Paul's Prayers, #6

6. I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. For you were made rich in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge – just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you – so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 1:4-7)

Corinth has gone down in history as a messed up church. In fact, they could be the poster child for how NOT to grow a church! And that is what makes Paul's prayer of thankfulness for them even more precious. He starts his book by talking about what is good and right - God's grace poured out upon them. The richness He gave them in their speech, the confirmation of the message of Christ, the fullness of the experience of spiritual gifts. Paul goes on to address some hard issues and at times speak quite sternly to Corinth. But the beauty of Paul's heart is that he never forgets that he is talking to believers who have experienced God's grace. He never writes off Corinth, because He knows what God has done in their lives.

How does this relate to becoming world Christians? It can be hard to be a world Christian. A lot of our churches don't "get it". A lot of our missionaries' churches don't "get it" either. Churches find it a lot easier to be like Corinth - selfish and immature - than like Smyrna or Philadelphia. If we sit around and wait for our churches to be perfect we will never focus on the kingdom. We have to start where we are, and acknowledge every indication of God's work in our churches. They have experienced God's grace and however imperfectly they reflect it now, they have within them what is needed to fulfill God's mission.

We need to pray for our churches and for the churches of the missionaries we support. If your church isn't as supportive of missions as you'd like, thank God for what you see and pray for ways to raise awareness and become a catalyst! While you're at it, pray for missionaries who face struggles with churches who expect certain types of results and tie funding to numbers. Pray for missionaries whose home churches don't support them. Pray for missionaries who never hear from their home churches. Whatever you do, don't become critical and judgmental, throwing out everything about your church or a missionary's church. Just thank God for what He has done, and pray for Him to do more.

Prayer: Father, thank You that Your grace is evident in my church. Thank You that even though you are still working on us in many ways, we know that we have the starting point of grace. Please grow us into a kingdom-oriented fellowship. While You're at it God, please minister to those missionaries whose churches aren't supportive. Help them to see the work You are doing and make them catalysts for change in those churches.