As we begin the new year, Converge churches and missionaries from around the globe will embark on 21 Days of Prayer. Join us on this prayer journey by reading the daily entries on Converge’s blog, or by downloading your free 21 Days of Prayer: Upside-down Kingdom guide (English/Spanish). In addition, you can share daily posts from our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds. Thank you for joining us as we open 2022 in prayer together.

Day 1: Jesus draws a crowd

Matthew 4:23-25

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. ²⁴News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. ²⁵Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

Before Jesus preached the greatest sermon of all time, he gathered a crowd. He did so by pulling back the curtain just enough for us to catch a fleeting glimpse of an invisible, yet powerful Kingdom not of this world. This Kingdom exists beyond the limits of physical space and time. It is a Kingdom where all that is wrong is made right. The beauty of this Kingdom is that it can be experienced in the here and now, not just after we die.

Everywhere Jesus went in his few short years of ministry a collision went with him. It was a collision between the realities of his heavenly Kingdom and the brokenness of our fallen world. It is at this point of contact we see the sick healed, the dead rise, the demon-possessed set free, the lame walk, those shamed given a new identity, the blind receive sight, new wine when the wedding feast lacked. Most important, a new way of living is preached so that we might learn to live as free citizens of this Kingdom wherever we are in the world.

But there’s a catch. To learn to experience this beautiful Kingdom built on a relationship with the Almighty King, we first must unlearn our most natural tendencies. The Kingdom of Jesus is an upside-down Kingdom where our natural compasses will not lead us. The power and beauty of Jesus’ Kingdom that we glimpsed as he trekked across Galilee is just as real today. May we be willing to unlearn, recalibrate, submit and prayerfully apply the teachings of his sermon over these next few weeks.

Prayer

Father, lead me on this journey of learning and applying. Reveal truth to me each day. Help me see what I can’t see that is wrong in my thinking. I acknowledge your ways are higher than my ways. Your thoughts are higher than mine. I begin these weeks by acknowledging the power of your Kingdom and my desire to experience you and your Kingdom more deeply than I ever have before. I want to experience you not just when I stand face-to-face with you, but in the here and now. Lead me. My desire is to follow you. Amen.

Continue your prayer journey throughout the year with Converge. Download the 2022 Converge Prayer Calendar to join us as we pray for missionaries, church planters, chaplains and district and national staff members.

You can also join a global prayer network and meet virtually with others to pray for the missionaries, people and specific needs of one of Converge International Ministries’ global initiatives.

Excerpt from 21 Days of Prayer: Upside-Down Kingdom written by Robert Watson and Justin Martz.