Grace and peace to you all!
I pray that this weekly ministry moment finds you safe and healthy.
In two weeks, it will be Thanksgiving. This year, our celebrations will be like none we have ever experienced. Our COVID pandemic continues to disrupt, disorient, isolate, and cause havoc to the patterns and traditions that bring order to our lives. We will need, once again, to be flexible and adapt.
Even in the midst of his struggles, St. Paul encouraged the Christians in Philippi to be thankful and to pray. From prison, he wrote, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Phil. 4:6).” Thanksgiving, according to Paul, was to be a part of a regular and active prayer life.
From today to the first day of Advent, which this year is November 29, I am posting to the St. James Lutheran Facebook page a daily prayer and Inspirational Image. I created these to encourage us into a time of Thanksgiving and prayer. Although our celebrations might be different than we are accustomed, there is a wonderful opportunity to use these days to pray.
If you are one who already prays daily, you can use these prayers and images to enhance your regular practice. If you don’t usually pray each day, then these prayers invite you to try it out. Set five minutes aside at the start of your day for prayer. Log on to the St. James Lutheran Facebook page (new prayers are posted each morning at 5:00 a.m.). Pray. “Like” the prayer so that others in your social media feed will see it. It is that simple.
Follow this link to the St. James Lutheran Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stjameslc. When you are there, subscribe/follow/like the page. This will bring it up as a regular part of your social media feed. You might also like to join the St. James Lutheran Community - which is a Facebook GROUP of the St. James family and friends. It provides an online space for fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ at St. James.
Please join me in daily prayer, as together we lift our voices in Thanksgiving.
In Christ’s Light,
Pastor Walt