Outbreak of Grace – Saturday, March 21, 2020
Welcome to Saturday! I’m glad to be with you on the final day of weekly preparation in the “Pastor’s Workshop”.
What’s the last step before Sunday?
The step of Prayer.
Prayer is what opens us to the Presence and Power of God that is with us throughout the whole process of preparation and in the moments of proclamation.
As I get ready for Sunday my Prayer is 3 fold:
1. I pray for you and all the listeners. Specifically I pray that whatever blessing of God I’m seeking to proclaim on any particular Sunday, I pray that blessing for you, upon you, within you.
2. I pray for myself as the preacher. I pray that I would be fully prepared and faithful in my proclamation. I pray that I go forward as a servant with an offering, trusting in God to be at work as we join in worship together.
3. I pray that God will be God in great and grace-filled ways in and through the time of worship today. I pray that something special and spiritual is happening in the hour that will touch and transform our lives and our world today.
So specifically, for Psalm 46 what is my prayer?
1. I pray that in the midst of everything that is shifting in the world around you and swirling in your heart within you, that in the midst of everything, the Spirit of God would continue to draw you into the unshakeable Center of God’s Love for you in Jesus Christ. I pray that you would “Know that I (the Lord) am God!” (vs. 10) I pray that you would experience this solid Core of Compassion as your Refuge, your Strength, your Hope and your Peace.
2. I pray for myself that I might be more sensitive to the disruption and the fear that is so pervasive and at the same time turn to and draw from that same inner Stability and Strength that I am calling you into. I pray too that I might be clear and strong in bringing that hope.
3. I pray God would reveal God’s self as the Refuge, Strength, and Present Help to all the world in these days, that everyone might know in fresh, new ways that the Lord is God.
That’s my Prayer. What’s yours? What do you pray for yourself, your family, your friends, our community, our country and world, our church and your preacher? Jot down your thoughts. Keep them in prayer in the days ahead as we move into Sunday worship.
Prayer: Jesus, you have said to ask anything in your name and you would do it. (John 14:14). And so we ask and pray that You would be working in our lives and our world according to your great and gracious will. Help us experience afresh and anew, even and especially in these difficult times, that you are God, God of these days and God always, God who is our Refuge and Strength, our Help and Hope, through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose name we pray. Amen