My Galatian Prayer For Us

Dear Northwest Christian Church,

My deepest concern for us is that we would fall into the trap of believing that our standing before God is dependent on what we do. My fear is that we will forget about Jesus and will work and strive to make ourselves right before God. We will give into the temptation to be impressive and boastful. We will go along to get along when Jesus and His way is offensive. Slowly, faith will become about our holiness and righteousness.

Unfortunately, I know where this mindset leads, I’ve seen it first hand…..this mindset will lead us to be prideful about the many righteous things we have done, this mindset will lead us to become judgmental and harsh toward others who we believe aren’t following God as well as we are, this mindset will lead us away from joy and hope and peace as we always wonder if we’ve done enough, but most importantly, this mindset will lead us away from Jesus. It is destructive, it is devastating, and it is all too common in churches today.

So, my deepest desire for us is that we would love Jesus. My prayer is that we would love grace! My desire is that our  faith would be in Him and in Him alone. My hope is that we would love Him, worship Him, obey Him, and follow Him all the days of our lives. My prayer for us is that we would be known as a church that extravagantly and passionately and consistently loves Jesus with our entire heart, soul, mind and strength. 

Once we’ve given ourselves over to faith in Jesus, as a church and as individuals, my prayer is that our faith would express itself in love. I can see clearly that we will continue to be a church that loves and serves and makes a difference in our community, not because it makes us right with God, but because we love Jesus so much that we can’t help but serve others like He did his entire life. Let us hold Jesus up, let our faith be in Him always.

May we continue to walk and run in God’s grace everyday,

Steve Higgs