Congregational Excellence Prayer Team [link removed] August 2021
Silence your body to listen to your words.
Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts.
Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart.
Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
Silence your spirit to listen to His presence.
—Mama Maggie Gobran
Got Silence?

The practice of solitude and silence changes our lives in three ways:
It reveals who we are.
It reveals the true needs of our hearts.
It gives us a new perspective.
After a courageous display of faith, the prophet Elijah was exhausted, burnt out, and on the run. In his fears and fatigue, he lost track of his true needs. Alone in a cave deep in the desert wilderness, he has this unexpected encounter with God.

[The Lord] said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
—1 Kings 19:11-12 (NRSV)
We live busy lives filled with decisions, demands, and distractions—sometimes even fears. No wonder we sometimes lose track of ourselves. To come back to yourself, set aside ten minutes and take a walk in nature. Listen for the sound of sheer silence and invite God to reveal to you the true needs of your heart. That gentle whisper is guaranteed to give you a new perspective.

If you choose, during your walk you may repeat to yourself Habakkuk 2:20 where God says,
The Lord is in his Holy Temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

Thanks for your partnership in prayer. Listening in the silence with you, Roger Ross

P.S. For encouragement, you can receive a weekly Prayer Text by texting KINGDOM to 573-227-6557.
(Devotion adapted from Come Back Participant Guide, Week 2, Day 2.)


As our country and world continue to battle COVID-19, we are painfully aware of the racial and ethnic injustices that plague our national character. We have much to bring before God.
Feel free to pray for a different area each day. Thanks for praying!
SUNDAY: HOPE- Pray for Resurrection power to release the Spirit of forgiveness to heal spiritual, relational, and cultural divisions across our nation and world. Lord, multiply your Kingdom through us.

MONDAY: PEACE- Ask the Holy Spirit to empower us to live with a heart at peace. Enable us, Lord, to see the good in persons or groups we might consider enemies, to pray for those who insult or persecute us, and to forgive those who harm us unfairly, just as you have forgiven us. Forgive us our sins, Lord, as we forgive those who sin against us.

TUESDAY: AWAKENING- Sow in prayer the seeds for a Great Awakening in our churches, communities and nation. Ask the Spirit of Truth to help us see new ways of being and doing that transform individuals, churches and communities across Missouri.

WEDNESDAY: JUSTICE- Pray for justice to roll down like waters and right living like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24), so we may repent of racism and overcome the evil powers of this world with good.

THURSDAY: NEW PLACES- Praise God for the beginning stages of “The Well” UMC! Please pray for leaders, logistics, support, and clear guidance for Rev. Danny Lybarger and this new church in the St. Charles area of St. Louis. Also, hold in prayer Rev. Tadd Kruithoff who is leading a re-start of St. Stephen’s UMC in Troy, and Grace UMC in Lee’s Summit, as they re-start their 4th site in Independence. All of these new places began in July 2021!

FRIDAY: HEALING- Claim the blood of Jesus as a shield and healing over people and institutions as well as all first responders and medical personnel in the ongoing battle against COVID-19. Please seek God for the reversal of COVID in India, Brazil and other countries being ravaged by the disease right now. Pray for the nations to work together to eradicate COVID & save lives.

SATURDAY: PROTECTION- Praise God for researchers who have developed effective, affordable, and safe COVID-19 vaccines! Pray for hundreds of millions of people to be vaccinated quickly and safely around the world.



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Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
3601 Amron Court, Columbia, MO 65202 | Phone 573-441-1770 | www.moumethodist.org