Greetings again GracePoint family (Saturday, March 14th)
We certainly are experiencing unexpected volumes of change in these days. School closures, church closures, financial shifts, health concerns, and the list goes on. We are faced with the reality of personal emotional weariness which can lead to the extremes of fear or cynicism.
The British poet Malcolm Guite in an introduction to one of his poems writes the following.
Prayer does not ignore ‘the six-days world’ the busy weekday world, the constant cycles of unnerving news, the noise and pain and clamour of daily life, but rather seeks to transpose that dissonance into the key of love. As I worked . . . I realised that I was articulating something I had been feeling for a long time about the damaging and depressing effect of barrages of bad news unprayed through, accumulating as a kind of uninterpreted cacophony in the mind. We need the gift of transposition and the power to hear, however tiny it might seem, the eternal tuning fork that sounds Christ’s love in the midst of things.
“The eternal tuning fork that sounds Christ’s love in the midst of things.” Malcolm Guite is correct that believers in Christ have a higher allegiance and focus than the bad news that surrounds us. God’s Holy Spirit is at work in your life right now to bring that “tuning fork” of Christ’s love to the forefront of your consciousness. Remember, the Holy Spirit’s ministry in your life is not to make you comfortable, but to make you mature in Christ. And that maturity often, if not always, comes through vulnerability and seasons of adversity.
Therefore, as the people of GracePoint Church we should not allow ours, and others, current challenges and experiences to go “unprayed through.” Tomorrow is Sunday March 15th and I would encourage you and yours to focus on worship and prayer at 10 a.m. our regular congregational worship time. Remember, that just because we are not meeting together does not mean that we cease being the church. We are just scattered out in our neighborhoods and communities.
Some suggested items for prayer:
- That Christ would be exalted and trusted in our lives.
- Praise God for His faithfulness in your provision and sufficiency
- Pray for the GracePoint family
- Pray for families you know who are impacted by business and school closures
- Pray for our local medical professionals as they deal with this virus
- Pray for your neighbors, classmates, coworkers, and others in your context
- Pray for our community, especially for those you know who have not believed in Christ
- Pray for our country
- Pray for wisdom and strength and eyes to see opportunities in the coming days
Read Colossians 1:1-14 and if you are with others, identify and discuss the reasons for your hope and the growth in Christ that can be yours.
Grace and Peace,
Gary Nock for GracePoint Church, Ephrata
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.
—2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 (NASB95)
