Mid-week Message

Greetings,

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:4-5

On Sundays, we have been reading Jesus’ words to his disciples at the Last Supper. The crux of all Jesus says is this: abide in Jesus. Lent is a great time of year to focus on our prayer life in order to abide in Jesus. Abiding in Jesus is the foundation from which our spiritual life grows. When we add prayer to our life during Lent, the goal is to continue that spiritual practice after Lent so that it becomes part of our spiritual life.

Prayer deepens and strengthens our connection to Jesus. Prayer enables us to abide in Jesus. Sometimes we don’t take time to pray during the day because we are so busy with other things. But, little do we know, all of our other things would go better if we took the time to pray, because we would be doing them firmly rooted in Christ. Other times, we want to pray but we just don’t know how and so we don’t know where to begin.

For the next several weeks, the weekly message will be about different ways to pray. There are as many ways to pray as there are languages on earth. The truth is that different types of prayer work for us at different times in our lives. If you find that the prayers you know just aren't working to help you connect with God, don’t worry because that’s normal. When that happens, embrace the freedom to try something new until you find a rhythm that helps you to abide in Jesus. I hope that the next several weeks of messages will inspire you to try different types of prayer until you find one that helps you abide in Jesus in this season of your life.

Grace and peace,

Rev. Sarina