A couple of weeks ago we began a season of prayer as a church that will lead us up to Easter. I’ve learned over the years that prayer is an incredibly powerful asset God gives his people, yet we so easily forget to use it. Our prayer lives are probably the most honest indicator of what we believe about God. Prayer, even by its very posture of head bowing, humbles us and exalts God and his power. As a church, we want to see a gospel awakening in Charlotte and we know that we are unable, in our own strength, to see that happen. Not only that, Jonah 2.9 cautions our ego saying:
“Salvation belongs to The Lord.”
That is why our prayer as a church this Easter season is the prayer of Psalm 115:1:
“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”
We are praying that the month of March is filled with people coming to know Christ as their savior. Not for our glory, not for the glory of Mercy Church, but so that God may receive glory among the people of our city. As a way of recognizing the mission field God has given every believer in the Mercy family, we’ve made this prayer personal. We are each identifying three people we each know that we want to see come to saving faith in the gospel. For the most part, we need look no further than out our front windows, or at our neighboring desks, or a simple scroll through our contacts on our phones to identify these names.
Prayer can be described as believing God on behalf of others. It is faith that unleashes the power of God in our lives and prayer is simply a verbalizing of that faith. Through the rest of this month, we are believing God on behalf of these three people. We are believing he’s not done awakening people to his love for them. So we are asking God for the “lost causes” and people far from him. Because nobody is too far from God to be rescued by his love. The exercise is simple. Pray for 3 people, 3 times a day, until Easter.
We want to join you in praying for your three people. Let us know your three at PRAY@mercycharlotte.com. Put “My3” in the subject heading and just put the first names of the people you want us to be praying for.
Easter is a natural opportunity to invite these three people with you to hear the gospel message and maybe they will say yes. Usually moments like Easter simply help advance your conversation with someone on where they are with God. March is our time, together, to ask God to move in hearts across Charlotte. Will you join us?
If you are a part of the Mercy Church family, you can pick up one of these My3 cards below this weekend.
