Reflections from the Prayer Wall

June 10th, 2023

I have said this several times lately, but it really is true: God is at work at Summit Ridge!

In the newsletter below I pray you will be as encouraged as I was by reading ways the Lord has been stirring in us. As you likely know, we have a "Prayer Wall" in our foyer at church where we leave and take prayer requests from one another, bringing them back to our wall when they have been prayed for - a reminder that we believe God moves through the prayers of His people. I have asked a friend and member of Summit to take the prayer cards once we clear the board to make room for more and sort them out. He's taken them over the last few times and seen encouraging ways God is at work among us. Below is his letter to us.

Nothing On My Own,

Pastor John

To Summit Ridge,

The prayers pinned to our prayer wall over the past year paint a tapestry that scale the full range of human plights and joys. We are a diverse body with a plethora of needs, wants, hopes, and pains. From those entering the final stages in life to the young children among us, the prayers range from the highly practical to the deeply intimate. Without a doubt, we are a people who pray.

Feeling comfortable enough to pin a prayer request to a wall where a stranger can read your inmost struggle is no small thing. Our culture often encourages us to privatize our faith in Jesus, but this wall stands as an emblem for our desire to share him with one another. We are his body and our sustained unity in him is wrought through our praying for one another.

The prayers of people at Summit have shifted over the last year. While requests for healing from various ailments, freedom from addictions or practical monetary provision remains a consistent need among our members, something else is happening. Something has begun to awaken. Something quite remarkable indeed.

The requests to see more people come to faith and find their salvation in Jesus has more than quadrupled this past year. The longing for the gospel to move in the hearts of the lost is palatable. It is also one of the most common requests made by our youth. The little one’s among us are teaching us adults something profound and we would do well to heed their instruction – Jesus is the one who is mighty to save.

More than this, the groaning for our own sanctification has also seen a noticeable increase, not only in quantity, but quality as well. People are begging to be changed by the Spirit of God. They are pursuing repentance. They see their need for the resurrected Lord to resurrect them from their dead works and habitual sin. As the Puritan Thomas Watson puts it: “Christ is never loved till sin be loathed.” This sentiment is capturing our collective heart.

Jesus is quite busy among us. He is actively healing marriages, freeing people from the shame of their past, restoring broken families, providing abundantly more practical provision than we need, challenging us to be a family and not merely a community, and graciously rebuking our collective pride to fall at his mercies and live in his love. “For this the will of God”, Paul writes, “your sanctification”.

To know where we’re going as a body necessitates we look from where we came. As we trudge through this life on our path to glory, we don’t always see our growth. The pain is too much in the moment. The elation too great in our worship. But as we reflect, as we remember from where our Lord brought us, we take our refuge. We can look ahead… not in vain optimism, but confident hope that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. We know that he who did not spare his own Son but gave him for us all will graciously give us all things. We have seen him work and can find rest in his heart to Shepherd us forward.

So, keep struggling Summit Ridge. Keep aching. Keep asking. Keep needing. Keep hoping. Keep praising.

Above all, keep praying.

- Your Brother

1 Comment

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Sally - September 30th, 2023 at 9:15pm

Please pray grandson Elijah our LORD to reveal the truth give him wisdom and surrender to GOD so he can go on with his career in the military thank you