Prayer Letter 04 - Productivity and Peace
April and May reflections
Dear friends and partners in the gospel,
I’ve realised that the length of my letters is a barrier both to me sitting down and writing them, and to you sitting down and reading them.
As a result, over the next few letters I will be tinkering with the format and content of what I share here. I have been buoyed by your prayers. Please comment below NOW! or hit reply on the email NOW! to send me your personal prayer points. Seriously, do it before you read the rest. I’d love to pray for you.
What’s been happening + What’s coming up
Youth Event 26th Apr - Youth Event 24th May
The April youth event was probably the highlight of my year so far. Three visitors came, two of which had come to the social in February. They were all so focused when it came time to listen to my talk from John 7:37-39. They also engaged with the discussion questions. One of the non-Christian visitors, A, knew almost nothing about the bible. At the end of discussion group, he asked why we say it’s the word of God. “Wasn’t it written by humans?”
I had a 10 minute conversation with him explaining what the bible is about starting at the table of contents. When I offered for him to take one home, he accepted! Please pray that he’ll read it!
The next youth event is this Friday. I’m in charge of games this time - I feel a bit nervous that they’ll think my ideas are lame! Pray that I would not be so self-conscious.
Pray that God would preach the Gospel to the hearts of the youth this Friday. Pray for A to read his new bible and respond personally to the gospel within it.
Reach Australia Conference
Reach Australia Conference was a blast. Having really interesting conversations with people, singing praises to God in a room of a thousand people, and attending workshops on Mission, Youth ministry, and Kids ministry were all really great things for me.
But the greatest thing about the conference was the theme, "For the Glory of God", and the main talks from John 17. How magnificent is it that our Lord Jesus prayed for us!
His prayer pushes us to make much of the magnificence of the Son and delight in knowing the father. It pushes us to pray, like Jesus, for the things that really matter.
His prayer leaves us with a keen sense of our weakness - we live on Struggle Street - yet also with our security, that our saviour holds us fast, for he loves us so.
His prayer drives us to preach the Word that gives life through the gospel. It drives us to pursue gospel unity for the sake of mission and showing the world God's love. And it drives us to press on to be with the Lord, taking heart from the knowledge and presence of the Son.
Pray for Alan, Jireh, Rob, and me to invest in our love for God above and before the work of ministry we do.
Meeting Up
Something I love about one to one or triplet / quadruplet / quintuplet bible reading is the amount of bible coverage I get. I’ve been intentionally NOT doubling up - which means that in my meetups (both with Captivaters and other Christians), I get to read:
Deuteronomy
Job
Ezekiel
John
Romans
1 Corinthians
Ephesians
Revelation
This has been helping me to get a nice wide view of the diversity, riches, and storyline of God’s word. How amazing is the bible!
In our first meetup, V described himself as ‘a believer of Jesus but not a follower of Jesus’. Pray for V to personally respond to the call to follow Jesus as we read through John’s gospel together.
The year(s) of weddings
I’ve been invited to a heap of weddings. I am blessed to be called their friends. And I’m blessed with a lot of ‘external’ responsibilities! I’ve already mentioned that I played piano at a wedding in March this year. Coming up:
MC’ing a reception in July
Best Man-ing in October (Plus bucks party in August)
Best Man-ing in December (Plus bucks party - date tbd)
Groomsman-ing in January 2025 (Plus bucks party - date tbd)
Pianist-ing in March 2025
Attendee of three more weddings in July, September, November
Please pray that I will manage my responsibilities faithfully and learn better habits of rest (and to say no when needed)!
Also - occasionally these things rub up against my own desire to marry and have a family. Please pray for my contentment and joy in every circumstance.
Scripture + reflection
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. - 2 Peter 1:10
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. - 2 Peter 3:14
At the start of April, I tried to overhaul some of my practises in order to spend my time better and be a more productive worker. It sort of worked! I felt to an extent that I was wasting less time and more able to keep ‘on top’ of the demands of my job. Seeing as it was only three months in, I thought this was pretty important as I would only get busier as the year wore on.
Oddly enough, doing more made me feel more tired - physically and mentally. That’s not so unexpected, as I was working harder than I had been most of my life. But the thing I didn’t love was how it brought on some anxiety about productivity. Anxiety about getting things done, getting things right, doing things the right way. There was something in my heart that was chipping away at my peace.
May, on the other hand, has felt quite ‘unproductive’. I had taken some time away from my ordinary pattern of work to check out Christ College, SMBC, and attend Reach Australia National Conference. Furthermore, these were interspersed with some days I was sick.
While I was sick I really wrestled with stubbornness. I did not want to rest. I did not want to stop. I was impatient with my body. I wanted to get right back on the horse. There were some things - meetings, meetups, Bible Study prep - that I could not stomach giving up or even postponing. I turned up to them sick.
There’s something twisted in my heart’s view of God’s sovereignty and my own limitations. It’s something I have been confessing and praying about. Please pray for me and with me.
The word diligent appears near the start and end of 2 Peter. But it’s a diligence to grow in the holiness and in godly character and in assurance. This is the top priority in this age. This is the way we respond to God’s promise already fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled. I have at times in the past two months been impatient and frustrated with people at church. I’ve been tempted to grumble. There’s no point in getting more things done if my character is suffering for it. Perhaps I jumped on the productivity / getting things done train too quickly, and didn’t give enough thought to the real important type of diligence - diligence a la 2 Peter.
Please pray for my heart to be captivated by a gospel-centred vision of productivity: That Jesus has already done it all for me, and that before being diligent in working for the Lord, I ought to be diligent to be found in Him.
I’d love to pray for you - please comment or reply.
Tinker away bro - This is my 9th year of sending prayer updates and I still don't know what's best! Would love your prayer for figuring out how to make the most of the time when there are heaps of pressing demands as I start as senior minister.
ALSO - Is Moore off the cards? I notice you didn't visit them? I have an obviously biased love for Moore so I'd recommend you check them out. But also, those other options are great! What a privilege to have even 3 great colleges to choose from in one city. There's 0 here in the whole country!
Hey Rad, thanks for your letters!! Will pray for your prayer points at the bottom of the email. If you could, I'd like prayer for guidance in looking for substitute teaching work over the next few weeks. :)
Thanks!!