Focus

As you quiet yourself for this brief time, be willing to be open to God in whatever way that may take place.

Read

Reflect

As I write this, my church’s current trial is to find a pastor. We lost our pastor unexpectedly in January. At the time we only had two elders, myself and one other gentleman. From having very few responsibilities to running the entire church basically overnight fell upon the two of us with the assistance of our church secretary, who happens to be an elder in her church. It was a time of uncertainty and confusion.

We were assigned a new moderator for our session and he advised us to pray for the church and for the future pastor to make all of us a good match. The session and the church membership had to have faith that we would grow from this situation as this passage describes.

Now, we have a full session of five members. Each of us has our own skill sets and duties. The work is much more manageable even though we still do not have a pastor. It is an answered prayer, as this new session leads us through this trial far better than what just two members could. It has taken a great deal of patience, grace, and wisdom from everyone to get us to this point. We pray that we will have someone shepherding our church soon.

Pray

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the trials of our lives. Even though they may be tough at that moment, you allow us to grow in strength and knowledge of you. Be with all of the churches that are seeking a pastor and those pastors that are seeking a church as the harvest is great but the laborers are few. In your Son’s name, Amen.

Go with God!