Grace and peace on this Saturday! It’s a blessing to end the week with you in the Pastor’s Workshop.
As you know Saturday is a Sabbath day. It’s a day of rest (which we all need!). And it’s a day of resting in the Lord (which we all need!).
Part of what we do on Saturday is preparing for Sunday, but not by writing. We get ready for worship by preparing with prayer.
This week our focus has been on the “very goodness” of God and the “very goodness” of life that comes from God. As you pray, how would you pray that blessing for all our worshippers and our world?
Here are some of my prayers:
· I pray that during these difficult days (the hurricane, the pandemic, social unrest, political polarization) we know there is an underlying, foundational “goodness” of life that comes from God.
· I pray we realize how much of God’s “goodness” comes to us in life as potential, possibility, and opportunity – the potential to see beauty, the possibility to do good, and the opportunity to be and bring a blessing to others.
· I pray that by God’s Spirit we claim and live into that “goodness”.
· I pray that we know deep within ourselves, in our own souls, we are made in the image of God. There is a deep and abiding “goodness” in each and every one as creations of God.
· I pray we know that when this “soul goodness” is buried, hidden, or covered up, Jesus Christ is present in the goodness of God’s grace to redeem, revive and resurrect the very goodness of God’s love in our lives.
These are a few of my prayers for worship. What are yours? Particularly as you meditate on Genesis 1:31 (“And God saw all that God had made, and behold, it was very good.”) what are your prayers for yourself, others, and our world?
I’m grateful to join you on this day of prayer. And I look forward to worshiping together tomorrow. Worship is a time when we can start the week off right, centering ourselves in God’s “very goodness”. We know that when we start our week right it will go better, and as our week goes better it can finish well.
In that blessing, I invite you into prayer today in the Pastor’s Workshop and I’m excited about being with you tomorrow in the Master’s Workshop!
See you then!
Prayer: Lord, thank You for this day of prayer! Thank You for how we center our lives in Your Goodness. Thank You for how You have created us in Your Very Goodness and invited us to live lives that reflect that Very Goodness to others. In that blessing, we lift this prayer, in the name of Jesus our Good and Gracious Lord. Amen.