We just wrapped up our series on Dangerous Prayers here at Hope Community. It was a challenging series, even for me, as we think about what it looks like to totally surrender ourselves to God and his leading through our willingness to pray dangerous, God-sized prayers. We talked about the prayer for God to search us and show us what needs to change in our lives. We talked about the need to pray for God to break us of the things in our lives that are inconsistent with His character. We talked about the need to pray for God to send us, to use us, however he sees fit.
One thing that has been on my mind the past few days is that we cannot forget that praying these types of prayers is vitally important. We are living in days where radical commitment to God and his mission are vitally important and we need to start being the church not just in word, but in action – how we live every minute of every day of our lives. Do our lives measure up to what we say we believe? In many cases, I fear that Christians are not living out a life that looks like the Jesus of the Bible. Instead, we pollute that with our political notions, our own selfish thoughts and desires, and others see that inconsistency in our lives.
There is quite a bit of talk these days in the church about the younger generation leaving the church. I think it has to do much more with the inconsistencies they see in the lives of those of us who call ourselves Christian and the example of Jesus in the Bible. We need to confess that we are not living what we say we believe – in fact, I would even be so bold to say that if we do not live it out, we really do not believe it or have a passion for it. Our lives will reflect what we have a passion for. Period.
Let’s be the people who are willing to commit to praying these prayers each and every day. Let’s be the people who allow that to turn into a passion for lost and broken people. Let’s be the people that live out a life that looks more like Jesus of Nazareth and less like a Republican or a Democrat. Let’s be a people who is broken over the fact that there are so many who need to know the love of Jesus Christ. It a challenging ask, but I believe if we truly want to see revival, we need to be wiling to commit in this kind of radical way and then make disciples from those we meet along the way.
On this journey together,
~ Pastor Todd