1-4-2016

        Good Morning All!!   

        Philippians 4:6; “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

     With the Christmas season almost done and Lent looming in the horizon, I decided to attend a Lenten workshop.  You do this to get some ideas and direction for Lenten services.  We left a little early to see number 3 son and family.  It is a day and a half conference; we booked a room for two nights.  It was just my wife and me but between us we had SEVEN internet capable devices.  I had two computers (mine and the one we use for church services), a nexus (reading material) and my smartphone.  My wife had her computer, Kindle and smartphone.  I don’t know who we were planning on communicating with but we were ready.

    When and how did that happen?  I have used a slide rule in my math education; I am not supposed to have this much stuff.  Maybe that is a sign; people who do not know what a slide rule is for probably have everything in or on the cloud and just a phone.  I really think that when I start using the cloud; I will be way out of bounds and my comfort zone.  Yet the one thing about our current time of history is how completely in contact we are at almost all times.  We took some of our high school members to a concert in the Black Hills.  We stayed in a cabin that did not have cell signals; a couple of the gals got the dry shakes.

    We spend so much time trying to stay “connected.”  Yet do we spend that much time trying to stay connected to God.  What if we spent as much time in prayer as we do on our phone or Facebook?  To many this sounds impossibly excessive.  Yet we need to remember that being in prayer does not mean that you are always kneeling with your eyes closed and your head down; prayer means being in communion with God.  We remember the wonders that God has poured out upon us.  We remember that, in all challenges, God provides for us.  This is what it means to pray constantly.   To call upon God to help you remember the promises that God has made to us.  This is what prayer is about; it is not about you changing God or about you bringing something to God’s attention.  Prayer brings to mind the understanding that God has already provided for our needs.  Prayer reminds us that God has already spoken to our pain, to our fear and to our sorrows.  Prayer helps us to focus on all that God does for us, even when we are in great pain and we do not see clearly; the healing is already beginning.

   So stay in constant prayer.  Keep what God does for you in the front of your mind, not hidden in some dark back corner.  Remember all that he does; hear his words of love in all that you do.

Father of all mercy; incline your ear to hear our prayer.  Bring to mind all of the wonderful promises that you make to us every day.  Remind us of your mercy.  Remind us that in all we do, your grace abounds around us.  Be with those who are struggling with all that is occurring in their life.  Calm their fears heal their hearts and dry all their tears.  Restore their hope.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret