Jubilee Fam,
I hope you enjoyed last week’s Holy Week Devotionals from your brothers and sisters. I heard from several folks how encouraging they were to read. Be sure to share that with those who wrote. In that way, their encouragement to you can turn and be your encouragement to them!
We are back in Paul E. Miller’s book A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World. If you haven't already, I need to reiterate how much I think you need to read this book. It has been challenging, convicting, and inspirational in our deep desire to be a praying church. We are in chapter 12 this week, Management by Prayer. Here are a couple of quotes that stood out to me.
We don’t control the Spirit. We wait and pray (115).
This is a good reminder as we wait for the Spirit to create a deeper pursuit of prayer as a community. I want Jubilee to be a praying church NOW!! I want our community prayer times to be busting at the seams NOW! I need this word — We don’t control the Spirit. We wait and pray.
A watchful, prayerful waiting should be the first part of any plan in a Jesus community (115).
Speaking of Jesus’ selection of disciples, Miller writes:
Jesus is making one of the most important decisions of his earthly life: selecting the church’s DNA. As the world’s most God-dependent human being, he can’t pick disciples on his own, so he prays. He manages by prayer. In contrast, most churches go into a management mode where prayer functions like a formality…Who would have thought that a group of fishermen would be Jesus’ first-round draft picks (116-7)?
Jubilee, let’s follow the way of our Lord in his God-dependence, which necessitates a robust prayer life. Continue to pray individually, in your MLGs, and with one another. Also, let’s continue to pursue corporate prayer as we learn how to pray together. Would the Spirit be pleased to work in us what is acceptable in his sight.
Waiting as the Spirit is working,
Pastor Lew