As I was reading this passage and thinking about Stephen and the other people chosen by the apostles, these words struck me: They were “full of the Spirit and of wisdom,” and “full of grace and power.”
As I read this, I thought “Does this describe me?” It’s certainly what I want.
Does it describe you? That’s what God wants for you.
He doesn’t just want it for our pastors or other church leaders. He wants it for you. Because as this passage makes clear, the leaders can’t do all the ministry. All of us need to do it together. All of us should be touching the people around us.
But in order to do that, we all need to be “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom,” and “full of grace and power.”
So let’s pray for that. Pray that for yourself. Pray that for the people you know at church. And of course, pray that for your church leaders.
But today, God also put it on my heart to pray for other churches that I know as well. Their pastors, their leaders, and their members need to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom,” and “full of grace and power” too.
So let us pray for ourselves, certainly. But let us also pray for our brothers and sisters that we know who go to other churches.
After all, when all is said and done, we are all one church. We are all Christ’s church. And we all need Him.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 