In my previous blog, I shared how I was preparing for Christmas and making the most of the season to share Jesus with people. I hope you had a good time this last Christmas.

The Christmas clean up and decorating that we did for a local charity drop-in centre went really well. We had 15 people come along and help tidy the place up, do some DIY and put up some decorations. The staff were really blessed by it and we had lots of fun helping out. The mid-week group that I help run has a link with this charity where we look to bless them practically once a term. We want to make sure that we have opportunities to minister and help put our faith into action. It’s helpful having opportunities to do practical things as we don’t want to model a passive Christianity.

Lots of people brought friends, neighbours and work colleagues to the carol service which was excellent. We ran two services in the evening and many people used the service to bring guests along to, then go out for a meal or drinks afterwards.

Unless we’re specific about what we’re praying for then it’s unlikely we’re going to see answers to prayer

At the start of this year in my church, we’re having a week of prayer and fasting to seek God about the year ahead. It’s an exciting and energising time to come together and pray. In my group, we’re keen to put people and prayer at the top of our priority. It’s a good time to look again at what we’re praying for and who we’re praying for. Unless we’re specific about what we’re praying for then it’s unlikely we’re going to see answers to prayer. We also need to ask God who we should be praying for and ask ourselves who is on our heart to pray for. If we can’t say who we’re praying for to come to know Jesus, then it’s likely that we’re not praying for anyone.

People come to faith mainly because of a relationship with a Christian. People bring people, relationships are the key. Where relationships are like an engine that can move people to Jesus, prayer is the fuel that drives the engine.

When my group meets together we always have a meal, because we’re sociable and we enjoy eating. This is a very natural and easy thing to do. When we spend time praying for our non-believing friends we also want this to be an easy and natural thing we do. We ask different people in the group to lead this time and share what’s on their heart, what’s encouraged them and suggest a creative way to pray.

If we ate the same meal every time we met, it would get a bit boring. People would stop coming for the meal. It’s the same with prayer. Having variety about how we pray helps to keep us from getting bored or complacent. We also want to hold ourselves accountable as a group, are we seeing people taking steps towards Jesus? If not, why not? What do we need to be doing to help see people come to Jesus?

It’s the greatest thing we can do, to share the love of God with others. I’d encourage you to make this your top priority for 2010.