Not seeing answers to our prayers? Have we ever considered that we might not be seeing our prayers answered for a variety of reasons? It could be because we are not praying. So, if we are not asking God for anything, why would we be expecting Him to answer?
It could be because we are not looking to see answers to our prayers. So, if we aren’t watching for what God is doing, how are we going to be aware of His answers? It could be because we are praying for things God has not promised to give. Or, it could be because we are not praying for things God has promised to give.
Praying His promise of fruitfulness
In 1 John 5:14 we read, ‘And this is the confidence that we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us’.
What God has promised and what we pray to God about are meant to be related. When we shape our prayers according to what God reveals to be His will in Scripture, He hears and answers.
One thing that God has promised our congregations is that they can and should be fruitful. That fruitfulness might show itself in increasing depth of life, breadth of witness or harvest of seeds sown. But Jesus promises, “I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” John 15:16.
So are we praying for our congregation to be fruitful in its life and witness? Are we praying for our congregation at all – because isn’t it interesting how our prayers are often so individualistic, while those in the New Testament are more often for the people of God gathered together in the local church in Corinth, Thessalonica or Philippi? What promises of fruitful congregational life and witness might shape our prayers?
A prayer that ours might be a fruitful congregation
A number of congregations right across Ireland have been exploring what it means for them to be growing in fruitfulness. As part of the journey, members have been spending extended time together reflecting on two key passages in Scripture that are laden with promises about fruitfulness – John 15:1-17 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-9.
The following Fruitful Congregation Prayer harvests the crop of those passages. It draws together some of their key themes into a prayer that congregations can use to pray together for their life and witness. It challenges us to express renewed confidence in God, confess our barrenness, ask for God’s tending and the grace to follow where He calls, and faith in His guiding hand for the future.
It’s all promised! What might happen if we prayed it with the confidence that, ‘if we ask anything according to His will He hears us’?
Fruitful Congregation Prayer
Lord of the Church, in every time and place,
we thank you that You are the God who makes things grow.
We thank you for signs of your fruitfulness among us as a congregation.
The power of Jesus, the true vine, flowing in us and through us,
is what causes our life and witness as Your people to flourish.
All knowing God, who sees our hearts,
We confess that often we have been unfruitful,
not because You have not wanted to grow your Kingdom among us,
but because we have:-
Not listened carefully to Your word and followed it;
Lost our expectation of Your Spirit’s work among us;
Demanded our own preferences, rather than surrendered to Your will for us;
Not pulled together in Your one purpose for us, but pulled apart in jealousy, quarrelling, cliques and factions.
Forgiving Father, who tends our congregation’s life and witness,
we thank You that we are already clean because of the word of Your pardoning grace.
Prune us, cutting off what bears no fruit;
Shape us, so that we can be even more fruitful in living out Your purposes for us;
Teach us, showing us through Jesus, Your living Word, what we need to learn;
Enable us to better remain in Him and to know His life flowing in us.
Sovereign Lord, who chooses and appoints us to go and bear fruit,
in this season of our congregation’s life and witness,
help us to hear your voice and follow where You call.
We ask for grace not only to look to our own personal agendas, preferences and advantage.
We ask for that spirit of love that lays down all of that in the service of the glory of God and for the good of others.
We ask for clarity to know Your will for our congregation – nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
Only Wise God, generous in giving wisdom without finding fault to those who ask,
as fellow workers in the field that is Your church,
in these often bewildering times of challenge and change,
we seek Your face.
Remaining in You and desiring to be shaped by Your word,
we ask, believing, that You will guide us,
as we now listen to discern Your ways for us.
Make known to us the next steps towards Your growing in us greater fruitfulness for our Father’s glory.
Amen
David Thompson is Secretary for the Council for Congregational Life and Witness and is coordinating the Council’s Growing in Fruitfulness initiative.
You can down load resources from the initiative here.