Jesus wanted the world to know that He was inviting every type of person imaginable to follow Him. They didn’t have to believe first, that would work itself out later. He wanted them to know who he was and experience him for themselves.

Why is it that we experience so little power when Jesus gave us as a church the power of the kingdom? He handed us the keys and said now go change the world. And what are we doing? Are we living into it?The truth is that Jesus invites the marginalized and destroys barrier that divides us: racial, political, economical, sexual, religious, social, ALL OF THEM. But are we boldly claiming that truth?

Where did that power go? Church, let’s reclaim the keys!

Pray boldly

We are getting in our own way. We don’t pray boldly because we don’t understand and believe the power that is available to us in prayer.

Prayer is the means by which we have access to God. It is an essential part of our relationship with God. It is not a wish grantor, but a means of communication with the one who created us, died for us, and fights for us.

Jesus taught us to pray boldly. He prayed with perseverance and addressed God based on knowledge and truth. He came to God boldly and with passion. He did not shy away from asking for the hard but submitted to God’s will even when it cost his life.

Trust boldly

If you want to follow Christ, you have to give up your life. You have to die to yourself. If you remain in your comfort, you will remain empty. You have to walk by faith and venture into the unknown.

Jesus didn’t show up on this earth to comfort you and me. He came to confront and shake things up. He came to flip the tables on the religious system and replaced it all with a relationship. He calls us to rely on that relationship, to center our lives around Him, to live and trust Him in all we do.

To trust God boldly we have to confront the issues in our own lives and in the American church as a whole. We’ve allowed racism and sexism to continue too long. We’ve ignored our neighbor and turned our eyes away from the refugee.

We’ve become complicit in our own comfort while begging God to do something miraculous.

But God gave us a choice. Keep your comfort and give up the keys to the kingdom or take on the full power of the kingdom and step out of your own comfort.

You won’t find God moving when people chose to remain comfortable.