On Friday 1 December we came together on Zoom for our Inspire Prayer Gathering to focus our attention on Jesus as we started the season of Advent.
Here are some of the prayers and insights we shared. It is not a script or a full record – you need to come our gatherings for that! But we hope it will give you a flavour of what the Lord is saying to challenge us, encourage us and inspire us to press on with him in this dark world.
LISTEN to the song: Rend the Heavens by Larry Bynum (on YouTube)
I am the Lord. There is no other Lord. I am the one and only God.
You do not know anything about me. But I will make you strong.
Then people will know there is no God but me.
Everyone from where the sun rises in the east to where it sets in the west will know it.
I am the Lord. There is no other Lord.
I cause light to shine. I also create darkness.
I bring good times. I also create hard times. I do all these things.
I am the Lord.
Isaiah 45: 5-8 (NIRV)
REPENTANCE and THANKSGIVING
- What do you wish you had been thankful for in the past year
- What prayers of regret do we need to make?
- “Not being as grateful as I should be.”
- “Not starting a fellowship band sooner.”
- “Spending more time worrying than leaning into savouring moments with the Lord.”
We leave all our regrets at your feet, Lord, knowing that you hear our prayers and have come down to be with us. Amen
- What new habits have you begun this year that have helped your faith journey?
- What prayers of thanks do we need to make?
- “Falling asleep listening to scripture.”
- “Getting up at 4 a.m. to pray before I go to the gym.”
- “Fasting on Fridays, and other days too, and meeting with a friend who has started fasting.”
- “Growing relationships with neighbours that is based on Jesus, and may be leading to us having a house fellowship.”
- “A renewed fasting journey this past year that has been less legalistic and much more Spirit led.”
- “Reading more with the Inspire Scholars group.”
- “Trying to fasting from social media/mobile by deleting certain apps. It is such a big challenge!”
Lord we thank you, for your leading in our lives; for new opportunities; for the many ways we can hear your word to us; for being able to pass your blessing on to others; for your living, life-giving word even in times when we are hurting. Thank you Lord that you are with us and your Holy Spirit is speaking to us. Amen.
Father God, help us to look out and look up and keep doing that so that we can hear your Word afresh and live in the truth of it every day. Amen.
ADVENT
- What does the coming of Jesus as a baby mean for us?
- What prayers of wonder and amazement do we need to bring to the manger?
- “More ‘wonder’.”
- “I know from my learning that Jesus left heaven and laid aside his deity but I am being challenged to think harder about what it cost Jesus to come to be with us. The amazing love of Jesus to give up heaven for us. The amazing love of the Father to make it his plan to send his Son into the world to be with us. What a huge risk to send a human baby, who would be tempted and die.”
- “As I look up at the starry night, I am reminded of the shepherds. I wonder in awe as I gaze at the stars.”
- “God who is outside time and space came at a specific time, to a specific place, to specific people. And he specifically comes to me. He did not come to earth as a ‘higher’ power, he came to have a relationship with me.”
- “Christmas is an empty time for people who are without Jesus.”
- “In fellowship band I find myself developing a more trusting, loving relationship with God and living into his purposes for me.”
- “What does it mean to be vulnerable? As I look on the tiny new baby in our house fellowship I am overwhelmed at how vulnerable Jesus was to come as a human baby. He had to go through the process of child birth (and not the sanitised hospital version we have in the west). And then he was totally dependent on a mother and father to care for him and keep him alive.”
- “I am wondering how I need to make myself vulnerable by submitting to other people and allow them to bless me so that they can see Jesus as we see him as a baby. Maybe I could ask someone to help me cook a meal, even though I know I could do it myself. Perhaps I could be joyful when someone else is organising Christmas this year, and its not how I would do it….”
- “I want my love and vulnerability (being out of my controlling comfort zone) to be joyful expressions that reveal the Father to people this Christmas.”
Lord, may we ‘wonder’ at the Christmas story this year. Challenge us to ask deep questions. Fill us with your Holy Spirit so that we can share the wonder of Jesus others. Amen.
Gracious God, we are so in awe of you as we think about your coming in a helpless state. You put yourself totally in the care of two ordinary young people. You were a human being, living, obedient, tempted, challenged, joy-filled, mission-minded… to show us that it can be done. It is all more than we can understand but Lord may we be vulnerable to others so that we can show your real love and reveal the Father. Amen.
- How does the Second Coming of Christ affect our everyday life?
- What prayers of commitment do we need to make?
- “I see a picture of reaching out to people. Inspire is a place of streams of living water and beautiful mountains. But there is a fast moving train and people do not want to get off or even slow down. They are comfortable on the fast train and don’t want to stop and join in or enjoy the goodness of God in this place.”
- “I feel an urgency for my whole family to be saved. There is a fine line between leading them and pushing them to Jesus.”
- “Being asked where I see God makes be look for him.”
- “The purpose of fellowship band and house fellowship is to bring the HOPE of Jesus to our world.”
- “It is like approaching the finishing line. We want to finish well for the Lord. We need to gather and bring as many people as possible for the ‘last time’. It is exciting to anticipate the eternal Kingdom in God’s presence.”
BLESSINGS
As this year draws to its end, We give thanks for the gifts it brought
JOHN O’DONOHUE: BENEDICTUS BANTAM PRESS 2007
And how they became inlaid within Where neither time nor tide can touch them.
The days when the veil lifted And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart In the sheer exuberance of being here.
Surprises that came awake In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.
The slow, brooding times When all was awkward And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.
The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us Nearer to our invisible destination.
…. Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you
