21 Days of Prayer & Fasting 2021: Day 9

DAY 9: MAKING AN IMPACT THROUGH UNITY
Tuesday, February 16

READ
Romans 15:5-6

REFLECT
There is an old Peanuts comic strip where Lucy begins to bully Charlie Brown by demanding he hand over a football he is carrying. He refuses and says, “Why should I give you this football, Lucy?” Lucy looks at her fingers, and as she holds them up one at a time, says, “I’ll give you five reasons. One… Two… Three… Four… Five.” By now she had her fingers gathered together into a fist. She then punches Charlie Brown in the face and he falls to the ground. As Charlie Brown gets up, he looks at his fingers and says to them: “Why can’t you get it together like that?”

Have you ever looked at other Christians and churches and wondered, “Why can’t you get it together?” Clearly, our culture today is full of conflict and, unfortunately, the church is not immune to this conflict.

Paul’s prayer in Romans 15:5-6 is for unity in the church. The purpose of this unity is not for its own sake so we can feel good about ourselves. Rather, it is for the purpose of glorifying God and for the world to see what a gospel-centered community looks like. We truly can impact the world when we are unified around the gospel. While modern culture identifies itself through its differences, the church can express its identity through the unity we have in Christ.

RESPOND
Spend time in prayer, following the Upward, Inward, Outward, Upward format.

Upward: Who God is; What God has done, is doing, will do
Inward: Who you are; How you live
Outward: Intercession for others; unified prayer focus with Pathway

TODAY’S PRAYER: God, we believe that since you have given us endurance and encouragement, you also can create unity in our church. You can use our unified church as a mirror to reflect your glory and the hope we have in the gospel. Forgive us for when we have allowed conflict to derail our unity. Help us to not be a hindrance to the gospel, but to be a people who point to the gospel because of our love for one another.

Upward: Thanksgiving and Worship