We’ve received an encouraging update from the 24-7 team in Sweden about how even in the midst of Coronavirus, Churches and communities have been persisting in united, non-stop prayer: 

Sweden is often seen as the most secular country on planet earth. It’s home to many great things including IKEA, ABBA, meatballs, Zlatan, and of course the world-renowned Dalahästen  – wooden horses.

Our small country is famous for a number of things, but spiritual innovation and persistence in prayer are not what immediately come to mind.

But in the summer of 2018, four people at a Christian conference ran a prayer room and began talking about running a year of non-stop prayer. After planning, connecting with partners and seeking God, we began on 1 September, 2019.

From the very beginning we realised that to pull this off, we needed to trust in God’s provision. But we found ourselves a bit confused when we received a prophetic word, early on.

We felt God was saying that the year was about resting; finding ourselves in the love of the Father and experiencing a relationship.In theory it sounded wonderful. In reality, it was a little daunting; would people be as excited to spend time in prayer? It felt a bit less easy to advertise than spending a year in prayer for the walls of Jericho to fall!

The year began with about 20 weeks covered, but it didn’t take long before they began to fill up. As different communities signed up to pray, we felt the need to pray for unity. We took Jesus’ words from John 17 as our verse for the year, “I pray that all of them may be one” (John 17:21).

We found many weeks were filled by cities rather than a single church, meaning that churches had collaborated together to make an expression of unity. In one place, a pastor from one of the churches asked for forgiveness for things the church had done in the past that had caused pain. Everyone present was deeply moved.

“I pray that all of them may be one”

John 17:21

We’ve heard stories of people coming to faith. Bodies, minds and hearts being healed. But perhaps more than anything, we’ve heard stories of people, young and old, saying that they’ve found a new way to connect with God, and a bigger freedom to express themselves before God. A relationship rather than a one-sided conversation.

Now, we´re just a few weeks from completing the year. Has every second been covered in prayer? Possibly not – I’m sure at least once, someone accidentally fell asleep in the night!

But we have persevered, and even in the midst of Covid-19, we have been consistently praying for our nation and for the world.

We truly believe that Sweden has become a little bit more unified after this year, and are aware that none of this unity and breakthrough would have been possible without the help of God.