In our busy society today, prayer for community is often skipped as we get so wrapped up in our own needs that we lose sight of the significance of community...
Prayer for community is more critical than we often realize.
Consider this...
Is it important to you that each of those communities remains strong?
If you have ever been part of a school that had to close or a church that became divided, you will likely answer YES! to this question.
Now let me ask you another question… How much control over the strength of your school community or your church community do you have?
Even if you sit on the school board or are a church pastor or elder, you would be wise to see that you are only a single cog in a much bigger machine! Your level of control and influence even in high leadership roles is likely HIGHLY dependent upon the attitudes and behaviors of many others. The bottom line is this.. Your absolute level of control is limited.
While we all like to believe we have control over most aspects of our lives, communities can quickly highlight that we actually have very little control. The larger the community, the greater the number of people whose behaviors we cannot directly control. In sum, those behaviors can add up to greatness or poorness, and usually some mix of both. Each individual drives specific behaviors and consequences that have varying degrees of impact (good and bad) on other members of the community.
And that sobering reality leaves us here…
Our need to PRAY for our communities! Our humble requests to God for strong communities are both wise and honoring to God, who is pleased to see us understand His sovereignty over all things. When we pray to God, we acknowledge His good hands over our schools, churches, towns, and cities. Our God sees all of the details in a way that you and I never could! It seems that our most powerful opportunity to “control” the health of our communities is through prayer!
If you are not already, I'd like to encourage you to add your communities to your prayer lists. Strong communities often exhibit the character of Christ, being the hands and feet that literally build the Kingdom of God in the world around them!
Please feel free to share a time when you experienced the strength of one of your communities in the comments section below...
