Day 10 - Boldness and Compassion to Engage the Culture

One fourth of the way there! I can't believe it's been ten days, but God has been truly gracious to me as I've been learning how to pray. There's so much that I've learned, but a scary thought came to me this morning as I made my way to church. I was so tired this morning, and as I noted to myself that 1/4 of the morning prayer was over, I wondered whether or not our prayers were really making a difference. "Does prayer really work?" I asked myself. Does it really make a difference? The truth of the matter is that this endeavor to pray has exposed the weakness of my faith. Jesus had a word for it - oligopistoi - 'little faith'. It's so humbling to think that while my lips proclaim such faith, my life is not dependent upon it. I walk by sight (or ingenuity or willpower), not faith. At the end of this short reflection, I found myself desperate that God should work in such a way as to demonstrate his power not as a result of us manipulating him through prayer, but rather as a result of his sovereign will.


Specifically, I prayed that in the context of mobilizing our church to engage the culture and striving for relevance.


Prayer points:

• Spend some moments reflecting on the truth of God’s Word, and how God has revealed his will for our lives.
• Pray that God’s glory would shine into the dark places of our culture.
• Pray that God would move our church outside of our comfort zone and give us boldness to stand for God’s truth in our culture.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit might give us creativity and a sense of urgency to engage our culture in relevant and God-honoring ways. 
• Pray that God would give us compassion to consider others more significant than ourselves. Confess those times when we’ve passed judgment on others in pride and/or condemnation.
• Pray that our church might become a welcoming and loving place for those on the fringe of our culture.
• Pray that the Gospel might create a culture of grace and transparency at CF.