Every once in while, I would like to use the Thursday Thought to tell a brief, Priority One story of how God is working in the life of a man that I run into or hear from. This story is from one of the leaders of a small group that met at one of our locations in the Lehigh Valley, and this happened in his group a couple of years ago. We had normally encouraged our small groups to be 12 men, give or take a man, and this particular group grew to 17 men. It was a stretch for us, and we were not so sure that this large of a group would work as well, but we were willing to give it a try.
The group had meet for several weeks, and they were nearing the end of the book in which they were studying. Immediately following the opening prayer on this particular week, the leader that week prompted the group to turn to a commitment prayer in the book, which was read by each of the participants as part of their homework that week. In this prayer, the writer of the book suggests that all new Christians need to recognize Jesus, for who He is, and to open their hearts to him. In other words, the non-believers in the group were encouraged to consider making a commitment to follow Jesus as their lord. At the same time, all of the Christians in the group were encouraged to renew their faith walk with Christ.
At that point, the leader took an incredible risk! He wasn’t just going to read the prayer or even lead them in praying it out loud; he announced that he was getting on his knees to pray the prayer in the book out loud, and he invited anyone who wished to, to join him. The response was AMAZING! The other 16 men joined their leader on their knees! Here was a group of 17 men, all coming from different places on their faith walk, in a circle, on their knees, praying aloud a prayer of commitment and/or renewal. For several men, this was the first time that they had ever prayed this prayer or ever prayed out loud. It truly was a remarkable and life-changing moment in each man’s life and in the life of that group. I was moved by this leader’s willingness to take the risk, and I asked myself, “Am I willing to take the risk of following God’s leading, no matter what that might be?” I hope that you are inspired by this true story, and, like me, I hope that you are inspired and challenged to take risks for Jesus’ sake. Take some time today to reflect on risks that God is calling you to take.
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Bill F-
Thanks for sharing that story. It inspires me to take such risks. Tony Campolo said something along the same lines in his book, "Letters To A Young Enavgelical". He mentions that there has become such a focus on letting people see our lives and how we follow Jesus (which is great), but he points out that we may have lost our willingness to lead people to make a decision to follow him.
While I don't think "praying the prayer" is the end-all and be-all of a person's decision to follow Christ, for so many a decision-making prayer can serve as a memorial along the journey of life... kind of like the stones that the Israelites put down on the dry ground in the middle of the Jordan River.
Maybe the prayer isn't so much for God as it is for the person praying it. It reminds them of the time they made a heart-level choice to be a Jesus-follower.
-Bill C
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