A text from a friend. An urgent phone call from a family member. An announcement at church. Maybe even a share on social media or story from the news. Many needs surrounding us require prayer. Each request is valuable and worthy of time before the Father, but the sheer number of them can be overwhelming. In Pray A to Z: A Practical Guide to Pray for Your Community (Worthy Inspired/November 15, 2016/ISBN 978-1617957451/$14.99), author Amelia Rhodes helps readers topically organize their prayer requests and lay the burdens of their community at the feet of the Heavenly Father.
When faced with more prayer requests than she could count, Rhodes realized how often she was failing to follow through on praying for others long-term. She longed to participate fully in lifting up those around her rather than simply offering quick, fly-by prayers as she learned of needs. Rhodes sought the Lord’s guidance and help with being more disciplined in her prayer life, and an idea started to take root in her heart. “I realized how many people I knew were struggling with the same types of things — adoptions, cancer, marriages. The idea of praying by topic seemed natural, and then I decided to see if I could make an A to Z list of all the needs and struggles facing our communities today,” Rhodes explains.
Pray A to Z can be used in many ways, including personal quiet time, as a part of a small prayer group, during family devotions and in Sunday school classes. Readers can pray all the way through one letter each day, allowing them to complete the entire alphabet in a month, simply lift up one topic per day or utilize any other order or schedule that suits their needs at the time.
Rhodes hopes readers will experience a renewed excitement about prayer and enjoy a closer relationship with God. Beyond that, she prays they will become more involved with the people around them as God opens their eyes to the struggles others are facing and leads them to be His hands and feet of love to their communities.
Rhodes has developed a set of prayer cards covering many of the major issues in communities, as well as a downloadable guide for anyone who desires to begin a prayer group in his or her neighborhood or church.