Giving God Room: Prayer Focus
Week #3
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10, NLT)
If you are lost, would you even know it?
Jesus’ stated goal was to seek and save lost people. You were once one of those lost people. I was too. When I think of being lost, I think about the prodigal son. He didn’t know he was lost until close to the end of the story. In the first part of the story, he feels ‘found.’ He has a purpose. He has a goal. He has a reason for living. He is making a fresh start in life and enjoying every moment of it. He was lost the whole time, but didn’t become aware of his ‘lostness’ until the end.
I wonder how many people in our city are the same way? They have purpose. They have drive. They have determination. They are on their way to somewhere. But ultimately, they are lost and don’t really know it yet.
I wonder how many people in our city are nearing the end of their prodigal story? They realize they are lost. They are hurting. They are struggling to find their way ‘home’ but they just don’t know where ‘home’ is. Not everyone knows the way home.
People in Medicine Hat are searching.
Over the last few years, we have witnessed an increase of people who show up at our church looking for their way home. They realize something is missing from their life. They are hoping for a few things when they walk in the door. They are hoping for a warm welcome. They are hoping to sense the presence of God. They are hoping to find some answers to the questions in their life. But will we have room for them when they walk in the door?
I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” (Luke 5:32, NLT)
Is there room for God to move?
In the last blog post, I described the journey Ministry Council has been on over the last few years. We need to make some repairs to the Worship Center. It is 40 years old. There is some work that needs doing. But we also are a growing church. Sure, we could fix things up, but do we have room for growth? We engaged with architect Al Fritz and discovered our worship centre could be expanded in order to hold more people.
As Ministry Council began to discuss options further, we settled into a few realities. First, we will need to do some maintenance and upgrades in our worship centre. Second, we are a growing church. And third, the two are interconnected. We realized we could call people to give to a Worship Centre maintenance fund and do the work and fix things up, and then come back to the congregation in a few years and say, “Oh by the way, we are growing, perhaps we should continue our long-term plan to expand the Worship Centre?” And, people would rightly say, “Well why didn’t we think of that before we completed the Worship Centre Renovation?” And they would be right. The two are interconnected.
Whatever we decide to do in terms of how to give God room to grow our church, we must also deal with the practical matter in front of us, which is repairs and maintenance of the Worship Centre. And within that framework, we need to decide, “Are we expanding the Worship Centre, or, are we growing another way?” Ministry Council feels before we do any upgrades to the Worship Centre, we must ‘put to rest’ the long-term expansion option. In effect we said, “Either we are going for it, or we are not. Let’s decide now.”
Part of our journey over these months is seeking the Lord for wisdom about how we will invite and welcome lost people as they begin their search for Jesus.
Here are the four things you can bring before the Lord this week.
1. Pray for a deeper spiritual longing in our city.
Pray the Lord would impress on people a deep sense of longing for something deeply spiritual in their lives.
2. Pray for those who feel lost today.
Pray the Lord would help them and keep them. Pray that in their searching they would not give up, but keep going and find the One who is calling them: Jesus.
3. Pray people will be drawn to Jesus.
Pray the Lord will cause people to connect their sense of being lost to a need for God, and a need for Jesus.
4. Pray our church could be a welcoming place of refuge for lost people.
Pray for people’s hearts as they walk into church, or as they are invited in. Pray they would sense and feel the welcome of God from us.
In His Grip,
Pastor Steve Pahl