Each month, our Prayer Ministry Team offers a specific prayer focus, working under the belief that communal prayer is a powerful and world-changing exercise.

June Prayer Focus
Pray for JOY, The Gift of the Holy Spirit, to fill each of our lives and the lives of our community and families in June! This month we are joining our hearts and voices to the Lord, asking for God’s Holy Spirit to fill each of us with the spiritual gift of Joy. Joy is not the same as the emotion happiness. Happiness is generated by our circumstances. When we receive a gift, we can feel happy, if we won the lottery, we would feel happy and carefree – for awhile. But circumstances can change in a heartbeat. If we live to feel happy, we will end up disappointed.

Only God the Holy Spirit can fill our lives with the spiritual gift of JOY. True Joy enables to see and focus on the blessings God fills our lives with every day. Joy comes in the morning when we live our lives in relationship with Jesus – because joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit for those of us who follow Jesus.

Please join us in praying for the following:

1. Pray for people who don’t know God to accept Jesus as their Savior so that they can be filled with the Holy Spirit and receive joy as a gift. — Galatians 5:22-23: “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
2. Pray for our family of faith to be filled with JOY as each of us experience the presence of God by spending time in spiritual practices. — Acts of the Apostles 2:28: “You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the JOY of your presence.”
3. Pray for every person in our family of faith to be filled with JOY because they trust Jesus. — Romans 15:13: “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you (EACH OF US) completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
4. Pray that people of all ages will all spend daily time with Jesus and turn our worries over to his care, allowing God to protect us from worries with his peace and fill us instead with JOY. — Philippians 4:4, 6-7: “Always be full of JOY in the Lord. I say it again – rejoice! Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
5. Pray for those who are experiencing trials of any kind for them to experience the JOY of the Lord despite their circumstances and for their faith to grow as they endure the trials. — James 1:2-4: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
6. Pray for those who feel disappointed, sad, alone, or fear failure to experience the JOY of the Lord. — Nehemiah 8:10: “Don’t be dejected and sad, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength!”
7. Pray for people who are mourning loss – loss of love, loss of wealth, loss of loved ones – to be able to share their emotions with God and obtain God’s JOY despite their circumstances. — Psalm 30:5b: “Weeping may last through the night, but JOY comes in the morning.”
8. Pray for each of us to remain in the love of Jesus by obeying him and be filled to overflowing with JOY. —  John 15:9-11: “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
9. Pray for more people to experience the love of God available through Jesus and grow to trust in his love and become saved. — 1 Peter 1:8-9: “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible JOY. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”