A story of prayer and being released to Him

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NKJV

Brothers,

From our session last week and from the worship service this past weekend, the Lord has put it on my heart to share this from a book I have recently read titled ‘A God Centered Church’ by Henry Blackaby.

It speaks about how much of a difference we can all make in this world when we set our sights on God and His purpose in each one of us.

“On August 13, 1727, God found another little church that He eventually used to turn the world upside down. On that day He deeply touched a group of Moravian brethren in Hernnhut, Moravia. So profound was the encounter they had during a Communion service (Lord’s Supper) that they offered their lives unreservedly to be used by God. The deep love of Christ, demonstrated on the cross, compelled them to give their lives in service to Him. Their response literally shook the world in its impact. They committed themselves to pray twenty-four hours a day, and it lasted continuously for one hundred years. More missionaries went out into the world from this church in those one hundred years than all of the combined missionaries of all other groups of that day. Their missionaries were almost found in almost every corner of the earth. Anywhere you went, it seemed as though a Moravian missionary had already been there. One of their missionaries significantly touched the life of John Wesley, whom God later used to spark probably the greatest nation-changing revival in English history…This is a taste of what God can do with any church that is released to Him.” (Blackaby, ‘A God Centered Church’, 2007, pg 276)


I do not only share this story because of my Christian heritage to this Moravian church; but I share it because of its powerful testimony about a church which was only a couple of hundred people strong when it was founded in a remote town in the mountains of Eastern Europe during the early 18th century.

At that time, who would have ever believed that a church which never had more then two hundred members would make such a worldwide impact. Yet God used this church because they committed themselves to God in prayer.

Prayer is so important to the life of a church and to its mission to reach those who need the Word in their heart. We can do nothing on our own with any success. All good work in the name of Christ can only be done with the Spirit working through us. Therefore we must continually submit ourselves to seeking God’s purpose in our life through prayer.

This past weekend we each picked up a stone. Now with His guidance and for His purpose, where are we going to use it? When we unite together in prayer and bind all of us together in unity of the Spirit, the result of our service to God may have the same impact these Moravian brethren did nearly three hundred years earlier.

Therefore join with me in prayer that all of us may find His purpose in our lives…

In Christ,
Mark