As we remember the birth of Jesus and celebrate the breathtaking global impact of the incarnation, I’ve been thinking of the extraordinary lengths that God went to so that we may know. John includes a remarkable number of things that we know in the end of his first letter; none more important than verse 20 (italics mine):
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
-1 John 5:13-15; 18-21
With commensurate confidence we ask that you would join us in praying for the following:
- Hundreds of copies of Tim Keller’s Making Sense of God were handed out by students to friends and strangers in front of the Science Center last week. Please pray that many would be intrigued by the invitation to a thoughtful faith in Christ as they read Keller’s defense of the faith and interact with their Christian friends.
- Many Harvard students struggle as they experience the burden of (seemingly) endless opportunities. As they grow in their faith, most understand the need to be thankful (this is a good problem to have!), but this does not make vocationally-related decisions any less weighty, and pressure can build to measure up to internal and external expectations. Please pray they grow in their understanding of the freedom and joy of submitting to the Lordship of Jesus in all things.
We thank God for you all the time. Merry Christmas!
Don Weiss
Ministry Director
Harvard College Faith and Action
on behalf of the CU Staff Team at Harvard
Please note: if you would like to receive regular updates on how to pray for Christian Union's work at Harvard, please email prayer@christianunion.org.
