December 7, 2025 (Advent)
Beulah UMC & Oak Grove UMC
Lord, thank you for John the Baptist who was willing to stir things up in preparing the people for the coming of Jesus into the world. Thank you for his challenge to us to not allow Christmas this year to be something we can simply box up and put back into the attic.
Remind us in these weeks leading up to Christmas that you want to transform us from the inside out. You want to shake loose our preconceived notions of what we think Christmas should be this year. You want to surprise us anew with the gift of your presence in a way that we could never have dreamed possible. As our prayer hymn will soon remind us, you want us to give you our hearts.
Take our hearts and fill them with the light of your hope, peace, joy, and love. Take our hands and our feet and empower us to bear fruit that is worthy of repentance.
In this Advent Season in which we wait expectantly for the birth of the Christ Child, we offer our prayers for people who are on our hearts and minds, those who are facing medical challenges, those in need of healing, those in need of comfort and reassurance, those who are feel scared and alone, those who are feeling down during this time of year because of grief and sadness. Thank you for being a God who knows all of our needs and our challenges, and our longings. Thank you for a church like this where we can find rest for our souls and pray this prayer that Jesus taught his disciples as we await his coming…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
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