As a part of our Advent observances at Grace, we are making use of Concordia Publishing’s Behold the Child materials for worship. Our web devotions through Christmas will be guided by Pastor Kevin Golden’s devotional booklet written in support of the Behold the Child theme (you may purchase a downloadable copy of Pr. Golden’s book by following this link).
Prayer Pointers:
To rejoice in the Lord
For growth in the habit of worship
Text: Psalm 24:3
Christ alone can ascend the hill of the Lord with purity.
The beauty is that he takes us along. –Pr. Golden
THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS at prayer. As the earth turns from sunrise to sunset, prayers to God continue. As we slept, brothers and sisters in China, Vietnam, India and many other places prayed in the Spirit to the Father through the Son.
Worship is both a calling and a habit. We can only worship the true God because he has made our worship possible. He enters into our lives, calls to us to respond in faith, and gives us such gifts as that we might worship in Spirit and truth (John 4:24). We worship because of the relationship we share with our Lord. But, like any relationship, it is developed and shaped because of the habits those in relationship have with each other. Some habits strengthen relationship, and others weaken it.
Daily prayer and devotional reading are powerful habits because they strengthen our connections to God, to the universal Church, and to our own parish family. They “tends the soil” for faithful discipleship. They become a solid fulcrum around which life can turn in an orderly way. They are a place where Christ is revealed in the ordinary moments of life, making them extraordinary, where the “mountain of the Lord” can be found in all kinds of places!
May you live in Advent hope ~ Pr. Dave Brooks
--Quoted materials are from Behold the Child Daily Devotions #12-4563
© 2019 Concordia Publishing House. Used with permission under license 20:12-1. www.cph.org