My Prayer for the Church

 March 24, 2024

Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. It begins Holy Week before Easter. The most detail we have of Jesus' life is found in His last week before the resurrection. At one time, people would prepare to attend church on Easter Sunday. We were shut down in 2020 for Easter due to COVID mandates. I came to the church and found a policeman sitting in his vehicle. I wondered if he was making sure we didn't meet. Maybe people understood that Easter wasn't that important after all. They sat at home, believing that safety was more important than worship. They found that they had neither.

Complete safety is an elusive dream on this earth. Companies will tell us that "your safety is most important to us." Really? If that was true of the airlines they wouldn't fly. If that were true of car manufacturers, they wouldn't make and sell cars. Why not tell the truth? "Making a profit is most important to us. Your safety can help us do that." 

Can I say that someone in the will of God is safe? No, absolutely not when you consider safety to be no injury, pain or death. Many people in God's will gave their lives for their Lord. They were hanged, burned, beheaded, stoned imprisoned, tortured and a host of other things I'm sure I have never heard of. They walked with God regardless of the consequences.

Many Christians will say that worship is not so important that we should die for it. Believers in other parts of the world thought that it was. People have been executed for worship in the Soviet Union, China and in other parts of the world where Christianity is considered an abomination. These people met in secret until they were caught. They continued to proclaim Christ no matter the consequences. Their testimonies cost them their lives.

Maybe we don't appreciate worship because it costs us too little. It only takes a bit of time and all we do is tip the church out of our pocket cash. This gives us the right to complain. Our favorite songs weren't sung, the preacher wasn't entertaining and it was too cold in the sanctuary. Unfortunately people are looking at church attendance as a sacrifice rather than a privilege.

I hope that this is not what it is for you. I hope that you are or will be in church today. I hope that you will hear God speak to you. I hope that you will know the depth of His love for you. I hope that your attention is on Him and not on yourself. I hope that you will continue to pray for those who "don't get it." Pray that they will have an awakening with God. Pray that they will realize that He is greater than all they could possess.

Also, would you pray that the church will be the witness the church needs to be. Those in the church will live lives pleasing to the Lord. They will not decide on Sunday morning whether they are going to church. Pray that they realize that there is something immense missing in their lives. I pray the church can become one with Christ.

And pray for yourself. I pray for myself. I pray that I will let nothing stand between me and God. I pray that even my safety will take a back seat to His will.

John 17:20–21 (NASB 2020) ²⁰ “I am not asking on behalf of these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.