Breakthrough Prayer

This Lent, I am inviting and challenging all of us to end our day with a Breakthrough Prayer.  What is a Breakthrough Prayer?  It is a prayer prayed by an individual and a group with the express purpose of opening up in a new way to the Holy Spirit, who will 'break through' the barriers we have to what God is trying to do in and among us.

Council Chair/Lay Leader Ann Higgins and I spent time together listening, and the word that arose is 'refuge.'  In a world of chaos and confusion, increasing violence and nonstop news, there are so many people seeking safety.  What would it mean for you to be a person of refuge, someone whom people in your life know they can turn to for nonjudgmental and Christian love?  What would it mean for us as a church family to be a group of people where the least, the last, the lost and the unloved find a warm welcome, no matter what?  What would it look like for our property to be a refuge in life's storms?  

I would propose that we've already been used by God to welcome those needing refuge - and maybe that the Spirit is just inviting us to be even more of what God has made us to be.

But there may be blindspots or obstacles that we have not noticed, so, the Breakthrough Prayer.  Together, every night before bed, know that you are surrounded by a 'great cloud of witnesses' both living and eternal, as you pray:

Holy Spirit, breathe new life in me, working through all my relational connections to make our congregation a refuge for all those you love.  Amen.

Then, watch for the doors to open, the people to arrive, the opportunity to be clear...  
And when you join God in answering your prayer,
tell the story far and wide of what God is doing!

Lore