Irrepressibly Present and Irresistibly Beautiful

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for the Power of Grace to Be Unleashed

     All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all. Acts 4:32-33

     Dear Jesus, why not now and why not us? As I read these words, “God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all”, I get a holy hunger and insatiable thirst for you to do this same work again in my heart and our church family. In our day and in this hour, bring the power of your resurrection to bear so we, even us, will be “one in heart and mind.” What more could we want? Why would we settle for anything less?
      Come with humbling and gladdening muscle. Come with reinvigorating and transforming power. Come with freedom-inducing and generosity-generating influence. Simply come, and make yourself large and beautiful in our midst, Lord Jesus. That’s all we need. That’s all we really need.
     I praise you for memories that make this scene in Acts jump off the page at me with great encouragement and blessed anticipation. For I’ve seen what you can do in the hearts of proud men and women, like me. I’ve experienced the outpouring of your Spirit on dry and barren worshippers. I’ve watched as you’ve rescued congregations, like ours, from seasons of cold hearts, theological arrogance, broken relationships and ingrown navel-gazing. Do it again, Lord, for your name sake and your glory.  We don’t care who gets the credit, Jesus, just make yourself irrepressibly present and irresistibly beautiful in our midst.
     This is no unrealized ideal, for I’ve personally seen believers “share everything they have”—homes, hearts, time and talents. I’ve lived in seasons when people were being converted left and right; when healings, of all varieties, were anticipated and experienced; when gossip gave way to praise, bitterness gave way to reconciliation, cynicism gave way to hope; when harsh criticism got trumped by gospel affirmation; when the leaders were the chief repenters and the gospel pace-setters. Do it again, Jesus, do it again soon. So very Amen, we pray with anticipation, in your powerful and praise-worthy name.