Lord Make Us Ready

Lord make us ready. Tonight at our evening prayer service we prayed for God to show us his vision for our church. My heart cried out to God for unity within our church. O, God, tear down the walls that divide us. Make us one - heal us and transform us from the inside out. Lord, I pray that there would be no place to hide behind pride. I ask for a spirit of humility evidencing itself through our love for one another. Make us ready to do that which you are calling us to.
11/24/08 As I've thought more about this today I've asked God to reveal what is involved in being made ready. What is it that God wants to accomplish in us so that we are ready to hear and obey. I am reminded of the series of sermons our pastor has been preaching from Matthew 5. We have progressed through the beatitudes to "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness." This timely series of sermons seems like a key to our being made ready. So how then is this passage of Scripture applied in our hearts? Will this application cause us to arrive at unity? Are we truly ready to go forward? Or has the call gone out and those who respond will be the ones who go forward? Are we willing to take up the cross and follow Christ even if it means moving out of our comfort zone? And what of those who choose to refuse the way of righteousness?
Ephesians 4:1-3 . . . I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle: be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. My heart longs to experience greater unity of the Spirit and I cry out to you, Lord, to help me to be humble and gentle, patient and willing to bear with one another in love.
I fear we are foolish if we believe that the Spirit of God can work fully in us and through us and among us if we are not fully surrendered to Him. But, oh, what He could do with a surrendered body. My heart swells with expectation of what God can do when our pride is smashed and replaced with humility and love for one another. My prayer is that God will make us ready. Cleansed and revived, humbled and unified, ready for more of Him. O, Lord, make us ready.