What will be the “Tipping Point” in your life spiritually?
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book twenty-five years ago called The Tipping Point. The major idea of the book is that there are often ideas in the culture that stay just below the surface, but then all of a sudden something shifts and causes a tipping point to bring it to the forefront. Some examples come from fashion (Vans shoes move from skaters only to mainstream), music (Blues), even things like food (I never heard of ‘gluten free’ growing up).
I think if we were to look back at the history of major movements of the Holy Spirit in America, we’d see that one significant tipping point was prayer. But what is the tipping point that caused people to pray? Why is it that most of the time we don’t pray much and then all of a sudden people want to pray more? It’s hard to say, but often it’s one of two things, the first being times of great need.
When times are tough financially, or our health fades, that pushes us to turn to prayer, or as it is often said, “There was nothing left to do but pray.” It’s important to turn to prayer in times of need, but why don’t we pray more intentionally when times are good? For some reason we tend to forget about God when all our needs are met.
The other time that prayer tends to get elevated in the church and across the country are during times of great tragedy. I remember on 9/12/2001, our church was PACKED for a prayer meeting like I’d never seen before. None of us knew what to do after watching the towers fall, but we knew we needed to pray. It seemed that everyone was talking about prayer. Why weren’t we praying like that for our nation on 9/10/2001? I wish I knew. I sure wasn’t, and it seems that few people do. It’s sad, but it’s important to own up to reality.
Former pastor Jim Denison said he believes the death of Charlie Kirk could be a cultural turning point to wake up our world to how divided we are. My hope is that it will also cause us all to see the need for a greater dependence on prayer. We had an incredible Night of Worship Sunday night (thank you Isaac and the Worship Team). We’re already beginning to plan for another before the end of the year (date to be announced later). I’ve had more people ask the Elders for prayer and anointing for healing over the last three weeks than in my four years here combined. We had a good turnout at our Tuesday morning prayer meeting last week. Our Women’s Prayer Meeting continues to meet, our students are gathering to pray, our senior adults met with our students Sunday morning to pray. Prayer is growing in our church!
Paul emphasized prayer in the passage in Philippians we studied Sunday. Keep praying in your personal time, and especially pray for God to give you courage to take a step of faith for our Fall Faith Festival on October 12th. Whom would He have you bring with you? Be praying for God to open doors to the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the South End of Louisville!