Something New is Coming

Welcome to a new week, and a new(ish) year!

   First of all, I want to take a moment to welcome some new members to Operation P4P. I am so excited that two more churches here in Snohomish County are taking on the challenge to bless their pastoral teams with regular, intentional prayer! So, welcome to our prayer teams from First Baptist Marysville and Seven Lakes Baptist. God is going to do great things in our churches and communities as we pray. I have ZERO doubt, because His Word says He will!

   I also would like to apologize for not posting anything the last two Sundays. We were on vacation and it just didn't come together. (My pointer finger thanked me, however, for not trying to write a blog on my smartphone screen again.)  Thankfully, I am home now and with the Lord's help, will be consistent from this point forward.

With that, how can we pray for our pastors this week?

POWER VERSE:
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21 says, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert...This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise." (KJV)

QUICK-START PRAYER POINTS:
(For those with limited time.)
1. Pray that our pastors will put the past behind them, both their successes and failures, and dream big dreams for something truly new to change our churches and communities.
2. Pray that God will bring all the "newness" that He wants to, in and through our pastors.  That every desire He has placed in their hearts will be clearly fulfilled, and they will be encouraged as they walk by faith and see the fruits of their labor.
3. Pray that our pastors and our churches (including ourselves) will "shew forth His praise" effectively and powerfully as He brings about whatever changes are needed.  Pray that He receives all the glory, for "every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights..." (James 1:17)

THE FULL PRAYER GUIDE:
(For those who have time to go more in depth.)

    Change is always a little frightening, isn't it? But it is, at the same time, exciting.  As much as most of us dread the unknown, we also dread the thought of doing the same thing over and over, year after year.  As we dig in to this new year, having had three weeks now to get used to the idea that yet another has flown by under the bridge of our mortal lives, it is a good time to think about doing something new.
Our pastor announced this Sunday some big changes coming to our church. Most pastors do something along these lines this time of year, don't they? So much so, that it almost becomes routine. Another January. Another time of talking about big changes, while not really expecting anything to change, or, dare I say, expecting to change anything we do in order to bring about said change?

    Yet in Isaiah, and all throughout God's Word, it is clear that change is in the heart of God. It is He who pushes us to be ever-changing, showing us new things about Himself so that we don't stagnate and think we know it all.  He loves doing NEW things, all the time. And if we are to show forth His glory to this world, we must be open to that part of His character being displayed in our lives, through...gulp...change.  Once our hearts are ready to accept the challenge to truly seek something new this year, then we can pray effectively and fervently. We can pray that this year will not be just another where we talk about change, but one in which we watch for it expectantly, and see as it actually unfolds before our very eyes.

     I believe that in this passage from Isaiah 43, we can find three things to pray about relating to any new vision that God has placed on the hearts of our leadership teams. First of all, in order to move forward, we need to pray that the past will fade away and not hinder the new thing that God is doing. Secondly, we can ask God to bring the full and complete work of change that needs to happen in order to bring new life to our church. And lastly, we can lift up our leaders and congregation as a whole, asking for help to "shew forth" God's praise as we ought to.

    Discouragement is a huge hurdle for our church leaders. Every year, they dream about God doing something big, something different, something that will really impact our community and change lives in the church. And without a doubt, every year the enemy is right there, telling them that the piddly amount of change they saw last year was a dismal failure in God's eyes, that they will never do anything significant for the Kingdom of Heaven, that they may as well just quit because surely someone else could do a better job than they ever could. Let's pray for our pastors this week that past "failures" will not hold them back from walking forward in full faith that God can and will do something truly NEW this year. Pray that they will "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old." Pray that God will remind them of the good things that have happened in the past as they have walked forward in faith and obedience. Ask the Lord to fill them to overflowing with a bold kind of courage that inspires them to conquer the urge to dream small and pray cautiously for little changes, in order to avoid disappointment and feelings of failure. Pray that they will have the faith to pray wholeheartedly for huge, out-of-this-world, unimaginable, amazing, miraculous, life-changing, community-changing, heart-changing things to happen in our church and community this year.

    The next thing we learn to pray from this verse is that God will accomplish every purpose He has in mind.  "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert..."  He does not say that WE will do something new. Thank Goodness, He doesn't say that it is up to us or our pastors to create rivers in the desert. No, the miraculous things that we long to see happen can only happen by His hands. The beautiful thing is that He wants to do them! I wish I understood how our prayers are connected to changes in circumstance, but I don't. All I know is that, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." (I John 5:14-15) We know it is His will and His heart to create life, because life is new, and always a miracle that only He can do.  So, let's ask with boldness for God to make pathways on rock-hard dirt, and rivers in the dry and lifeless desert. If there is any place that seems impossible to our pastors, that never changes year after year, pray that this year they will see a miraculous transformation, by the hand of our God.

   Lastly, let's pray this week that our pastors, our churches, and our own hearts will "shew forth" His praise. This is what we are created to do. This is what we are saved to do. And this is the purpose of the church. We are not asking for God to do something new simply because we are bored. On the contrary, we are begging for God to do something new because we recognize that we have become ineffective. We are in desperate need of His help if we are to live out our purpose as a church in our communities. Our pastors long to see believers growing and transforming into the image of Christ. They long to see unbelievers coming to know Christ. The newness of these events is a testimony to the world of God's love and intervention in the lives of men. And when the eyes of men turn to God, as they begin to comprehend His love, power, and mercy, He is ultimately glorified. Pray effectively and fervently for these things to happen, according to all that God has placed in the hearts of our pastors. Pray that He is glorified in worship, in the preaching of His Word, in the hearts of our youth, and in the lives of our children, down to the youngest toddler only beginning to comprehend the greatness of our God.
   
    Ephesians 3:20-21 says, "Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (KJV)    God has a really big imagination, and He wants us to know He can do more than our biggest thoughts, our wildest imagination. Just look at what He created in one week! And He is always doing new things. It is His character to do so. When we move forward as a church toward creating something new, when our leadership has it on their heart to shake up the old way and try a new thing, it is showing forth the character of God.  As you pray this week for the past to be forgotten, for God to do all He has in mind, and for His people to show forth His praise, watch expectantly for His hand to move. Pray with power this week, my brothers and sisters in the Lord. God is moved when we pray with great faith. And yet, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matt. 17:20) So pray, with great or with little faith, and see what God can do!