The Year of the Lord’s Favor

by Bryan Craig 

Day 4: Comfort, Provision, Beauty, Gladness, Praise 

“To comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”  Isaiah 61:2b-3 

I love leading discipleship groups. I love watching God work in the lives of others and getting to play a small part. When I lead a discipleship group, I pray about who I should invite. The prayer goes something like this: 

“Lord, I want to help some people be set free.  I want to help them find You and learn to abide in You so they can be filled with You.  Lord, I want to see them become a positive influence in their families, in their workplace, their church and this community.  Lord, show me who to invite.  Lord, please help me.” 

I can tell you that God delights in answering a prayer like that.  Why? It’s because these are things that are close to His heart.  I then go about pursuing the people God puts on my heart, and as I meet with them, I share my heart and ask them to consider going on a journey to intimacy with Christ.

Then, God puts together a group. It’s a group of people from all different backgrounds, different ages, different perspectives, different secrets. The Spirit is calling them and drawing them into this group for a reason. Sometimes, they know exactly why it is and what they are hoping to find. Other times, they have a hunger for more of God, and they feel something is missing in their life, but they can’t really put their finger on it. They come and they gather, and my Co-Guide and I do our best to serve them and show them the way, but we know the Holy Spirit is really doing all the work. He uses The Word in a huge way, but He also uses the comradery and dynamics of this particular group during this particular season of life.

God knew who needed to be in this group, for He knew the challenges they would face during our time together, and He knew of their strongholds and insecurities and wounds.  He put them together “for such a time as this.” Esther 4:14 Usually, a few meetings in, I start to see why these people and why now?  As we lead people to become disciples, we live out Isaiah 61.  In all our groups, whether men, women or couples, we see:

• People hurting from the loss of loved ones find comfort and hope.
• People providing for the needs of the other members in the group.
• People, who felt like their lives were ugly and broken, finding beauty in the Lord.
• People discovering Joy, despite their circumstances.
• People starting to Praise God rather than curse others.

As I sit in my front-row seat and watch God miraculously work, I know I’m part of something very special.  God has a front-row seat waiting for you, as well.