What is God’s truest nature? Is He fundamentally wrathful, or is He loving? Is He kind, or is he perpetually stern? There is no uniformity in the answers in scripture to those questions, but there is an overriding proclamation which is repeated again and again by different people in different ways. God is a God of love, it is declared throughout the entire Bible. Let us therefore, with confidence, worship the always-loving Creator of the universe.
Pastoral Prayer
Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Thee, O Thou who alone art God. We praise Thee for Thine inestimable grace in creating the vast universe, and for making each of us part of this particular planet in this particular solar system in this particular galaxy. To the degree we are able, we conclude Thou art not required to possess whatever qualities we think the Creator should have, but we also cannot come close to understanding Thy nature. Thou art so immense, and we so infinitesimally small. Yet hast Thou committed Thyself to us from before we were born, and all of us exist because of Thy goodness. Help us to give proper thanks to Thee for Thy perpetual love, O God.
We thank Thee for the big things in life: for families and the birth of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren; for various kinds of advancements in our lives which improve our existence and add richness to its texture; for people whose influence upon us has made us far better individuals than otherwise we would have been. We thank also for life’s little things: for sunshine filtered through fluttering leaves on an autumn afternoon; for squirrels and birds and lizards going about their work in the world outside our doors; for kind words from friends or strangers when we are down, and suddenly we are lifted up again. Fill our hearts with gratitude to Thee for all Thy gifts, Lord God, for without that level of gratitude we cannot be the people Thou wouldst have us to be.
We pray for everyone everywhere who is bearing a heavy and secret burden thus day, and who feel they cannot divulge it to anyone else. We especially pray for any such people in this congregation. Loving God, if we feel we cannot find help from others, teach us always to seek help from Thee, who art more willing to assist us than we are to ask for assistance. These and all our prayers we offer in the name of Jesus, whom we believe is Thy Christ. Now we pray as he taught his first disciples, saying, Our Father….