Mighty Head of the Church, and You, Father from
whom the whole family in Heaven and on earth is named, and You, Spirit of
Jesus, living in us and among us and empowering us and teaching us and leading
us—Godhead, my Godhead—I praise You. I praise You with my whole heart. I am
seeing You work: unfolding before my eyes Your magnificent plan for the spread
of Your Kingdom and the ultimate exaltation of Jesus Christ the King.
Breathtaking. Worship-evoking. Reverence-cultivating. Godly fear-inciting.
Joy-nurturing. Hope-kindling. Faith-building. Praise-exploding.
Suffering-compensating. Sacrifice-offsetting. Sorrow-counterweighting.
Discipline-rewarding. Celebration-mandating. All praise to You!
I
am coming to You to engage in a season of thanksgiving for what You have done
and are doing both broadly throughout the American church and particularly in this
gathering. We are Your church. You knew us. You’ve always known us. From Your
eternity You set Your love on us. You ordained us to eternal life. You created
us. You mourned over the sin-separation between us. You took action. You saved
us, though the price for saving us was the death of the Son Himself. He did not
lay down His life begrudgingly, though; He gave it up willingly—joyfully. And
then, because it was not possible for death to hold Him, He reached out and
took His life back. “Let all creation stand and sing, ‘Hallelujah!’”
You called us to be His disciples. You called
us to be one with You—the Triune God (how does this work? I wish I could
understand, but it is enough to wonder and believe)—to be one with one another,
and to call others to oneness. It’s a plan that none of us would have ever come
up with. It is a plan that reflects who You are and the way You do things. We
want to embrace what You have told us that You are doing and that You are
determined to complete. We are all broken individually, and though being
together is incredibly helpful, we are still broken together; so none of us
has, as individuals or as groups, followed You perfectly. One way in which the greater
church has jointly failed to follow your pattern is in the area of unity. We
have fragmented and isolated ourselves. We have done deep, scarring damage to
ourselves, our brothers and sisters, our communion with You, and our ability to
call others to oneness with You and us. We confess this to You. We agree when
You point out our sin. Having confessed, we want to forsake this sin, this
divisiveness, this separation and distance from each other—this spirit that
holds our brothers and sisters within our own assemblies at arm’s length. (O Jesus,
draw us near to You, so that, all being near to You, we cannot help but be near
to each other.)
You have been revealing our sin to us, though,
and You have been changing us! To the praise of Your glorious grace! You have
been changing us! The Spirit is doing a dramatic work. He is powerful. He is
wise. He can unify. It’s amazing! He can actually unify! He can rip walls
apart, leap over barriers, make crooked paths straight and rough ways smooth.
He can abolish divisions and fuse shattered and scattered parts back into one
whole. Thank You for sending Your Spirit, Father—the best of all the good gifts
that come down from You.
And so, You are growing community. We are
seeing You do this. There are many, many ways in which You are making this
happen, but You are definitely doing it. It is widespread and powerful. I thank
You for what You are starting in one place and spreading to another. Thank You
for the time of community You’ve been building for us here, drawing small groups
together through mutual desire for and pursuit of You. You grow us jointly
through time in the Word together, through praying and singing together,
through fellowship around meals, and other ways of pursuing mutual oneness. Thank
You. You’ve safeguarded us; You’ve kept us from much error and blindness that
could have swallowed us. Thank You. Thank You for growing leaders and sending
out emissaries. Thank You for the diversity You have given our group. Thank You
for blazing the trail for us, even though we have felt like we were shooting in
the dark most of the time—prayerfully, trustingly, shooting in the dark, but still
shooting in the dark. You have led and helped, protected and superintended. You
have done every good thing to us and for us and in us. Jesus has shepherded us. We are glad. Thank You. We are looking to
You expectantly and gratefully for what You will continue to do.
I am asking You for continuing wisdom. O,
please make Yourself and Your way obvious to us. Guide our conversations. Use
us in each other’s lives. May we hear the Spirit speak to us and through us and
through each other. Guide our counselors and authorities. Be pleased to use us
powerfully for good in the unification of the larger body. May community be one
of Your chief tools for increasing the health and vitality and power in the
Gospel here. Grow us missionally. We are lopsided right now, but You’ll have to
correct that in Your ways and Your time. We want to remain moldable and
responsive to You. Protect us from hardening our hearts, from arrogance and
thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought. We are still own-glory seekers
and self-kingdom builders at heart. We confess this. Please continue to
transform us by Your Spirit as we gaze on our Lord Jesus. We love Him. We
worship Him. We long for the time when all know Him perfectly, when the
knowledge of His glory covers the whole earth like the waters cover the sea.
You have promised that such a time will come. We bank on that promise, and so,
setting our hope on You, Living God, we attach our joy to the not-seen and not-yet.
We want nothing less than the full salvation that You complete. We anticipate the
consummation You have promised, and we commit ourselves to being satisfied with
nothing less that what You are pleased and satisfied with. We love You. And,
once again, we thank You. You are our God. We are Your people. Thank You.
