Have you decorated for Christmas yet at your home? We have enjoyed bringing out our Nativity sets and putting up our tree and getting out our Christmas tablecloths and dishes. Now all around us are these reminders of the significance of this season when we celebrate God’s miraculous gift of His Son Jesus sent into our world to be our Saviour. This Sunday coming will be the first Sunday in Advent, when in our churches, we will light the candle of HOPE. I spent time after our church service this past Sunday getting the Advent wreath in place and arranging the Nativity scene at the front of the church. The Advent wreath and the Nativity display at church will also be visual reminders of what Christmas is all about. We can prepare for the celebration of Christmas as we decorate and shop for gifts and bake traditional Christmas favourites. My prayer this week is that along with all the other ways that we prepare for Christmas, we will carefully prepare our hearts to celebrate again the HOPE discovered with the news that Christ the Saviour is born. We read in Isaiah 9:6a “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.” When we pause for our WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER tomorrow November 24th at 1 pm, we will be praying that God will renew the HOPE and wonder in our hearts at the anticipation of celebrating the birth of Jesus, God’s Son.
Thank You God for the HOPE that Jesus has brought into our world and into our hearts, Pastor Lola
Our Loving God, thank You that at exactly the right moment in time, You fulfilled your promise and You sent Your Son Jesus to be our Saviour. We find ourselves participating in preparations for the celebration of Christmas in a variety of ways. Please guide us we pray in preparing our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ birth in ways that will please and honour You. Where our hearts have grown cold, we pray that You will warm them with the glow of Your Presence. Where circumstances may have caused us to lose sight of HOPE, we pray that You will enlarge our vision to witness Who You are and where You are still at work. Where bitter thoughts and attitudes in us interfere with what You want our focus to be, please forgive us. We are trusting You God to be shaping us continually for Your plans and purposes. As Your HOPE is renewed in us at this Christmas time, we look forward to the ways that those around us will discover Your divine HOPE through us. We are praying our God that in our listening for You, that we will encounter fresh expressions of Your HOPE and grace each day. Open our ears to hear the message of Jesus coming to be “God with us”. We think of how long people were waiting for the entrance of Jesus the Messiah into our world. When we find ourselves waiting and waiting for You to answer the prayers we are praying, reveal Your HOPE we pray. Allow us to see and know that Jesus is available to guide us and to sustain us. Our God we are praying that You will continue Your work of healing broken relationships. In the places where people have become impatient and angry with each other as the effects of this pandemic continue, we pray that we will find HOPE from you for a new tomorrow. We do not want to be living without HOPE and we thank You that we do not live without HOPE. At the times when we search for HOPE, please show Yourself to us. We are always reassured when we can see You and hear You. We want to be attentive to Your HOPE and we want to carry Your HOPE to those who need HOPE every day. IN JESUS’ NAME, AMEN.