World Day of Prayer

    When I opened my calendar earlier this week, I saw that today is the “World Day of Prayer.” (WDP)  It got my curiosity going because I didn’t know what the World Day of Prayer was.  I’ve heard of the National Day of Prayer, but never the World Day.  So, I did what every internet-accessible person might do, I Googled it.  Imagine...the web site is: www.worlddayofprayer.net .
    What I discovered is that it’s origins reach all the way back to the 19th Century when Christian women in the US and Canada worked together to support women’s involvement in mission at home and around the world.  Their focus was on women and children, prayer in mission work, a vision of Christian Unity, study, organization, and commitment to mission, with a hope that all of these would be linked to world peace through mission. (www.wdpusa.org/about.html)
    Today the World Day of Prayer is a worldwide movement of Christian women of many traditions, and on this day they pray for missions and the world.  It is always on the first Friday of March, and it is carried out by women in more than 170 countries and regions!  On this day women around the world affirm their faith in Jesus Christ, share their hopes, fears, joys, sorrow, opportunities, and needs, and they are united in a day of prayer and action intended to change the world through Christ and His mission.
    As I read up on the WDP, I imagined the beginning of this grassroots movement.  Somehow God brought together women of faith from different cultures, and as they shared with one another, the Spirit touched them and gave them this idea that they could make a difference.  That they were united in Christ, and the call of God is to change the world.  So they figured, why not pray?  Why not discuss and act on mission?  Why not live out what they believed?
    As I think further on this, I can imagine this same process happening over and over again when someone new learns about the WDP.  This sense that indeed, though we may be one, or though we may feel isolated, when we come together AND Christ is in our midst, great things can happen.

    In the Bible, these same kinds of interactions take place, and a few folks get together and say, “we can make a difference, especially with God on our side!”  It happened when the Israelites faced difficult odds and yet trusted in God.  It happened with Jesus and the disciples being brought together as one in mission.  It continued when the disciples went on to establish the Church and live out Christ’s call to “go and make disciples...remembering that Christ was with them to the end of the age.”
    It continues in our own lives and among our own people, as churches come together and say, “We can make a difference, especially with God on our side.”  It happens when churches step out in faith and commit to a mission project or seek to change a community.  It happens when denominations unite so seek peace and justice in places of war and destruction.  It happens when two or three are gathered in Bible Study, and they feel a calling, then respond.
    The truth of the matter is, that this World Day of Prayer is a reminder, at least to me, that we can and are expected to make a difference in the world.  That with God on our side, anything is possible, and Christ can change the world through us.

    So as we go through this day, I invite us each to say a prayer for the world.  Lord knows the world needs it!  Say a prayer with thousands of women from hundreds of countries, that indeed, Christ is able to make a way where there seems to be no way, and that when we unite, all things are possible.

With whom are you united in prayer?  How is God calling you to make a difference?  Will you trust God and take that step?