Week: Mission - God's plan, God's purpose
Each day we will simply pray (P.R.A.Y.) together.
P: PAUSING to be still.
R: REJOICING with a Memory Verse and REFLECTING on some verses from the Bible.
A: ASKING God to help us and others.
Y: saying YES to God’s ways.
We start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
God of rescue and restoration, thank You for Your beautiful mission to save the whole world. Here we are, Lord. Fill us with Your Spirit, and send us so that we can join in with Your mission.
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Max
Ephesians 1:10
When the time is right, God will do all he has planned, and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:10 (CEV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
Today, we are REFLECTING on a few more verses from Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae. Here he explains that God’s mission – God’s plan – is for everything to change, to be transformed by Jesus.
Read by Max
Colossians 1:15-17,20
No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him… And through Christ, God has brought all things back to himself again – things on earth and things in heaven.
Colossians 1:15a,16b,17,20a (NCV)
The word ‘mission’ comes from a Latin word, ‘missio’, which simply means ‘to be sent’ – to be sent with a purpose, an important task.
In today’s Bible passage, we learn that God sent Jesus with a mission, a purpose, an important task – to bring everything that God had made back to Him. God is like the ultimate recycler – His plan has always been to gather everything, absolutely everything in the Universe, and make it all brand new. Nothing gets wasted. Everything belongs, including us.
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which is: What’s the most important task that we’ve got to do in the next 24 hours?
And now, let’s ASK God to help us and others.
Shortly after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and told them, ‘As the Father sent me, so I send you.’ (John 20:21, NCV) God had sent Jesus to bring everything back together, and so He sent His disciples to do the same… and that includes us too.
Lord Jesus, thank You for sending us, and for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us. We ASK You to show us how we can work with You to bring things back together.
There are all sorts of places around the world where relationships between people (and even nations) have broken apart, where they are not ‘together’ any more. Let’s hold a particular situation that we know about in our minds as we ASK Jesus to help.
Lord Jesus, nothing is impossible with You. We ASK You to bring peace where there are conflicts and violence. We ASK You to fix relationships between people and nations where they have broken down. Bring things back together, please.
As we read the Bible again, let’s listen for a word or a phrase that the Holy Spirit might want to say to us from today’s verses.
Colossians 1:15-17,20
No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him… And through Christ, God has brought all things back to himself again – things on earth and things in heaven.
Colossians 1:15a,16b,17,20a (NCV)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Loving God, we say YES to playing our part in Your mission to save the whole world by working with You to bring people and everything else back together again.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
Ephesians 1:10
When the time is right, God will do all he has planned, and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:10 (CEV)
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
Joy lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her dog. She works for Bridgetown Church where she leads kids as they grow, learn, and have lots of fun. Joy loves gardening, summer camp, eating ice cream, and reading her favourite books, The Chronicles of Narnia.
Max is 9 years old and lives in Melbourne, Australia with his older brother and mum and dad. He often rides his bike to school and enjoys being creative by drawing or building with Lego. Max is also learning how to play the electric guitar and loves turning it up loud!
