40 Days of Praying - Day 11

LifeGroups: Ask God's blessing on our LifeGroup ministry and LifeGroup leaders. Pray for your LifeGroup leader and your group. If not in a group, ask God to lead you to a group where you can grow and serve.

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I love LifeGroups. I do. I love them. I love how lives are changed. I love how people are accepted and loved and how they find their niche. I love how God puts a group together with different gifts and personalities. I love different kinds of groups: groups with kids, groups with seasoned veterans, groups that are service centered, groups that are prayer centered, groups that are study centered—if it’s a group I love it. Mostly I love how they experience Jesus together. I love how Jesus serves and loves and teaches in our groups through each one in the group.

Are we where we should be? Not even close. Too many groups are still not experiencing what they could be in each other. Too many groups are not committed enough to the group—group members treat their participation as optional instead of necessary and important. We need groups that want to grow. We need more leaders who raise up more leaders. We need new leaders with a hunger to reach new people. We groups to be deeper and we need more people to join them.

But I really love LifeGroups.

O God, bless our LifeGroups. Bless them with love for you, love for Jesus and love for each other. Help us to grow. Help us to grow larger. Help us to grow deeper. Help us to worship harder. Help us to be more generous with each other. Help us to be more committed. And help us love our groups like you live the church. For Jesus’ body sake. Amen.

Grace.