My life in the body of Christ
To Iive in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life. Psalm 27:4
Read Ephesians 4:11—16
This is a night to give thought and prayer to my own church. I am placed within it so that I will grow to maturity in my faith in Christ. There I participate with brothers and sisters who serve Christ faithfully in the way they are gifted. I should be able to name them. I must pray for them. I must pray that they are kept faithfully diligent by the Spirit at work in them. And let me pray for them as they exercise their God-given ministry, that they be renewed and revived and inspired themselves. I do not want them to be worn out. I must also pray that I am ready to receive from them. It is the best form of encouragement I can give.
Prayer
Father, I thank you that I am embedded in my own church. It is the form of the body of Christ that I know. You love this church. Christ loves it as his bride. So let me love and treasure my church. Let me find among my brothers and sisters, old and young, the ministry of Christ to me. Let me be open to the comfort of one, the correction of another, the teaching of one and the prayerful faith of another, the common encounter we have with you at the communion, the call that comes through the faithful to live obediently and to be together in offering Christ to those who are yet to meet him.