How do we make it our consistent practice to welcome Jesus into every part of our lives? As we look towards Palm Sunday this week and Easter Sunday the following, we know that there is a heightened emphasis on this truth of our faith that will be celebrated. We as followers of Jesus, recognize Easter as much more than a religious holiday. Welcoming Jesus into our everyday lives is more about relationship than religion. We see in Scripture that many of the religious people of Jesus’ day missed Who He is altogether. They did not welcome Him as the Promised King, Son of God. They rejected Him because the confines of their religious superiority blinded them to what was reality. Their being caught up in religion did not facilitate life changing relationship with Jesus. In reference to Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem that we celebrate on Palm Sunday, we read in Luke 24:37b,38a, “the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord.” Elsewhere in Scripture, we read that waving palm branches was part of this joyful expression of praise directed towards Jesus. It was those who had travelled with Jesus and had witnessed His miracles who initiated this exuberant welcome. It remains true today that those who have known the love of Jesus and have seen His miraculous answers to prayer will be those who will initiate WELCOMING JESUS. This can happen as we are praying and expectantly trusting Jesus and growing in our relationship with him. For our WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER tomorrow March 29th at 1 pm we will pray thanking God that welcoming Jesus is all about the gift of relationship with Him!
Praising God that when we welcome Jesus, we find Him welcoming us into ever deeper relationship with Him, Pastor Lola
Our Generous God, we offer praise to You right now! We thank You for Jesus the King Who has come in the Name of the Lord and is worthy of all our praise! We thank You that when we do choose to praise You and to welcome Jesus Your Son into every part of our lives that You do fill us with joy. God we are grateful that You have arranged for us to be in relationship with You through Jesus and what He has done for us. We think of those who travelled with Jesus and experienced His love and grace. They heard His wise teaching and witnessed His miracles. They were the ones who initiated praise and welcome for Jesus when He rode into Jerusalem. We too have experienced the love and grace of Jesus. We too have heard His wise teaching recorded in Your Word, the Bible and we have witnessed miraculous answers to our prayers that You have provided. May we also be those who initiate praise for You. We want our praise to be genuine. We want the praise of our hearts to flow from relationship with You. We want our faith to be centered in relationship, not religion. When we move so quickly from one prayer request to another and do not acknowledge Your provision and thank You, we pray that You will forgive us. Please help us to be in the habit of offering praise to You. We want to trust You that this will encourage others to recognize what You are doing and to also lift up praise to You. We know that what we say and do, can influence others. Our prayer is that our words and actions will influence others for good. As praise deepens our relationship with You, we pray that it will also inspire others to praise and welcome You into their lives. As many times as we have celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter, we are praying that the significance of wholeheartedly welcoming Jesus will be fresh for us again this year. It is our desire for this to be a personal experience and one that we then enter into with others who are also reminded of what it means to belong to You. Thank You God for the ways You revealed Yourself when Jesus was here on earth living among people. Thank You for all the ways You continue to reveal Yourself to us every day. We do pray for eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to accept Your holy revelations. Those who travelled with Jesus were forever changed by Him and we long for that to be so for us as well. We pray for our faith to be vibrant and to extend life and hope to others who will also choose to welcome Jesus into their lives. Wherever we have lost sight of Who Jesus is, we look for a rekindling of faith. We pray that we will expect to encounter Jesus and to have Jesus accompany us in an ever growing dependence on You and Your plans for us. Thank You that this Easter season can be a time of renewed commitment to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in Whose Name we pray, AMEN.