Views From the Pews – Sunday, September 10, 2023

Brothers and Sisters:

Full resumption of our activities in the churches after the “summer” break takes place this week.  Choirs are back, Sunday School is back, Bible Study is back, Morning Prayer is back and hopefully all our group meetings and meetings of our organizations will resume at their scheduled times.  Planned events in the Cure in these last four months, include Harvest Thanksgiving Services, Missionary Sunday, Rallies, Ingathering, and other Fundraising events. 

In addition to all this, there are also the  host of personal concerns that burden us.  It is sufficient to say that we could easily become overwhelmed by all that is happening around us and all the demands that are being made upon us.  The question is, “How do we calmly face and overcome all these challenges?”

The secret is that we must learn from Jesus how to pray and to love.  There is no question that the matter of greatest importance to Jesus was prayer.  In every situation of challenge Jesus resorted to prayer.  Jesus understood that the success of his mission did not depend on him, but on God.  This is a major lesson for us to learn, for we often think that it is the financial and material resources available to us, the knowledge and skills we possess, the number and the strength of the active workers in our church that will cause great things to happen.  Let us be careful not to limit God.  We must give ourselves to prayer – personal prayer, prayer in families, prayer in groups, and prayer in public worship.  We must openly declare our dependence on God, by putting prayer first!

Then we must follow Jesus too in the pathway of love.  Love is the supreme motivation for prayer.  Our worship of God is stimulated by our love for God, by our desire to be in God’s presence, by our longing to know God’s will, and our passion to please God.  Jesus knew that if his disciples loved one another, they would love and support one another, they would work with one another, they would delight in sharing fellowship with one another, and they would pray for one another.  

The truth is, no challenges are insurmountable when God’s people learn to pray and to love.

Contributed.