Restoration is this week's prayer focus

Restoration is this week's prayer focus

Throughout January, Elim churches are joining the LIFT UP month of prayer focusing on the subject of New Horizons. Over the next 7 days, the focus turns to restoration.

You will remember that in recent years the current British Prime Minister spoke about ‘Broken Britain’. There was then a ‘plan of action’ resulting in the introduction of ‘The Big Society’. This came back in 2010 and was supposed to deal with perceived ‘broken communities’. What started out as a very public set of aims and objectives didn’t end up being as effective as was envisaged, although it stimulated much discussion and recognition of the great work being done by volunteers and charities throughout the country. In many ways the areas of brokenness in society haven’t improved, in fact they have deteriorated.

However this isn’t the end of the story. There are villages, towns and cities seeing ‘Restoration’, and this is in no small part thanks to faithful Christian people in our churches who are offering practical support and service that is evidence of God’s love in action. It is pretty much a fact that if you take Christian volunteers and charities out of British society large parts of communities would fall apart!

If society is struggling to cope, that means individuals are struggling to cope. The mission of the church is to make a difference to both individual people and groups of people. The message of the gospel is clear, God intends us to share ‘good news’ and not just verbally! God intends us to act and thereby demonstrate love in practical ways, not just talk about it. It is a well-known fact that people who receive love in kind are more receptive to hearing the spoken words of love through the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

We are made spirit, soul and body. A lot of people in society show clear evidence of have broken minds and bodies and this can be because their spirit has been crushed and their ability to cope impaired. So this week, using Isaiah 43:18-21 as our inspiration we pray for restoration.

View the full prayer guide and resources