On Easter Sunday, we invited and encouraged our members and attenders to visit Northstar’s land and the site of our future Ministry Center to walk and pray for our church and our community. If you were able to make it out for that special time of prayer, you saw the signs posted which provided prayer topics at each station.
Here, we want to provide you with the prayer topics that were made available on the signs posted throughout the property. Please continue praying as we move forward with the building process.
The Cross as a Starting Point:
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy sets before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11 (ESV)
Personal Reflection
- We invite you to consider what Jesus did for you on the cross. Consider also that you are a part of the joy set before Jesus and that his knowledge of counting you as righteous was satisfying even in a time of anguish.
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. – Isaiah 28:16 (NIV)
Cornerstone One: Praising & Thanking God for What He Has Done
Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us–to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3:20-21 (HCSB)
Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
– 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (HCSB)
Personal Reflection
- How has God moved in your life recently? How has He revealed Himself to you in the past? What can you take time to thank Him for today?
Thanks and Praise to God
- How He has provided a space for our church each week since we started meeting together
- How He provided us with land in His perfect timing, that it is already paid for
- For the group of leaders He has brought together with the knowledge necessary for this project
- How He has provided us with almost $3 million for our campaign so far
- How He has provided us with the financing we need to begin construction
- How our church has grown and expanded and continued to minister effectively despite taking on such a large project
- For the unity we have experienced as a church during this process
- Praise that our God is mighty and able to accomplish all these things and more!
Cornerstone Two: Seeking God’s Will for Now
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. – Matthew 6:33 (HCSB)
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
– Romans 12:2 (HCSB)
Personal Reflection
- How is God calling you to seek Him first today? How is He calling you to renew your mind so that He can work to transform you?
Prayers for our Church
- May the leadership and staff of our church be seeking first God’s kingdom within their families and areas of responsibility and ministry
- That God would continue to transform our leadership and staff into His image, that their minds would be renewed daily
- That our building team would be seeking God’s kingdom first
- That God will work in all our members to renew our minds and transform us
- That we as a church can discern God’s will and that we would trust fully that it is good, pleasing, and perfect
Cornerstone Three: Asking in Faith
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. – John 15:16 (NIV)
Personal Reflection
- What things would you ask of God in your life? How is He leading you to seek from Him first and trust Him to be true to His promises?
Prayers for our Church
- God to provide for Northstar’s annual budget for this year
- God to provide the $4 million still needed for our IM campaign in His perfect timing
- Wisdom and discernment to guide our building team
- People and organizations to demonstrate kindness to Northstar
- God’s leading on the people and organizations that we partner with
- God’s provision over all the materials we will need, the audio/visual equipment, furnishings, kitchen equipment, playground equipment, chairs and supplies needed for each room of our building
- God to keep us as a church unified and seeking after Him
- That our church would continue to go and bear fruit through the entire building process
Cornerstone Four: Vision for the Future
For I know the plans I have for you–this is the Lord’s declaration–plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
– Jeremiah 29:11-13 (HCSB)
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. – Psalm 127:1 (NIV)
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. – Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
Personal Reflection
- What vision has God given you for yourself or your family? Is God calling you to lay down your own vision in exchange for His?
Prayers for our Church
- That we as a church would seek and see God’s vision for where He is leading us
- That our building would be an offering to Him and that He would use it to serve and reach our community in ways beyond what we can even envision
- That our church will set our hopes firmly in God and His promises
- That lives in our community would be changed, souls would be impacted for God’s kingdom as a result of our building and all of our ministries
Some Parting Thoughts
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:25-26 (NIV)
- Jesus asks the same of all of us. “Do you believe this?” Was there a moment or moments in your life that led you to say yes? If not, then perhaps today might be the day for you to truly consider how you would answer Jesus.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. – Ephesians 2:4-7 (NIV)
- God not only withheld from those who believe the condemnation we deserve, but continually showers us with his abundant grace–and He promises us an age to come in which we will see how incomparable His grace is! Are you resting your hopes securely in His promises for this age and the age to come?
Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present you bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
– Romans 12:1 (HCSB)
- Consider that the best response we can offer to our God who has withheld nothing from us and yet needs nothing from us may be this: that we surrender our very selves to him as an offering of worship.