Every year in August it begins to
happen in so many households—back to the routines! School starts, and the
summer fun is all over. Back to bed-times, back to wake-up times, back to those
rhythms, routines and rituals. Meals have to have be planned, laundry
coordinated, chores decided, wake-up times programmed into the phones, who takes
who where...and all of these things come back into focus.
Sure, there are those homes and
households that decide to skip something as seemingly petty and pesky as
rituals and habits...and those households experience a greater degree of
disorder, stress, frustration, and chaos!
Those homes that embrace rhythms
and rituals are often stronger, happier and less stressful.
Admiral Wm. McRaven wrote a
wonderful little book entitled, Make Your
Bed—Little Things That Can Change Your Life...and Maybe the World (2017). A
few years early, he delivered the commencement address at the University of
Texas, and in that address, he stressed the importance of simply making your
bed. That bit about making the bed got on YouTube and went viral—well worth the watch (beginning at 4:44). In
a nutshell, the idea goes like this: you get up and you make your bed, you’ve
started your day completing a task; you’ve done one thing, done it well...and
that changes everything—you move on to the next task.
If we make a habit of making our
beds, then we begin a habit of completing tasks. Making our beds impacts our
days. A week of good days impacts a month. A month of completion affects a
year. You see, those simple, little, seemingly insignificant habits can in fact
have a huge impact on our lives.
Our congregation is a household,
a family, a home. We have habits and rituals that make our household stronger,
happier, and less stressful as well. We find them in the United Methodist
Hymnal right there in the back of pew in front of you...just flip over to page
48. Let’s read this together:
Will you be
loyal to the United Methodist Church, and uphold it by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service?
Some
26 years ago, my wife and I stood before the congregation of Mt. Pleasant
Methodist Church just off the road heading north out of Cleveland, Georgia, and
we responded to this question: We will.
What we may not have fully
understood then and what many, perhaps, don’t fully understand now is that
these are to be habits, holy habits of our lives. We don’t pray one time,
show-up one time, give one-time and use our talents one time. These are not to
be occasional things. These are to be the common practice of Methodist
Christians.
The
first one there is prayer. We pray for our church—every day.
Sue Nilson Kibbey has studied
what leads to the revitalization of churches. In the Ohio conference where she
serves, she has looked at all kinds of churches to see what matters most for
vitality and renewal and life. Is it the size of the congregation? No. Is it
the financial strength of the church? No. Is it based on whether it’s a city
church or country church? No. The single overwhelming factor that predicted
health, vitality and renewal was whether or not the church was a praying church—more
specifically, if the people of the congregation were praying for the church.
She has written books about her
discoveries—Ultimate Reliance
introduces the idea of “breakthrough prayer.” Do we pray believing that God
wants to do good work through us? Do we ask God to break into our lives and
into our congregation with new dreams and visions, hopes and plans?
II Chronicles 7:11-16 reminds us
that if we pray, God will heal the land. Matthew 9:33-38 shows Jesus calling
his disciples to ask God to send our workers to reach the hurting and the lost.
And, Hebrews 4:14-16 challenges us to pray with boldness and confidence.
How are we praying for our
congregation? How are praying for this gathering of people that loves and
accepts us, that encourages us in our walk of faith, that plants songs in our
hearts and minds that carry us through the day, with whom we hear God’s Word
proclaimed, where many of us first encountered God—this church, an instrument
through which God changes lives, homes, communities...and the world?
Do you believe that prayer makes
a difference? Do you believe that prayer works? Do you want a ‘Church Strong’?
When we make prayer a holy habit in our lives, when we begin or end each day in
prayer, we are opening our lives and congregation to the change that God wants
to bring. To help you begin this holy habit, we have a small card with a simple
prayer—you may set this on your bed-side table, your kitchen table, keep in
your Bible...I have mine in my planner—a booklet I open every day. Put it somewhere
to remind you to pray for our church so we can be a ‘Church Strong.’ And, you know what? As we pray, we become
stronger in the faith. We win, the church wins, God wins, the world wins...when
we pray for one another.
Break-Through
Prayer
Pray for our
families, for ourselves, for those in need,
for the sick and for the searching.
for the sick and for the searching.
Pray for our
Church, our Congregation...that God might breakthrough with new visions, new
dreams, new directions, new ministries, new opportunities, and that we would
joyfully step forward in faith.
Pray in
faith—put shoes on the prayers.
Prayer
Changes Everything!
“...Approach
the Throne of Grace with Confidence....”
Heb. 4:16
Heb. 4:16
~Amen~
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