We continue to believe that prayer fuels every activity of the church and that without God’s Spirit breathing life into every activity, nothing of lasting value will be achieved. Throughout February, we will be praying in particular for outreach: the outreaches in which the church is directly involved and our own personal outreach.
Our church is involved in children’s and youth work (with the Parent & Toddler group meeting on Friday mornings and the children’s/ youth meeting on a Monday evening) and we also host badminton on Friday evenings and a coffee morning on Saturday mornings. These are ways to connect with different parts of the community and get to know people in informal settings. Pray that God will bless all these outreaches, protecting all who help and attend and that He will pour out His Spirit, giving us words to speak to people and share the good news of God’s love. Our prayer is that we might be people who reflect God: ambassadors who represent His heart to the people of Goldthorpe.
Outreach is never simply an organised church activity, however. We are Christ’s ambassadors; we are the light of the world; we are salt in this world. God makes His appeal to the world through us! (2 Cor 5:20) That is a mind-blowing thought. Every day, God will bring people across our paths who do not yet know Him and our task is to be sensitive enough to the voice of His Spirit to know how He wants to make that appeal through us. Pray for our personal witness to friends, family, neighbours, work colleagues and even to the casual acquaintances who may cross our paths! Outreach and ‘mission’ are not things that are restricted to church buildings, set times or organised events. Rather, let’s pray that each one of us will be given words to speak and actions to match so that many, many people’s lives are touched by God and they are drawn into His family. Paul’s request for prayer should be ours also: ‘Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.’ (Eph 6:19) ( or ‘Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all,’ as the Message version puts it.)
