Day 30: The End Is But The Beginning

You’ve done it!

You’ve made it to the final day of your thirty-day challenge. Let’s review some of your accomplishments:

• You prayed for fifteen days specifically for areas to make you a more effective Great Commission Christian.
• You delved into five Bible passages that encouraged you toward the Great Commission.
• You obeyed the command to go to sixty homes and pray for the residents.
• You wrote five letters or emails of encouragement.
• You asked God to heal any broken relationships in your life.
• You invited eight people to your church.

Look at that list. Look at what you have accomplished. Look at what God has accomplished.

Now, let’s wrap up this Great Commission challenge with prayers for God’s continued work in your life. You have come so far. Ask God to continue his work in your life to make you a Great Commission Christian.

PRAY FOR THOSE WHO RECEIVED YOUR LETTERS OR EMAILS

God has already been working through the letters, emails, or texts you’ve sent. Some may have included words of encouragement. Some may have expressed your desire to let the recipients know how you have prayed for them. All have been God-sent messages.

Earlier I mentioned a text I sent to a friend whose wife is in late-stage dementia and no longer recognizes her husband. He has always been an incredible supporter of hers. He loves her dearly. He hurts deeply.

When I sent my friend a text of prayer, support, and encouragement, he responded almost immediately. “Thanks, Thom. I needed this touch just now.”

I now pray for my friend more diligently.

PRAY FOR THE RESIDENTS OF THE HOMES

Over the past month, you have walked to or driven by sixty homes and prayed for the residents. If we assume an average of four people in each home, you prayed for 240 people as you walked by their homes. That is incredible!

Can you imagine the needs, the pain, the hope, and the challenges present in each home? Do you wonder how many of those residents are not Christians? Do you wonder how many are not in a church?

Here is what is likely happening in your life right now. When you drive or walk by those homes, you think of the people inside differently. You realize at a deeper level that those houses represent real people with real needs. You have greater compassion for them. You have a greater desire for them to know Christ.

You might not find out on this side of heaven the difference your prayers made. But maybe you will somehow make the connection. Remember the story of the person who was able to figure out that a new believer in his church lived in one of the homes where he had prayed? You might make that type of connection. You might not. But you can be assured that God is working through your prayers.

Take time again to pray for the people in those homes.

PRAY FOR YOUR OWN HEART AND ACTIONS

This thirty-day challenge has had a number of prayerful goals. Certainly, it is your desire to see those people become followers of Christ. You want for others to be healed physically and emotionally. You prayed for specific challenges they may be facing, even though you likely don’t know the details.

But the primary purpose of this challenge was to move you toward becoming a more effective Great Commission Christian. Sadly, most Christians do not share the gospel. Far too many ignore or disobey the commands of Christ to be his witnesses.

I admit that I often yield to the sin of busyness. I know the facts of the Great Commission. I know that I am supposed to be about the work of witnessing and making disciples for Jesus. I know that every Christian has received this command. And I know that Christ has given me everything I need, all of his power and authority, to be his witness.

But too often I get too busy for my own good. My priorities get mixed up; they are not always God’s priorities. I do some good things, but I don’t always do the great things God has called me to do, particularly the Great Commission.

Do you identify with any of my struggles? If so, pray for yourself right now. Pray that you will give priority to those things that are God’s priorities. Pray that your heart will break from the things that break the heart of God.

PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH

I hope you are active in your church. I hope you realize how important the local church is in God’s plans. I hope you remember that the New Testament, from Acts to the first three chapters of Revelation, was written about and to local churches and local church leaders. If most of the New Testament is about the local church, it must be important.

Take time today to pray for your church. I hope others in your church joined you in this Great Commission challenge. Imagine what could happen in your church if twenty members took this challenge twice a year. Those members would go and pray for 2,400 homes in a year. Think of the possibilities. Even more, pray about God’s possibilities.

As a reminder, you don’t have to wait for your pastor to start this Great Commission challenge. If you are in a small group or Sunday school class, you and your peers can take the challenge at least once a year. Think how that could change your church.

Above all, pray for your church. Pray for your pastor. Pray for the volunteers and staff. Pray that your church would be a Great Commission force in your community. And pray that the community would be open as members from your church engage them with the gospel.

THE END THAT BECOMES THE BEGINNING

You have done well. I mean it. You have done really well. You have persevered and taken this challenge in God’s power. You truly have Great Commission grit.

Yes, it is the end of the thirty-day challenge. But I hope you will come back to it again and again. I hope you will sign and date every day of the challenge multiple times.

The Great Commission is not just another program in the church or another activity for you to check off. It is a command from Jesus, and it should be a way of life for all believers.

You have been asked to pray for many people in the course of these thirty days. Now I am going to pray for you directly from Scripture. Look closely at the words I am praying. They are the prayer of my heart:

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.