Go Into The World!

GO INTO THE WORLD!

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord. Quiet my mind. Open my heart.

Give me ears to hear your invitation and the faith to respond.

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

One of the greatest temptations in our world today is to consider our relationships with Jesus private—to believe that we have been invited for only our sake. We may be inclined to focus on the fact that we are saved and destined for heaven and can therefore live out the rest of our days without fear. Although these things are true, they are not the whole story. As we have seen by studying Jesus’ many invitations, he invites us so we can go into the world and invite others. When Jesus rose from the dead, he visited his disciples and extended one final invitation to them—an invitation to extend his invitation of life to the rest of the world (Matthew 28:19). Not only that, but Jesus spoke his peace over them and breathed his Spirit on them so they could extend the invitation without fear, in his power, and with his love.

• What are the biggest barriers or distractions that keep you from extending Jesus’ invitation to life? What are the practices or environments that make it more likely for you to do so?
• Read this passage again slowly. What invitation related to carrying Jesus’ invitation to life into the world do you sense him extending to you?
• Reflect on the places that you frequent. Seek God’s guidance as to how, in those environments, you might extend Jesus’ invitation to life.

Loving God, thank you for the invitation to go into the world and extend the invitation of life in Christ. Please help me know how and where to do that. I need your Spirit to fill me with courage and peace and love. I need eyes that see the world as you do: full of redemptive potential, longing to know you more, and desperate for wholeness. Let my life be an invitation, an example of the life you offer. Amen.