Why I hate rain
Let me start this off with a fact. I don’t like rain. Sure, I played in it as a child. Sure, I know that without it plants cannot grow. But I realized my disdain when it rained for two straight days. There was no sunshine, it was cold, and it was very difficult to drive. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t like it.
Don’t get ahead of me, I am not about to say learn to dance in the rain. I am not about to say rain is a good thing. No, if I was to reference a famous saying it would be it is always darkest before the dawn.
A month from now we will be back together again. A month from now we can meet regularly as brothers and sisters in Christ. A month from now.
My challenge for you
Many of you have told me stories of what last summer was like for you. Several of you experienced community like you never had before. Some of you saw Christ in a whole new way. Still others developed a new love for worship. All these things are wonderful examples of Christ moving in the first year of Fusion.
My hope and my prayer is that God will work again in each of us this summer. He will connect our community even more as we watch it grow. But that is still a month from now.
Many of you are in the toughest parts of your semester right now. As exams and final projects fill your minds, I have a challenge for all of you. Spend one hour in prayer once a week for the next few weeks. Pray for whatever.
Pray for your exams. Pray for Fusion’s ministry. Pray for each member of Fusion that you know. Pray for your classmates. Pray for your professors (Yes, Christ also shed His blood for them no matter how evil they might be). Pray for the US President. Like him or not, pray that God gives him wisdom in his decisions. If you run out of things to pray, ask God for the same thing that the disciples asked Jesus for, teach us (me) to pray.
Jesus and Prayer
This is the second straight post I have written on prayer. I think it is because I am only now beginning to understand the importance of it. As I read the gospels I am amazed at how often Jesus prayed. Luke went so far as to say, “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” Jesus has begun to build a great following, and even though He would often tell those He healed not to go telling everyone (because that wasn’t why He came) they would all flock to wherever He was. But instead of entertaining the crowds, He withdrew to pray.
Jesus lived a life that was saturated with prayer.
He prayed over food. He prayed before calling Lazarus out of the grave. He prayed over Peter. He prayed for God to provide another way. Jesus lived a life that emphasized the importance of prayer. Paul, would later write, “pray without ceasing” as he gave the people of Thessalonica some final instructions on the will of Christ.
It will be inconvenient
All in all, this summer has the potential to be awesome, but it’s success and failure depends on only one thing: Him. But as you know that is true about everything. The hour of prayer that I am challenging all of you to do (including myself), will mean setting aside something that is important. It will mean asking God to put your mind at rest from all that you have to do for a few minutes. It may mean putting off studying. However I have never regretted time spent at the feet of the father. Listen to what I am saying. I am not asking you to take an hour break from studying to say a two sentence prayer and then watch Netflix for the rest of the hour. I am asking you to spend an hour before the Father, without distractions (phones, etc.), calling upon His name, and listening for His responses. It will be inconvenient, as inconvenient as the rain, but I have seen God move in the biggest ways when He makes our lives inconvenient.