Six Weeks of Prayer: Friday, October 6, 2017

As we behold the way God communicates with us – his speaking and our hearing – we are struck by his strength, power, and authority. He creates and sustains all things, willing things into being by his words. And as he speaks his word of gospel, he speaks life, restoration, reconciliation and all else besides. He speaks salvation itself – Christ died for you because he loves you. He speaks the church itself into existence: his bride, whom he loves. His church – even our church, the Advent – is itself a creature of his creative word of the gospel. The old phrase for this is creatura evangelii. We are here by his word, and so we shall remain: as a branch remains in the vine, by the Lord’s grace, so shall the Advent remain and be upheld by the word of his power: a witness of his love for sinners and sufferers.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3a)

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PRAYER

O Lord, you are the vine and we are the branches; apart from you we can do nothing. Uphold and sustain us as your church, providing life and light to each of us, even as we go forth into the world by the power of your Spirit. Give to each us the courage to believe, and the comfort to hope, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.