Midweek Moment

We are two weeks into our series entitled, Ashes to Fire. The first week we looked at Jesus’ time in the wilderness and how God poured his power into Jesus through Christ’s observance of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, and solitude.

Last week in worship we talked about how Jesus lamented over the city of Jerusalem and how he grieved and mourned over their current relationship with God. We also looked to the Gospel of Matthew to get a glimpse of what might have caused this type of reaction and we saw how important issues of justice, mercy, and faith are to Jesus.

This week we received an email from the local chapter of the World Day of Prayer International Committee. As I was reading through it, already surmising prayer was a foundational component, I read the following line, “Each year a different country serves as the writer of the World Day of Prayer worship service, interpreting the Bible in their own context, and lifting up issues of mission, justice, and peace that are important to them.” This brought both of the themes from the last two weeks of worship together!

The actual World Day of Prayer is March 1st and at 9:30 a.m, at the First Congregational Church on Highway 200, women will gather for a worship service to lift up those issues of mission, justice, and peace.

I want to invite you, in your way, to prayerfully lift up this gathering and its causes. Too many times we get wrapped up in life and those issues do not always get the focus we should give them. One way you can lift this endeavor up is to come and pray in our Sanctuary. Every Wednesday, during the season of Lent, your Sanctuary will be open from 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. for you to come and have a quiet space to pray. You can sit in the pews and read Scripture, you can also sit in quiet solitude, and you can come to the rail and pray. I encourage you to take advantage of this time as often as you can. But whatever you do, or wherever you go, pray.

Prayer is our line of communication with God and a means of incredible power. This Lenten season I hope you will find that daily time and place, where you can leave the outside world behind, focus on God, and commune with our Creator. I know of no better way to be transformed, than to become as close to God as we can through prayer!

 Have a great week and I will see you Sunday!