In my July 9^th post I told you about my belonging to a small group, Women with a Christian World View. Although our meeting time has changed from Tuesday to Thursday morning, we are still meeting every other week. All of us have become better at engaging others in world view conversations. Plus, we have added another challenge, praying for revival in our local church.

Doing this was first brought to our attention when we had an open microphone prior to a Sunday morning service. Anyone can stand and share a praise or prayer request. Debbie Shannon, who happens to be a neighbor, stood and said that she was praying for revival in our nation. Soon after we read a Breakpoint.org. article entitled “Only a Revived Church Can Revive Society’s Faith”. The author states, “Only a revival of faith in the living God can change the mood of society, and only a revived church can bring that about.”

So this is what we are doing. We pray for all who attend the Sunday service to apply what is preached. Of course that means application begins with us. We have been doing this for six weeks. But this week as I began to pray, I realized that not only did the application specifically apply to me but also to two others who do not attend our church and who are having trouble with desiring God in their lives. This caused me to take praying a bit more seriously.

I reviewed my notes of the sermon and condensed them to an eleven word sentence so that it would easily jog my memory as I pray. Following is my sentence on the teaching of I Thessalonians 5:23-24. Rely on God’s faithfulness to sanctify and preserve through His Word.

What I’ll remember from my review will be that I’m praying for entire sanctification (setting apart for God) and complete preservation of body, soul and spirit. This will be done by intentional reading of the Word. I can get myself into the Word but not those for whom I’m praying; but I can rely on God to do it in a unique way as He did for me when I was 27 years old and had never read the Bible. I found out, after the fact, that others were praying for God to do that work in me.

Conversations and conversions are two ways to expose people to a Christian world view. Susan Freeberg, a member of our group, suggested another. She gave this assignment to her church group of teen girls. Memorize the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Break it up this way:

love, joy, peace,    (one syllable words)

patience, kindness,goodness    (two syllable words)

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control    (three syllable words)

Then, instead of complimenting others on their appearance, tell them how they demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit. This is practicing how God sees others. “…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7

It is my prayer that you will engage others in world view conversations, pray for revival and application of Biblical teaching in your church and compliment others on their demonstrating the Fruit of the Spirit or other godly characteristics.

Comment to this post on how it goes – easy, difficult, good, bad or other. We multiply our learning experience when we share.