What do you pray for your church, and how is God using you to answer your own requests?
I’ve been thinking about these questions for the last couple weeks. My husband/pastor pointed out in a recent sermon from the book of Ruth that God sometimes uses you to answer your own prayer request. Boaz prayed that God would bless Ruth, and God used Boaz to bless her!
So what are my prayers, specifically for my church, that God can use me in answering?
- Freedom in worship. Probably because this is a weakness of mine, I can sense it in others. We have a great worship team but our congregation seems somewhat reserved. What can I do? Pray and prepare myself (confessing sin and giving thanks for grace) before church Sunday morning. Sin weighs me down–it distracts my mind and my heart. But if I can come clean into His presence, I will worship more freely. I also let my five year old worship freely. He likes to tap the beat along with the drums and sing when he knows the words. I want worship time to be fun for him!
- Investing in others. I mean really investing in the messy parts of other peoples lives. In the small town where I grew-up, everyone knew everyone’s business. Even though there were negatives to this, one positive is that when people knew you had a need, they helped. But people can’t help if they don’t know. And they don’t know unless they are told. And most people aren’t going to tell unless they are asked. So I’m asking more questions, trying not to ignore the hard stuff. As my friend Kristi wrote, sometimes we have to sit in the dust together. As the pastor’s wife, it’s easy for me to let this just be his “job,” but investing in each other is every church member’s job!
- Continue to grow in godliness. The primary passage I pray for our church is Hebrews 6:1, “Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.” I’m praying we don’t get comfortable where we are and just put our spiritual lives on auto-pilot! I do that by reading, studying, and praying. I encourage others to do that in my ladies Sunday School class and in organic mentoring relationships.
We can’t always pray to God and expect someone else to come along and answer our requests. Sometimes the answer to your prayer is you!
How are you praying for your church? How is God using you to answer that prayer?
