Re:Verse passage – Luke 18:9-14 (day seven)
Last night was a first for me in ministry. In our final large group session of the night for Freedom Weekend (our youth discipleship retreat), we had a Vespers service. Every year we designate this service as a time for prayer and reflection. This one was was beautiful. There was movement. There was emotion. Students were praying over one another. Students were praying over adults. The Spirit of God was stirring the hearts of our youth.
This was not all that different from previous Vespers. What made this one different, was after 45 minutes of prayer I got up, dismissed the group, but something strange happened: no one moved a muscle. No one wanted to leave. They were content to sit in the presence and power of the Spirit. It was a taste of heaven, and they were not about to let it slip away.
I share this story for two reasons:
One, God is at work in the lives of our young people. Pray for them as they continue to reflect on what God taught them this weekend. Pray for them as they come down off this mountain and enter back into school routines. Pray that they don’t fall back into old habits. Pray for sustained change.
Two, the same presence and power our students felt this weekend is at work in us and with us at all times. It sometimes takes sweet moments like this for us to truly recognize it, but what if we came into church this morning with the same expectation of awe and wonder? What could happen if we expected to taste heaven?
