GPBC Blog

By Tanner Woolf --

In light of Mark’s last blog, I wanted to continue the theme of “Family” and show you one of the ways that our community partners together as a community. Last week, we hosted our All Church Family Prayer Night where multiple generations came into one space with the focus on prayer. If you haven’t been to a Family Prayer Night, the structure looks similar to this. (We structured this specific night’s theme around John 15:1-17.) We read the passage once together, focused on a specific aspect of the passage, spent several minutes praying in groups, and repeated that process two more times. Fairly simple!

Something was different about this Family Prayer Night (FPN), though. Our community has been going through such a big transition and, at the same time, still been serving our community in whatever way we can. I was convicted with how much time I’ve spent working and serving, but how little time I actually found myself praying for our community. Read that sentence again. I’m a pastor! How could I be working so much and be praying so little!? I found myself falling into the trap of “hurry” and “too busy,” and I think it’s a trap a lot of us find ourselves in without even knowing it. That being said, I would love to spend some time guiding you through the same prayers we went through for FPN. This was an awesome and full week of ministry in our church, and I don’t want this week to end without us stopping to pray! So let’s do this together – as a family.
Pull up a comfortable seat, grab some coffee, and open up to John 15:1-17. Got it? Now give it a good read…

OBEY
If you’re like me, you just read that passage and noticed a few repeating words (do “love” and “abide” start to sound weird after saying it that many times? Anyone? Never mind). I read this and think, “Okay! Message clear! I got to go love some people!” That's right. But, that’s not the first step I want to focus on. How do we actually abide in God’s love? In verse 10a Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” Before we do anything, lets just stop and obey. Let's take God’s Word to heart, and listen to where the Holy Spirit is guiding us. This week, we had the pleasure of Greg Lunsford coming in to preach and meet the community. God is doing some awesome things moving us forward as a community, so let’s just stop and pray that we would follow God’s direction for us and not our own. Spend some time in prayer that we would obey God, and listen to the Holy Spirit; individually and as a faith family.

LOVE
If you’d like, I recommend stopping and reading John 15:1-17 again. Got it? Now it’s time to go love!!! We keep his commandments, and his commandments are to go love one another “as I have loved you.” Here’s how this works: God is the gardener, He deeply loves and cares for his garden. Jesus is the True Vine. We are the branches that come from Jesus. Our fruit, the love that comes from us, is not our own. It’s a love that comes from Jesus. We have had such cool opportunities to love our community this week. How crazy was Family Jam Pumpkin Slam!? Here’s what I would like you to do. Spend some time in prayer for the fruit of love that will continue from this incredible Halloween event. Pray for all of those we showed God’s love to and that this love would continue to spread through His kingdom.

BE PRUNED
Okay, you know the drill, can I recommend reading John 15:1-17 one last time? Jesus says in verse 2b, “and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” When we obey, we love. When we love, that fruit grows. When we bear good fruit, it’s pruned. For our last prayer, I want you to pray for the pruning in our hearts. Pruning sometimes means change, and change can be hard. Pray that we hold everything in our lives with open hands. Pray that we have the courage and strength to let God prune our lives and take us wherever He wants to take us.

Church, we’re a family. You’re my family. I pray you feel that truth this week more than ever. Let’s come together and continue to pray for each other, and let the Spirit lead us wherever He wants.