An opportunity for the faithful: This Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 10am, prayer in the sanctuary. Come and join us. It is a profound experience to pray together. Can’t make it? Let us know, we will set another time.
Why pray? Funny you should ask. Walk with me through the words that follow.
Paul’s word to the Ephesians this past Sunday was that of peace, peace for two divergent communities, those of the Jews and the Gentiles, to come together in peaceful coexistence and more, to thrive and grow, in the love and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ proclaimed peace among them, by His death and resurrection, He fulfilled the precepts of the law of Moses-the dividing line between these two communities exemplified by Paul in the language of circumcision-and abolished the law, fulfilled it. In Jesus came the achievement of what the law set out to do.
For the church to thrive and grow in the world, it must do so in community. It is in Jesus that the church will find the peace of Jesus for a world in need. How a congregation operates within its bounds will be a sure reflection of how it will operate if it were to cross over its threshold in the world beyond. To gain this peace, to thrive and more, this peace must be achieved.
Where does a church start? In humbly coming before the Lord in prayer. A vibrant relationship requires vibrant communication. Is the personal prayer life of the individual stressed? Is the opportunity for the community time of prayer offered? Or are the prayers of the community concentrated into the worship on the Lord’s Day?
What do we pray for? A far shorter list (nay nonexistent list) would ask ‘what don’t we prayer for?’ Pray for the peace of Christ in the church. What if we are small and desperate? How will the outreach of the church reflect anything other than that desperation unless it has found peace first? The second half of chapter 1 of Ephesians is the prayer that Paul laid down on paper for the church in Ephesus. It is a noble prayer for any community to begin with.
(Ephesians 1: 15-23)
15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
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