7 days of miracles

Mainstream Christian churches call this coming week the Passion Week, as it leads to the remembrance and celebration of Christ’s Life, Death and Resurrection. 

Do you believe in miracles? We believe in prayer, and if there’s one answer to prayer that God makes a priority, it’s a prayer to reach the people we know and love with the gospel. This week, we’re going to be deliberate about prayer, and we’re going to ask God to give us a simple opportunity to reach out to just one individual in a tangible way. We invite every believer to engage in connecting with a non-member, or a disconnected person for Christ over this week. What that outreach looks like is entirely up to you. You might just want to pray with someone who’s struggling, or even just let them know that you’re praying for them. Or maybe you know someone who’s ready for something more. Maybe you know someone you’d like to invite to your small-group Bible study, or to study a set of lessons with you one-on-one. Maybe you’d like to invite them to church. Maybe you’d like to give them a copy of Steps to Christ and tell them what a difference it’s made in your life. Or maybe offer to watch their kids so they can go out and take care of errands - and then you leave behind a card letting them know you think the world of their family and pray for them daily, telling them that God loves them, and so do you. Maybe you can call someone who used to attend our church gatherings.  Whatever it is - ask God for the opportunity and the right idea.

Whatever it is, this week, we’re going to ask God to open the door - to give us a chance to be intentional about making a difference in someone’s life. Write the name of just one individual on your bookmark and then make a point of asking God for an opportunity to touch his or her life. Of course, we’re going to pray for that individual all week long, but this is actually something more - we’re actually going to ask God to give us a chance - to make it possible to interact with that person.  Everybody can participate: almost anything that you do to be intentional about witnessing counts.

Today we are setting aside ten minutes for prayer in our church service during the time of our congregational prayer. You find in your bulletins a Seven Days of Miracles bookmark.  Write down just one name, and then this week, make it a point to look for God’s answer and act on it.  As we will go into groups for prayer, pay careful attention to who you’re praying WITH this morning, too - because that person, or those people, are going to become your prayer partners this week. Exchange phone numbers, and tomorrow, during the day some time, I want you to phone each other and pray for your names again.

Ask God for a chance to interact with your person on a social level on Monday or Tuesday. Maybe you’ll meet them for lunch, or go for a walk together, or hit the mall together, or just pick up the phone to see how they’re doing. Then on Wednesday, phone your prayer partner again and share with each other how God answered your prayer. Then pray together, over the phone, and thank God for what happened, and then ask Him for one more opportunity. Ask God, on Thursday for a chance to share something spiritual with that same person. Maybe you’ll pick up the phone and let that person know that since you talked earlier in the week, you’ve been praying for them, and you were wondering if they’d be open to prayer over the phone. Or swing by the house and do the same thing.

Then on Friday, as we come together for  the Seder Agape feast at 6 pm, we want to hear from you.  We’re going to take time to share what happened during the week. And then we’ll pray for God to make us this intentional about the people we love, all the time.