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CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
2 Corinthians 5:18–19 NIV
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
CONSIDER THIS . . .
The man and his son had not spoken in many, many years. The wall between them seemed to be impenetrable until an intercessor in their family decided enough was enough. She prayed for reconciliation. One day, after years of prayer, it happened! God reconciles us, and the world, to himself in Christ. Then we lead others into that reconciliation with God and with one another.
Jesus went about reconciling people to God. Sometimes he did it through a miracle, and the person came to faith in Jesus. At other times, he simply spoke in ways that drew the listener to want the kind of intimacy with God that Jesus clearly had.
We live in a world of breaches—breaches of relationship, breaches of trust, and breaches of confidence. The apprentices of Jesus step into the middle of this world with a message that brings people closer to God through Christ and brings people closer to one another at the same time. In the early church, in a baptismal service, one could find a wealthy woman celebrating the baptism of a servant girl. In Christ, they were sisters. That relationship they shared in Jesus held authority over every cultural narrative that existed in the Roman world about the blessing of the rich and the cursing of the poor.
To be about all the things that Jesus was and is about is to be about reconciling people to God and one another. A profound miracle can occur when a person takes hold of the hem of Jesus’s garment, in the secret place, and won’t let go until they see a child come back to faith or a broken relationship mended.
As we look to faithfully walk with Jesus in doing all the things he has commissioned us to do with him, we must take hold of the reality that much of that work will be done in the secret place. We have the ministry of reconciliation, and we carry it out as a people of prayer.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I take up the ministry of reconciliation you have given me, and I stay with it in prayer. I ask you to reconcile wayward hearts to you, to heal the sick that they may turn to you, and to repair broken relationships with those who have lost the ability to repair them themselves. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Write down a prayer for reconciliation with God and others for a person that is on your heart. Pray without fear, with full trust that God will do what he promises to do—to reconcile hearts to his own.
ACTIVATION
Today, as a minister of reconciliation, look for an opportunity to bridge a gap between someone and God, or someone and another person. Be the peacemaker, in private and in public, that Jesus has invited you to be. Travail in prayer until you see breakthrough.
SING
Today, we will sing “Gratitude,” which cannot be found in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt
Dan Wilt is an author, communicator, pastor, and practitioner. With roots in the Vineyard stream of churches, Dan has served the development of followers of Jesus internationally and is part of the Seedbed Farm Team.
2 Responses
What Happens When Someone Cries? (Tears help reconcile.)
Don’t fear a tear.
It often means
That Christ is near.
Outside of funerals, crying is rarely appreciated or encouraged in church. People are quick to hand a tissue to help a crier tidy up. However, when Christians gather as ekklesia to open up their heart to one another and to the God the Holy Spirit, it’s not unusual for teardrops to fall.
Why do people cry? Because tears are a gift from God. They’re not just salty eyewater. They have a spiritual, supernatural aspect to them.
The fear that a tear may appear causes many Christians to quench the Holy Spirit by fighting to keep their eyes dry. But what happens when the eyes moisten anyway? What happens when teardrops fall?
There are two kinds of tear tracks. Sad tears happen when we are hurting. They are a nonverbal, prayer-like cry for help. They release and our pain and keep it from building up inside of us.
Glad (or tender) tears occur when we feel blessed. They help awe, gratitude, and love to freely flow from deep within us when our heart is being tenderly touched with appreciation. When we hold back our tears, we hinder God’s help and we harden our heart to the awareness of His glorious presence.
In Western culture people crying is usually seen as embarrassment, as weakness, as emotional breakdown, as lack of self-control, as something to avoid at all costs (especially for men). Children grow up being called “crybaby” by other kids and being sternly told “Don’t cry,” or “Stop Crying,” by adults.
Those of us raised in Western culture have been taught to keep our eyes dry. We have been trained to try our best not to cry and if we do to keep our tear time as brief as possible. We feel like we owe it to ourselves and to the people around us to save us all from tear-embarrassment.
So, when we see someone beginning to cry there is normally a sense of awkwardness and panic. However, if we can get beyond that and accept tears as a spiritual gift from God, amazing things begin to happen.
Tenderness and compassion begin to spread around the room. People begin to feel more connected to one another. Humility comes out of hiding. Friendship thickens. The awareness of God’s presence intensifies. Few eyes remain dry as the warmth of heart-connection triumphs in the room.
I’ve always had a soft heart and because of that I cry easily, especially with tears of compassion and when I feel God’s presence. All my life I’ve struggled with feeling ashamed when tears come to my eyes and I’ve tried to hold them back. I’ve been so brained washed by Western culture that I still do.
Last fall my wife Ernie and I spent three months in Costa Rica (at Vidanet) helping to disciple young adults from the USA and several Latin American countries. When I would share a devotion with them, I would usually cry. Although I know that good things happen when tears are allowed to fall, I would still be embarrassed by it.
The day that most of us were leaving to go home, I knew I would cry every time I told someone goodbye, so I wore sunglasses to hide my tears. One of the leaders walked up to me and said, “Steve, why are you crying?”
I said, “Why do you think I’m crying?” She replied: “Because you are wearing sunglasses and it’s too cloudy to need them.” She caught me hiding the gift of God.
What would happen if those of us who are seeking to follow and obey Jesus would stop quenching and hiding our tears. What if we would begin to openly allow people to see how deeply the Holy Spirit is touching our heart? What if we ignored Western culture and quit disobeying the Scripture that says, “Quench not the Spirit,”?
Lord, please forgive me for all the times I’ve quenched Your Spirit by holding back and trying to stop Your gift of tears. Please help me to have the courage to let that gift feely flow without embarrassment every time You start releasing it through me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thank you, Steve for sharing Holy Spirit tears.
When I was young, I went to counseling in an effort to stop the tears. Did not work.
Now I embrace Holy Spirit tears as a gift from God.
Ready, set, go, Holy Spirit flow.