Pray A to Z: A Practical Guide to Pray for Your Community
A
practical guide to pray for your community
Amelia
Rhodes helps readers focus their prayers
on the needs of those around them
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.
Covering matters such as abuse, depression,
hunger, persecution and more, Rhodes helps readers categorize requests into
manageable groups. Each letter of the alphabet covers five topics, the first
three of which are for prayers of petition asking God to work in a certain area
of one’s life. The last two topics for each letter offer opportunity for
praise, acknowledging God’s character and His work. “Don’t ignore the prayers
of praise,” Rhodes encourages. “Just recognizing who He is lightens the load
because you’ve placed the heaviness where it belongs — on His strong
shoulders.”
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.
Advance
Praise
“Have
you ever longed to pray more effectively for your community? Amelia Rhodes has
written an outstanding resource that will help you to initiate prayerful
conversations with God. Pray A to Z
will assist you in covering important topics in an organized way that will
enrich your time alone with God. You’ll want one copy for yourself and several
more to give to your friends.”
~
Carol Kent, speaker and author of When I
Lay My Isaac Down
“Whether
you’re a seasoned prayer warrior or just beginning to talk to God, Pray A to Z is guaranteed to bring new meaning to your prayer
life. Profound in its simplicity, this book is an invaluable tool to keep us in
conversation with God, and to keep the needs of others at the forefront of our
minds. Because we pray to a God who answers, I can’t wait to see how this book
changes the world around us.”
~
Jocelyn Green, award-winning author of Faith
Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives
“We
often respond to those we love by saying, ‘You’re in my prayers,’ but how many
of us actually pray as we have promised? In order to help us find the words,
Amelia Rhodes has crafted a spiritual guidebook to suit nearly every human
hurt. This simple tool could heal many a heart and enable entire communities to
join together in faith, hope, and love. It belongs on every nightstand.”
~ Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA TODAY
bestselling author of Into the Free
and The Feathered Bone
About
the author
Amelia Rhodes is an author,
speaker and self-proclaimed recovering perfectionist. She has a passion for
taking the everyday stories of life and connecting them with God’s truths.
Having been freed from the grip of perpetual anxiety, Rhodes has a growing
speaking ministry through which she encourages women to discover who they are
in Christ and to deepen their relationships with one another.
Rhodes
has written for several publications including The Upper Room and four Chicken
Soup for the Soul books. She is the author of Isn’t It Time for a Coffee Break?, offering a fresh perspective on
women’s relationships. Her latest release, Pray
A to Z: A Practical Guide to Pray for Your Community, helps readers
topically organize their prayer requests and lay the burdens of the community
at the feet of our Heavenly Father.
Rhodes
lives in Michigan with her husband and two children.
Learn more about more about Amelia Rhodes and
Pray A to Z at, on Facebook (ameliarhodeswriter)
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