Letters to the Family of God

by Joe Franzone | October 20, 2021 | Pastor's Blog

Family of God - Website

October 20, 2021

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

​​​​​​          Acts 2:44

 

​​Blessed are the merciful, for you will be shown mercy.

​​​​​​​​​Matthew 5:7

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Dear Friends,

 

I thank God for your participation in these 40 days of prayer for Christ's church. It’s been a real treat to hear from many of you during this time. Both in private and in the company of each other, we have been practicing the privilege of prayer.

It is a reminder to me, in prayer, we give God full admittance into all our weakness, wherein He magnifies His almightiness, our dependency, and His dependability. Few things are more loving than our infinite Holy God stooping to help us.

We have thought through Gospel advancement, God’s goodness as a framework for our thinking and our living, and this week I would like to suggest some prayers as we think about our relationship to one another—in Christ. Luther wrote, from His commentary on Psalm 113, He is the God of the poor and troubled. A delightful God who sits on high and loves and exalt the humble. To that end:

  1. ​Together, we would continuously be led to the joy of simple and steady reliance on Christ.
  2. Because even saints are sinners, and because the longer we are in the light, the more we understand why we need a savior; may God give us the grace to relate to each other, not through our performance but the performance of Christ.  No rating, no judging, no condemning.
  3. Jesus is the most understanding person in the universe. May we grow in this grace.
  4. No resentment, no anger, no temper, no violent self-assertiveness, no slander, and no malicious remarks. Kind to each other, understanding. As ready to forgive others as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

Thank you for considering these prayers. May God bless you, in all things great and small, as the week moves forward.

 

Pastor Joe