Dear Prayer Warrior,

Thank you for being willing to step out in faith and pray with Jesus for the “Shaloming” of Grove Park, Atlanta. We are excited to see what God will do for His glory as He knits our hearts more fully to Himself and to each other through prayer.

You will hear the word “Shalom” a lot in this book, so let me explain what that means.

Shalom is the Hebrew word for holistic peace. It is a word used throughout Scripture to describe the absolute joy, flourishing, fulfillment, and bliss found in the presence of God, and the beautiful interdependent relationships God’s people eternally share with Him, each other, and all of creation. Shalom is what has come into the world through Christ, and is made complete when Christ returns and fully eradicates sin and death forever. God is glorified as Shalom happens. We have a mission as God’s people to discover and display the Shalom of God’s Kingdom to this hurting world by faithfully proclaiming the Gospel in WORD and DEED as we share life with our neighbors and seek the peace of Atlanta.

Because we believe the Gospel really is good news, and the only hope for our world, we are bringing together God’s people to join Jesus in His mission to awaken, strengthen and multiply Spirit-filled disciples.

Jesus told us in Matthew 6:9 to pray for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. Heaven and earth being united forever is God’s ultimate plan, and He invites us as His people to pray to that end. So we pray… Not because we have to, or to try and gain more favor from God (we already have that in Christ), or to try and twist His arm to give us what we want. We pray because we love our Savior Jesus who bled out for us and rescues us forever from sin and death.  We joyfully seek to obey Him as our King, and follow His leading by falling to our knees in prayer in joyful submission to His will.

This prayer guide can be used for your personal times with God as well as with others in your community. Let me encourage you to write as much as possible in the journal section of the book. The more you journal while praying each day, the more you will get out of this special season of prayer.