A Prayer for the Church

found this in my book, "Taste and See" by John Piper:

“O Lord, by the truth of your Word, and the power of your Spirit and the ministry of your body, build men and women at my church:
Who don’t love the world more than God,
who don’t care if they make much money,
who don’t care if they own a house,
who don’t care if they have a new car or two cars,
who don’t need recent styles,
who don’t care if they get famous,
who don’t miss steak or fancy fare,
who don’t expect that life should be comfortable and easy,
who don’t feed their minds on TV each night,
who don’t measure truth with their finger in the wind,
who don’t get paralyzed by others’ disapproval,
who don’t return evil for evil,
who don’t hold grudges,
who don’t gossip,
who don’t twist the truth,
who don’t brag or boast,
who don’t whine or use body language to get pity,
who don’t criticize more than praise,
who don’t hang out in cliques,
who don’t eat too much or exercise too little;

But
who are ablaze for God,
who are utterly God-besotted,
who are filled with the Holy Spirit,
who strive to know the height and depth of Christ’s love,
who are crucified to the world and dead to sin,
who are purified by the Word and addicted to righteousness,
who are mighty in memorizing and using the Scriptures,
who keep the Lord’s Day holy and refreshing,
who are broken by the consciousness of sin,
who are thrilled by the wonder of free grace,
who are stunned into humble silence by the riches of God’s glory,
who are persevering constantly in prayer,
who are ruthless in self-denial,
who are fearless in public witness to Christ’s Lordship,
who are able to unmask error and blow away doctrinal haze,
who are tough in standing for the truth,
who are tender in touching hurting people,
who are passionate about reaching the peoples who have no church,
who are pro-life for the sake of babies and moms and dads and the glory of God,
who are keepers of all their promises, including marriage vows,
who are content with what they have and trusting the promises of God,
who are patient and kind and meek when life is hard.”
-John Piper


How I wish I had read this when I was much, much younger. It is very convicting. Just to pick one line out of it, who are fearless in public witness to Christ’s Lordship, Yesterday in our Bible Reading, an older man (well known for his gift of public witness) shared that as he gets older it's easier to resist doing the things that were formerly important elements in WHAT WE DID FOR CHRIST. Just one of the things he mentioned was being a public witness for Lord and getting older he sometimes feels like it's not worth it because of the world's attitudes, and not feeling like he has the energy to respond to some of the arguments like he used to. I was sitting there thinking "I thought that would come EASIER as I get older!" It's very convicting, can I let days slip away without sharing the greatest love there is to share!? It's about self denial, getting past our pathetic comfort zones and living for HIM, without thought for ourselves. Prov 28:1- ".....the wicked flee when no man pursueth but the righteous are as bold as a lion" Why bold, some of us don't have that personality- bold because of Christ, bold because He bought and paid for us- what are we afraid of!? I'm preaching to myself, but wanted to share the above prayer with anyone I could :)