FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
September 9
PRAY IN FAITH, PRAY IN GRATITUDE
“Be careful [anxious and care-worn] for nothing; but in everything IN PRAYER and SUPPLICATION with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known unto God. And the [comforting, healing] PEACE of God, which PASSETH all understanding, shall KEEP your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally brethren, whatsoever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are HONEST, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT; if there be any VIRTUE, and if there be any PRAISE [anything praiseworthy] THINK ON THESE THINGS.” Philippians 4: 6-8, KJV.
See Luke 17: 11- 18. On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus encountered ten lepers who prayerfully petitioned Him, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! Heal us! They were all healed. But only one of them, a Samaritan, returned and fell on his face at Jesus feet, and with a loud voice, glorified God!”
And Jesus answering said, “Were there not ten cleansed [healed], but where are the nine?”
We all have been praying together for one another’s various special and urgent needs, and God in Christ has answered them all, in His time and in His way, just recently for one of our church family.
Shouldn’t we be like that only grateful healed Samaritan leper who alone returned and glorified God in humble gratitude—for all OUR answered prayers especially during this devastating pandemic, which is still stalking the nation and the world, on top of all the rapidly multiplying and overlapping crises of all kinds?
Let us be grateful to God in words and deeds that glorify Him and by “thinking on those things of virtue enumerated above. This is how to obtain, maintain, retain, and maximize utilization of the promised healing mercy and peace of God in our hearts and minds in the midst of the growing uncertainty, confusion, and depressing conditions in our own surroundings as well as in the nation and globally.
Bless all, NMF.