Praying
with Paul at our Grand Opening!
How
do you pray for someone? It seems like a
reasonable question, one to which most of us respond daily. Every week, here at Woodlake, we gather at
our Wednesday night First Fruit service, and we pray individually for all the
concerns that come in. We pray for
healing, hope and comfort in the midst of challenging times. We offer our praise for the good things that
God has sent our way. All of that is
good and right.
I
believe the Apostle Paul would do the same.
At the same time, this weekend, at our Grand Opening worship services,
we are going to listen to another prayer that he offered. He was praying for the Ephesian church (and
us). In this particular instance, he
didn’t pray according to our typical routine.
Instead, he prayed that these early (and late) Christians would get it:
“I pray that you…may have power…to grasp how wide
and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…that you may be filled to the
measure with the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Paul
knew that if the people within the body of Christ could simply understand the
overwhelming volume of God’s love for them, they (and we) will be changed and
empowered. To use Paul’s words, we will
be; “filled to the measure with the fullness of God.”
In
this world, where so many struggle to survive on a meager ration of love, I
hope you will join me, and more importantly, Paul, with a similar prayer for
our church. This weekend is our Grand
Opening. We have invited many to join
us. Some will be familiar with the
faith, and many, not so much. Our prayer,
as we work with this Scripture, is that all who gather this weekend will get
it, that we are loved by a God who consummately desires to fill us with his
fullness. Paul knew that when this love
pierces the hardest of hearts, lives are changed.
In
addition to reminding you of the importance of your prayers this weekend, I
also want to remind you that we expect to be very crowded. As you know, many invitations (mail and
personal) have gone out. We were nearly
at capacity at our 9:17 and 11:00 services last weekend. So, this weekend may be a great time to check
out our Connect and 8:00 services. There
will be room for you and your presence there will not only enhance those
services but will also offer a comfortable opportunity for our guests to join
us at 9:17 and 11:00. We encourage you to
be a part of the great worship there!
I
am looking forward to seeing you this weekend!
In Christ,
Pastor Pete
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