Title: Praying To Make a Difference

Date: 2009-03-08

Reference: Acts 1: 12-14

I enjoyed the article in the newspaper this week about The Wayside Cross Rescue Mission. Wayside has been a part of our community for the past 25 years. Some of you remember the late Rev. Thom Bond, founder of the mission. Times were hard then as they are now. Thom saw a need, prayed that he could make a difference and went to work. He was led to minister to a group of forgotten, homeless, hopeless men. Many were very skeptical. When people questioned whether this ministry could or would happen Thom would say: “Not I but God and I will make this happen.” I was pastor out at Vineland back then, and we invited Thom to come out and share his vision. I will never forget his sermon which was based on the Scripture Passage: “The Cattle on a thousand hills belong to the Lord.” Today, all these years later Wayside Cross continues to minister to some of the most vulnerable among us.

Every ministry has always begun with a dream placed in the heart of a receptive person. A person who was willing to listen and pray to make a difference. Often our part is to pray and leave the details to God. But when God opens a way and leads us into action we are ready, willing, and able to follow.

During this Lenten Season I hope each of you will join me in praying to make a difference. Praying in this way may cost us something. It may take us places spiritually and physically we wouldn’t dare to go unless God had placed the dream in our hearts and led us there.

Prayer is much more than God Bless Me and Mine.

We must move beyond egocentric prayer, and pray for the privilege of making a real and lasting difference with the gift of life. God absolutely cares about our personal problems and issues. A part of our prayer life must be praying for others and praying to make a difference. Praying to make a difference means moving past ourselves and our problems. God still wants us to come to Him with our needs. God doesn’t want us to stop there.

When we pray to make a difference we are recognizing that somewhere there is a person who needs help. A situation that needs righting. We also recognize chance doesn’t come easily or without opposition. We must do our part in making the world a better place.

During the 18th century William Wilberforce prayed to make a difference in the lives of slaves and slave owners. For 20 long years he prayed hard and worked hard to end what he called “a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian Country.” After years of opposition Parliament eventually voted to abolish slavery.

Rather than engage in wishful thinking or negative thinking, we are called to pray to make a difference. One group of folks began going to city council meetings in their community. They had all worked hard during the day and they were tired but God called them to try and make things better. They sat quietly in the back of the room silently praying that City Council members would make good decisions pleasing to God. Soon the meetings took on a better atmosphere with members treating each other with greater respect. The council’s actions changed for the better.

A group of concerned Moms met to pray for their local High School. At first they gathered on school grounds but were not allowed to pray there. They began praying each morning in a van parked near the high school. Soon prayer requests were being sent out to the van from the school from students and teachers alike. Again things changed for the better.

A congregation felt they needed a fresh touch from God. Their neighborhood was changing and their church was in steep decline. They considered relocation. The members began to organize prayer teams to intercede for the neighborhood around them. These prayer teams began to cruise the streets in private cars praying over the neighborhood around their church. Crime decreased and the church actually became stronger.

In Africa 300 million people lack access to clean drinking water. An average African walks four miles to get water and carries a 44lb water jug home on his/her head. Over 80% of disease is the result of drinking water. A group of concerned persons prayed and formed a group called Wheels for Wells. They rode their bicycles 3200 miles raising money to dig wells.

We are called to pray to make a difference in our church, our community, our nation, and in our world. And we are called to get off our knees and do something positive for God. We must put forth an effort to do our part.

This prayer takes time and effort. It took Wilberforce over twenty years to see slavery abolished. What is God calling us to do right now? As individuals, as families, as a church, as a community, as a nation?

The vision God sends may seem absolutely overwhelming.

When I was first assigned to the Durango Church we hosted a series of congregational meetings held in neighborhoods around the city. People were invited to come out and meet us and share dreams, plans, and hopes they had for our church. At one of our meetings was a Professor at Ft. Lewis College who had always been involved in Christian Education. She had been praying for a church related school in Durango. When Jane DeGraw first brought this up there was not much enthusiasm. It seemed out of reach, too hard to accomplish. It sounded like a lot of hard work and effort. Even if we were interested we didn’t know where to begin. We weren’t even sure there was a need for such a school.

Jane was very persistent. Eventually she wore us all down. She used to say: “It can’t hurt to pray about it?” She understood the power of praying to make a difference. Slowly but surely the ministry developed and today is thriving and meeting a real need in the community. Jane became ill and passed way too soon. At least she lived to see her dream become a reality. A picture of her smiling face graces the wall in the school. The memorials given in her memory fund a scholarship to help Native American Children attend. This wonderful woman prayed hard to make a difference and then she listened and worked hard.

Some of us may have a dream we will not live to see happen. Even so we must continue to pray to make a difference. These last years my sincere prayer has been for the renewal of our great old church. We are in process of thinking ahead a couple of years to our 150th anniversary as a congregation.

We have a rich, full, solid history, and a very strong legacy upon which to build. We want to finish well. The secret to finishing well is to have more dreams for the future than memories of the past. When we pray to make a difference, God will hear our prayers.

Will you join me during this Lenten Season in praying for our congregation? If each of us would seek God’s will, and pray to make a difference, and follow through as we are led we would be a much healthier, more vibrant congregation.

We know God grows the church. The Bible says: “Unless the Lord builds the church those who build labor in vain.”

After Jesus returned to heaven, his disciples obeyed Jesus and returned to Jerusalem. They met in the Upper Room and in The Temple for prayer. They all prayed to make a difference.

A wide variety of people made up that very first assembly of believers. Men and women, apostles and ordinary folks, even members of Jesus’ earthly family. Mary the Mother of Jesus was among them. They prayed together daily. There was a wonderful unity among them and we need that unity today as well.

To that group of 120 people Jesus had given the solemn responsibility of bearing witness to a lost world. They all knew this was not a job they could do on their own. This was a time for much prayer. They prayed their efforts would make a difference. They prayed they would be faithful in all that was ahead. They prayed that the church would grow and people would come to know Christ. They waited and they prayed together. As they prayed they were prepared for the work that was ahead.

They prayed God would allow them to make a difference, and power came from heaven.

The Holy Spirit came to them and to us as the power source of the church and our constant companion. These early Christians did nothing without prayer. They prayed daily to make a difference. Almost every chapter in the Book of Acts contains reference to prayer. The message is very clear: “When God’s people pray something happens.”

Prayer has always been both the thermometer and thermostat of the church. The spiritual temp. of the church goes up or down depending on how God’s people pray. During this Lenten Season, and always, may we be faithful in praying to make a difference for God in the world.