Heavenly Father I praise You for helping Your church adapt this last year so that the message could get out to those who needed to hear Your word, encouragement and food to grow on. I also praise You for the small ways we learned to help our neighbors and friends. I praise You that now we are gaining the ability to get back to having church and true fellowship in person and not through the computer.
Holy Spirit help us as we gather again that we get to be like the first Christians mentioned in the book of Acts 4:31—when they had prayed, the place where they assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Help us to pray in unity like this. Also help us to be as Paul commended us to do in Colossians 3:16—Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Let our hearts be admonished by the author of Hebrews 10:19-25(The Message)—So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body. So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. Hebrews 11:3—By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things visible. Hebrews 11:6—And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Heavenly Father help us to come back to the church but to be different this time. Help us to worship together, work together in building Your kingdom but to also pray together and to encourage each other. Help us to learn to love, listen and forgive as You demonstrated through Christ while he walked this world as a man. Help us to be clothed in righteousness, humble in our words and deeds, bold in our prayers and faith, persistent in our learning of Your wisdom, and always exhibiting Your love, mercy and grace whenever possible. Teach us to become one unified body with many different talents, gifts and personalities all striving to build Your kingdom here on the earth and all striving to make each other better in their walk and faith in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.