RELATIONAL EVANGELISM PRAYERS FOR ADVENT

The season of Advent is a time for personal spiritual renewal and reflection, a time to “wake up!” spiritually. It’s also a season weighted with joys, obligations and opportunities as we attempt to be even more sensitive than usual to the concerns of relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others, numbers of whom, as yet, do not have the hope of Christ in their hearts. Phrases from the Gospel lessons for each Sunday of the season can spark our prayers as witnesses.

Week 1: Matthew 24:36-44   “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Wake me up, Lord, and help me to be ready for your coming in my relationships today, indeed for your coming at the unexpected hour. Remind me of how inexpressibly valuable is every minute. Open my eyes to the urgency of representing your gospel faithfully in what I do and say. Let me be a more present friend. Grant that I may be an encouragement to someone who, by your Spirit, is tentatively reaching out to you, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Week 2: Matthew 3:1-12  “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

What is the fruit worthy of repentance, God, if not that you call me to live out my reliance on you? Is it not to seek to actualize the promises of my baptism, to be incorporated in the Body of Christ and set free from bondage to sin? And does this fruit of repentance also include a desire to share Good News with someone who is struggling with all the bad news of life? Let me turn from self-centeredness that I may be useful in your call to others, through Christ. Amen.

Week 3: Matthew 11:2-11  “Are you the one… or are we to wait for another?”

Some ask this question still, O God. Perhaps they would be inclined to follow Jesus if they really knew someone whose life was being transformed by him. But they are testing other answers, other ways of living, other “spiritualities.” I’m afraid I can be judgmental, as if these tendencies were not really my own, and that does not help me show Jesus to someone else. May it be that your people in the world will let folks know that Jesus really makes all the difference! Amen.

Week 4: Matthew 1:18-25  “He will call his name Jesus”

Jesus, Name above all names!  So named because you rescue us from sin. Thank you. Thank you for coming to the world, sent by God’s love, that whoever believes in you will not perish but have eternal life. Thank you that this is true for all who love you, and for all who don’t yet love you but who may, if they can hear an assuring word, if they can feel the tender care of a sincere friend, if they can see your light in another’s eye. I surrender to the possibility that you may help me speak such a word, offer care, shine that others may see, and so glorify your Father in heaven. Amen.