Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

I Thessalonians 5:17-18 – Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (NRSV)

As my sabbatical leave gets closer, we are working to make sure that all the bases are covered.  At choir last night, I realized there’s another one that you can help with.  Each week at choir practice, before we begin singing, we share prayer concerns and joys and hold all those things in prayer.  We have also, since last June, been holding a weekly prayer service at noon on Thursdays.  Both of those things will be on hiatus while I’m off.

But prayer doesn’t need to be and definitely shouldn’t be!  Perhaps my sabbatical leave can be an opportunity for you to practice a new discipline of prayer, so that our congregation will continue to be bathed in prayer.  I will be praying for all of you, but without these shared opportunities for prayer each week, we’ll need more people participating on their own.

It can be as easy as going through the prayer list in this email or the Sunday email and reading it prayerfully, instead of just to find out what’s going on.  Or perhaps you’d like to use one of the prayer practices from our Futures Process Prayer Practices booklet.  (Click here to download.)  Maybe you want to make a prayer phone date each week with a friend.

A sabbatical is a time for not just the pastor, but the whole congregation, to take a breath and focus on what is most important.  Prayer should be part of that.  I invite you to take some moments over the next week or so to consider how you might commit to deepening your prayer practices during this time of rest and renewal.