‘As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world . . . I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.‘
John 17:18, 23
When God’s people pray about the good news of Jesus Christ and do this in unity for the fulfilment of the Great Commission, we become an answer to the heart of Jesus’ prayer in John 17.
For this reason, I would like to invite you to join us in a global prayer movement titled ‘Praying Together for the Fulfilment of the Great Commission’, a 40-day devotional plan available through the popular YouVersion Bible app. The plan is split into 5- or 10-day reading plans, with each day including a short devotional, prayer, and Bible reading based on the text of The Cape Town Commitment.
(You can also find them in the YouVersion Bible app directly by searching for ‘Lausanne’ under Plans.)
What is unique about The Cape Town Commitment—and consequently, this prayer movement—is that it comes from listening to the global body of Christ. The Lausanne Movement spent years listening to church leaders in every region of the world, on all the things that they faced as they sought to be God’s people. We asked questions like, ‘What do you want God to do in the world today?’ And we found that listening among these regions connected Christian leaders like never before. Out of this listening process came the 2010 Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town, and the issues and priorities addressed at the Congress are articulated in The Cape Town Commitment. Through this joint prayer venture, we can thus join hands with our brothers and sisters all over the world in the continued blessing of listening to each other’s concerns and lifting them up to the Lord.
Another way we can pray together is through the wonderful work of Operation World, a key partner for the Lausanne Movement. I commend especially the Operation World mobile app, through which you can freely access detailed content and prayer requests for every nation in the world. Personally, my kids’ school uses this app to pray for the world and our family uses it when we take meal journeys around our dining table.
Let’s join together as God’s people for God’s work to be fulfilled in God’s world for such a time as this, that the world may know the love of Jesus!
Pray with Us
Dear God, we ask that you would fan into flame the global body of Christ so that its heartbeat for the Great Commission beats strongly. Transform us as we read your Word and pray for the good news of Jesus to be amplified as a song of praise in our lives. Use us in our homes, workplaces, ministries, nations, and world for the sake of loving God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, loving our neighbours with all the grace and mercy you give.