Would you like to know what a group of students...

Would you like to know what a group of students, faculty and community members identified as God’s top four agenda priorities for our world and our university?  For the past two weeks our House of Prayer has been focusing on “Seeking God’s Agenda.”  The premise to that quest is simply that the goal of the Christian’s prayer life is to embrace God’s agenda as your own agenda.  (Have you noticed—so much of our praying focuses on our own agendas for ourselves, our needs, our wants, our problems, our desperations.  Nothing wrong with bringing those to God, to be sure.  But the great prayers of the ancient scriptures reveal a compelling focus on the divine agenda first.)

But then, coming to a sense of agreement as to what the divine agenda might be isn’t really a complicated task, is it?  For example, if I asked you to list right now what you believe God’s most important priorities are in his agenda for this university or for your own life, for that matter, would it be hard to come up with them?

After prayerfully preparing our hearts through music and reflection, I was surprised at how quickly last week these agenda items were suggested by individuals in our prayer fellowship.  If God has a prayer list, what do you suppose is at the top of that list?  Here were their responses: #1—that this world of lost sinners might be saved (Isaiah 45:22); #2—that all might come to personally know Him (Jeremiah 9:23, 24); #3—that Christ might be lifted up and draw all to him (John 12:32); and, #4—that God’s name might be glorified upon the earth (Revelation 14:7).

Wouldn’t you agree?  I do.  After all, what would God want more than to save every lost heart on this campus, and this world?  Go down that list of four agenda items—is there one you would take off that list?  Sure, you may think of one or two you’d want to add to that list.

But here’s the proposition: what would happen if you took these four divine agenda items and began weaving them into your own private praying?  What could be more fulfilling than to know that what is preoccupying your praying are the very longings that preoccupy the heart of God?  After all, “can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”  (Amos 3:3)