Saturday, March 7, 2015

Lenten Prayer as CtK #faithfulness #lent2015

Prayer:
Gracious God,
We give thanks for your faithfulness to what you have created, even as we stray from you. Renew your Spirit in our hearts, lead us back to you, and let your faithfulness overflow within us, so that we worthily love you and seek your will. Amen

Thought:
"For it is by grace you have been saved by faith and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8

Today's word is faithfulness. Often, I hear people talk about their "faith" or "faithfulness" towards God. Usually, when people speak about such things, it is in regard to how great their own, personal faith is. In other words, Ephesians 2:8 is made more specific in this individual's reading, meaning "For it is by grace I have been saved by "My" faith. With this understanding, though grace is proclaimed, it only is granted if one "has faith".

I will give myself no such credit for having any understanding, or "faithfulness", towards the grace that God has given to us. I continue to prove this time, after time, after time through my sins, that are there in thought, word, and deed, by all the things I have done and everything I've left undone.

Faithfulness isn't about my works, it's about the faithful work of God towards me, and all of creation. Indeed, God, in the person of Jesus Christ was faithful in the promise to love us even as we humans killed him on a cross. It is for this faithfulness I give thanks, and the story of Jesus' death on a cross, the story of God's ultimate faithfulness beyond all understanding, is the story I long to tell and teach and pass on to younger generations.

About Lenten Prayer as CtK:
During Lent, I am inviting all of you at Christ the King, and anyone who would be willing to join us, to engage in praying together, seeking to hear God and be guided by Christ's life in our life together. To guide these prayers, I will be posting pictures centered around a word for the day. This comes from the facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/LENTPHOTOADAY. Please feel free to join me in posting pictures and thoughts to your social media accounts or to the comments of this blog.

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