[This is a photo of three of our Honduras mission team members on their way home yesterday. We prayed for them during our worship services earlier in the day (see prayer below.) Notice their smiles after their long trip. There is great joy when we serve the Lord! A couple of people from the mission team will be sharing about their experiences this upcoming Sunday during worship. Welcome home, missions team!]
O God, thank you for the many ways that our church is living
out our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of
our community and world. Thank you for placing our church in this location to
be a haven of blessing and peace.
Thank you for the vision you have given us to put Athens
First. Thank you for the many ways you are helping us to connect with our
community and world. We look forward to the continuing of these ministries as
well as new ministries this fall, like “Core” where we will exercise our minds
in exploring the foundational components of our Christian faith.
Help us to be a church where we use our hands to serve,
where we use our hearts to love, and where we use our minds to grow. Serve,
love, and grow. Teach us what it means to keep our focus on those three areas
of our faith, O God. Take away any unnecessary distractions that would keep us
from serving, loving, and growing in our faith.
We confess that we sometimes struggle in having the focus
you want us to have. There are so many things that would pull us away from
keeping the main thing the main thing. Reminds us again and again of the words
of my pastor friend who used to always tell me, “Stay focused on Jesus. Stay
focused on Jesus.”
Keep our focus on you as we share our faith with each other
in small groups. Keep our focus on you as we serve through our Athens First
Saturday outreach. Keep our focus on you as construction begins for our several
building improvements. Keep our focus on you as we begin our “Core” classes
this fall. Keep our focus on you every time we gather in this place to worship
you.
We pray for those who may find it difficult to focus on you
because of financial difficulties, loneliness, relational struggles, health
issues, or some other challenge they may be facing. Help our church to be a
haven of blessing and peace especially for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the
many distractions that come our way. We lift up to you the people of France who
experienced a terrorist attack this past week. We pray for a world of mutual
understanding and peace. And we continue to pray for our Honduras mission team
as they do their part in making this world a better place.
And Lord, help us to not take ourselves so seriously that we
miss out on the joy of living out our faith. And that’s why we especially thank
you that today is National Ice-Cream Day. Continue to help us be a church that
knows how to have a lot of fun. We pray this in the name of Jesus who is the
reason that we have joy in our hearts and who has taught us to pray together
saying… “Our Father, who art in heaven…”
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