Jonah 3:7&8
A lot of people would say that their main prayer request would probably be for growth within their church. However, this has a dangerous underside. Growth is not only messy and disruptive, but also hard work.
One of the most impressive examples of transition was made by the infant church, in allowing the gentiles to also hear the good news. (Acts 15:1-35)
This was a major shift in thinking.
So, say we pray for a more effective youth group/outreach program and suddenly masses of young people (maybe with drug/alcohol abuse history) start showing an interest in the church.
Christian parents (probably the very same people who prayed for the growth in youth!) begin to feel concerned for their 'sheltered' children.
What effect will these new kids have upon the old ones?
Who will influence who?
When God moves, the people most surprised by what He does are usually the guardians of His last move.
Have we seen this before?
Maybe in the new testament pharisees and religous teachers' reactions to the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ.
The scene in the book of Jonah must have looked kinda crazy.
People forcing their livestock to fast and also wear sackcloth!
Jonah had no idea on the impact of his reluctant message to the people of Nineveh.
Be careful what you pray for. The answer may bring some surprises.
Love you x
2 comments:
That's a very good point. Man, numbers would be awesome but we don't want to be so overwhelmed that we don't know how to handle it. Maybe we should first pray to become an absolutely rock solid youth group with a rock solid support system, whilst praying that members of our group who aren't saved will become saved. And then we pray for a small amount of new individuals to join our group, who we can then pray for. Then over time our youth group will grow in size exponentially, but not suddenly.
I think that would be a good idea.
God would provide the equipment and people required, but can you imagine it would still have a positive effect on the group as a whole? There may be people who don't approve of the people who don't fit in anywhere else, and the last thing we need is our youth group taking a step back. We need to be moving forward, and while we should be praying for "troubled" people to be converted, it wouldn't be wise unless we were initially prepared to deal with it. So first we would need to ask for the ability to deal with such people, and pray that the entire group has the understanding that we should be accepting these kinds of people into church, not looking down on them or casting them away. I know God will help us with whatever comes our way, but certain types of people can be very hard work so we would need to make a commitment to help beforehand.
I don't know whether that made sense, ah well!
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