Dear Grandkids,
Happy New Year and welcome to 2025! I am already anticipating that this is going to be a memorable year and we will look back on 2025 with lots of stories to tell – hopefully lots of God-inspired stories! And perhaps the only thing needed for that to happen is a God-inspired prayer full of intentionality, inspiration, and imagination.
Let me share such a prayer with you. It is a prayer I will be praying every day this year. But it is not original to me. It actually comes from a song called “Let it Start With Me” written back in 2011 by a group called No Other Name. It is the only song I am familiar with by them but it is a song that has gripped my heart ever since I heard it. It is the first song on my primary Spotify play list. You can watch a video of the entire song below but here is the prayer that I think is so powerful.
Let it start with me
Open up my eyes
Fill my heart with your compassion
Free my mind from all distractions
Use my hands, to set the captive free
Move my feet to follow after you
Lord change the world and let it start with me.
Let it start with me – I need to be willing to be a part of the answer to the prayer that I am praying.
Open up my eyes – I readily admit that I am more often than not blind to the needs that exist right around me. It’s amazing how callous I can be when there is so much hurt and helplessness staring me in the face.
Fill my heart with your compassion – I’m reminded of the Scripture that says: “When (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) I need for God to fill me and fuel me with the kind of compassion that moved Jesus to action.
Free my mind from all distractions – Distractions are everywhere. And I am very easily distracted. I’m not talking about sinful distractions. I am often distracted by good things. I think this is one of the devil’s schemes – to distract us from a God-assignment by introducing good and worthwhile opportunities that busy our mind and create detours that move us away from the purposes of God.
Use my hands, to set the captive free. Move my feet to follow after you. Lord change the world and let it start with me – Like I said, I need to be willing to be a part of the answer to the prayers that I am praying. My hope is that as 2026 dawns that I will have lots of stories to tell about how the Lord used my hands to set captives free in 2025 – people all around me who are captive to regrets, or to worry, or to unforgiveness, or failed relationships. And stories to tell about how the Lord used my feet to follow Him to places I would generally not go – because of fear or lack of compassion or just plain disinterest.
I often share one of my favorite quotes with new team members at CFARox. It is by Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision and goes like this: “You may not be able to change the world but you can change the world for one person.”
Lord, let it start with me!
Never forget that you are very loved,
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