Kingdom Come 2012: A Year of Prayer across the UK and IrelandPhil Togwell - 19 Aug 2011

In response to the recent rioting in London and other towns and cities around England, Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance wrote,

“Prayer changes things and as Christians we are called to pray on behalf of our nation.”

And people have been praying. People want to pray.

In churches and in homes, with family and friends, in large gatherings and services, even out on the streets, people have been praying. A spontaneous ‘prayer wall’ appeared in Peckham and is now covered with post-it note prayers. On Twitter, #prayforlondon was the top trend for a while, just as #prayforjapan was back in March when the earthquake hit there.

And 24-7 Prayer websites and blogs have been deluged with hits and ‘how should we pray?’ enquiries over the last few days. Almost 8000 people watched Pete Greig’s short video within a couple of days of it being posted onto YouTube. People want to pray.

When Jesus’ friends asked him ‘how should we pray?’, he told them to pray simply and honestly. He told them not to role-play, not to pray the things they think they ought to pray, the things they think God wants to hear, but to pray from their hearts… to be real. And then he invited them to join in with his own prayer…

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

For many months now, 24-7 Prayer and Alpha have been planning towards a whole year of non-stop prayer, mission and justice across the United Kingdom and Ireland throughout 2012 – called ‘Kingdom Come, 2012’. The events of the past few days, and the extraordinary response of local communities – in both prayer and action – have added to the feeling we have that God is calling us to pray, and we want you to join with us.

To pray like it all depends on God. And to live like it all depends on us.
To pray our prayers, and then to participate with Jesus in the coming of his Kingdom…
To become part of the answer to the prayers that we pray.

Throughout 2012 – the Olympic year, a year when people from around the world will be coming to the United Kingdom, and many millions more will be watching and listening – we want to fill the year with prayer. And not just with 24-7 prayer rooms, but all kinds of prayer in all kinds of places. For example, you can join in with;

• the Lord’s Prayer at midday, wherever you are, whoever you’re with
• prayer gatherings and meetings, large and small
• prayer rooms, in churches, Universities, schools and workplaces
• prayer road-trips and Revival Run-style prayer adventures, taking prayer stakes to other places and praying your biggest prayers for God to move there
• prayer walking, praying for your local streets and communities
• prayer guides for every nation and much more…
  

During September, we’ll be posting a whole bunch of resources and short videos onto the Alpha and 24-7 prayer UK websites, as well as information about how to register what you’re doing and how to link up with others in your locality.

For now though, you can;

1. join the facebook page, and invite your friends to
2. join/follow us on Twitter
3. begin to plan towards 2012… how will you pray? “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name… let your Kingdom Come to the United Kingdom and Ireland throughout 2012."

This article was originally posted on 24-7 UK's website.  To stay connected with the KC:UK&IRL vision bookmark 24-7UK now!