In various news reports and conversations recently, as some restrictions are being lifted, I have heard people talking with eagerness about, “things returning to normal”. I would like us to pray this week that not everything will, “return to normal”. In other words, there are things about the way it was that I hope we will not go back to again. There are some things that God has made it possible for us to learn and to discover in this most unusual time of a global pandemic that I am praying we will hold on to going forward. I have seen this as a time of spiritual awakening. There are people who have reached out to God and who have made space for God in this time, in ways they never did before. More praying has been happening than in a long time. A Scripture that inspires me in this context we are living is this, “If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has gone; the new has come. “ (II Corinthians 5:17) What new insights has God been showing us about Him and about ourselves that will be important for us to remember in the days ahead? How does God want us to be new creations as we center ourselves in his Son Jesus? How will our priorities be different than they were before? What does God want our “new normal to look like?”
Please continue to pray that we will be listening carefully for what God wants us to hear from Him and to do as a result. Thank you to those who choose to pray this prayer with us today at 1 pm. God’s grace for us to walk closer with Him each day, Pastor Lola
Our God of love and mercy who always accompanies us on this journey of faith, thank You for the answers we are seeing to our prayers. Thank you that the number of cases of people with the Covid19 virus is slowly decreasing. Thank you for the ways that You have protected our families and friends and communities from getting sick. We do pray for those near to home and around our world who continue to battle this serious disease. Our prayer is to see this virus brought under control. We pray for calm for those who are filled with fear. We pray for recovery for those who are ill. We pray for comfort for those who have lost loved ones to this disease. We pray for hope for those who are in despair. Now, as we are seeing signs of some things returning to normal, we pray for determination to not lose what we have gained. Thank you for a closer walk with You and we want that to continue. We pray that as we have depended on You that we will keep on depending on You. We pray that the way we spend our time will be carefully considered so that we give ourselves to what really matters. Our God, where we need to forgive and to be forgiven in order to be new creations, we pray that You will bring this about. Where the normal was to think about ourselves and our pleasure and preferences, we pray that You will challenge us to care about others in new ways. When we sometimes passed by “on the other side” instead of making ourselves available when people were hurting, we pray that we will now stop to see what we can do to serve as Jesus wants us to serve. When we would find ourselves making a whole list of excuses about why someone else should do what needed doing, we pray that we will willingly step forward to help. When our lives became so busy that we did not choose to spend quiet time with You and to come regularly to You in humble worship and prayer, we ask that You will do your work to make us new creations. Our God we see so much potential for new beginnings. Our desire is for this to be much more than good intentions. We know that it would be so easy to slip back into our old patterns and old ways of thinking. We ask for Your transforming power to remind us of this miraculous possibility of being new creations. Rather than judge others and focus on what they should be doing, we pray that we will be honest about how we are and what needs to change in us. When we resist what You want to do in us to make us new creations, we pray that You will persist and call us again into that closer walk with You. We pray that we will deeply appreciate the blessings You give us. We want to treasure our family and friends and never take them for granted. We know that the living of our lives as Your new creations will impact people around us. Our prayer is that others will encounter You through us and that they too will want to become new creations. In every way necessary, please guard us against returning to the normal that was never Your best for us as followers of Jesus. We do want the new normal for us and others to be a closer walk with You. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.