Your Next Chapter: A Values-Focused Prayer Guide

As we prepared for the launch of Christar’s new look, the marketplace professionals serving in the Creative Services Department of the Christar Mobilization Center U.S. worked to communicate the ways in which our new logo reflects our desire to serve God well in our next chapter, guided by our five core values. For a recent office prayer time, one of these workers reflected on how these values can help each of us, as part of Christ's Body, better glorify our Savior and then challenged the office staff to ask God to help them grow in each of these qualities. She shares this prayer guide below.

Throughout my work on the Transformation Update, one line stood out to me:

God’s great story of redemption isn’t finished yet. And the Church is still at the center.

As I pondered this idea, I was struck anew by the fact that each of us, as part of the Body of Christ, is at the center of God’s eternal plan of salvation. We, by His grace and sovereignty, are part of the story He’s writing among the nations right now and of the foundation He’s setting for the next chapter.

In the Transformation Update, we talk about our next chapter as an organization through the lens of our core values. This got me thinking about my specific role through this same lens and how God might want me to grow in each of these five qualities so I can serve Him better. I was both convicted by the infrequency with which I’ve sought the Lord’s guidance in some of these areas and encouraged as I was reminded that He desires to use me as part of His work.

So, I invite you to meditate on Scripture focused on each of Christar’s five values, prayerfully consider how God might be calling you to grow and ask Him for His grace in embodying each of these qualities.

Godliness

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”            1 Timothy 4:8 NIV

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”               1 Peter 2:3 NIV

• Praise God that He has given us all we need for a godly life!
• How do you want to grow in godliness in your next chapter? Have you committed to asking God for His help as you seek to conform to the image of Christ?
• Pray for His grace and enablement in the specific areas in which you’d like to become more like Jesus.

The Body of Christ

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 NIV

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV

• Praise God for specific ways He has brought about transformation in your own life through His Body.
• How might God be prompting you to value and learn from others within the Church? How might He be asking you to build up others within the Body in new ways?
• Ask the Lord to give you an openness to being shaped by Him through His people and to being used by Him to shape and bless others.

People

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:9-10 NIV

• Praise God for specific people who have invested in your emotional, physical, spiritual and relational well-being.
• How might the Lord be asking you to value people—yourself and others—as those made in His image in the current and coming seasons of your life?
• Ask God to give you a genuine love for others and the grace to see others through His eyes.

Effectiveness

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” John 15:5-8 NIV

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. … make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.                                     2 Peter 1:3,5b-9 NIV

• Praise God for specific ways you’ve seen Him bring forth fruit in and through the most recent chapter of your life.
• What opportunities for effectively living out the gospel do you expect in the days to come?
• Bring those opportunities before the Lord, asking Him to cultivate within you the qualities that will enable you to serve Him well.

Creativity

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV 

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” I Peter 4:10-11 NIV

• Praise God for the ways He has creatively gifted you for His glory and the benefit of the Body.
• How might He be asking you to employ the gifts He’s entrusted to you in your next chapter?
• Ask Him for wisdom in stewarding your gifts in ways that lead to greater worship. 

In closing, rejoice with me that Christ, the head of the Church, is the eternal source of strength for each of us as members of His Body! As we seek to serve Him better in our next chapter, we do so in His power, overwhelmed by His grace.