Message Series: Feasting on the Heidelberger!
Message
Advent 4: Feasting on the Heidelberger:
Gratitude – Prayer: Out of the Heart
LD 45-52
Download the Heidelberg Catechism Notebook, LD 45-52 PDF
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This Advent Sunday (4th/4), we complete our Heidelberg Catechism series with Prayer. For four weeks now, Gratitude has been the theme of the Catechism. Surprise, surprise – Gratitude is at the heart of the Gospel.
Surprise, surprise – Gratitude is at the heart of the Gospel
How can we show and grow gratitude in our lives in response to the gift of salvation? By engaging the keys to God’s Kingdom, God’s Word and discipleship, by loving God, others, and self, and… a life of continual prayer.
Prayer grounds us in relationship with God. Prayer grounds us in truth and honesty. In prayer, we are known and we gain knowledge of God’s will for us. In prayer, we thank God and ask God for what we need. In prayer, we bring before God the needs of others. In prayer, we seek God’s will to be done, and kingdom come, ask for daily bread, forgiveness from God and a spirit of forgiveness toward others/self, and seek freedom from the temptations’ snare and the deceptions of the evil one. Sound familiar? This is how Jesus teaches us we ought to pray.
Looking forward to Advent #4, 2021 and a Christmas Eve service to follow Friday, December 24th, 4:00pm. It’s fitting, for such a time as this, to be led to gratitude. And to pray for ‘God’s Kingdom come and will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Thanking God and Asking God in everything, for everything.
Pastor Mark