God…
Wow! We’re jumping into the book of Hebrews at the highest point. The author of Hebrews has just finished laying out the most compelling case that, through Jesus, God has done something wholly unexpected and unprecedented. You see, for over 1,000 years, God’s people, Israel, had been living in proximity to the presence of God. Ever since the wanderings in the wilderness, their lives had been oriented around a Tabernacle/Temple that hosted the particular presence of God (I say, “particular,” because we know that God is always present everywhere, but there are times and places in which God is uniquely present). This “earthly sanctuary” (to borrow language from Hebrews 9) was constructed around the Most Holy Place (the Holy of Holies) which was something of the epicenter or focal point of the shekinah, the Hebrew word for the “Presence.”…
DAY THREE
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Before we dive into our second “let us,” two quick reminders. First, everything that we’re invited to do is respond to what God has already done. He is not like every other god with whom the order is, “Let us so that he will.” Instead, here, it is, “He has so let us.” In other words, all our doing is predicated on his doing. We can know him because he knows us. We can be near to him because he has drawn near to us. We can love him because he first loved us. Second, as we discussed yesterday, when we consider the magnitude of what God has done for us, a boring, polite, “Isn’t that nice. Now, let us...” is probably not what the writer of Hebrews had in mind. Instead, we should read these with a whole lot more enthusiasm. “You guys! Can you believe what God has done?! This changes everything! We have to respond! Let us...”