Let me express my deep gratitude to all of you who took time to wake up early today to worship with us. Our prayer is for all of us to celebrate a worry-free and worship-filled Christmas this year and the whole of next year. Worry-free? Worship-filled? Is this possible? I believe that this is not only possible. . . this is also God-honoring! When we worship, we are choosing to trust God over and above our circumstances . . . and in prayer, we choose to tell God our needs and sincerely offer to him our thanks. As a result, God grants us peace amidst the atmosphere of fear and panic . . . a peace that can only come from the Prince of Peace whose birth we celebrate.
Let our dawn prayer meetings be done in grace and from the heart, meaning, no one should come to church obligated or pressured. Out of our hunger for God, we offer to him five (5) mornings of prayer. Together with God’s people from our church and other churches as well, we wonder in worship. Let there be holy expectancy in our hearts. It would be good to come earlier so we can start to pray and prepare ourselves for worship. While the service is going on, let us focus our hearts and minds on Jesus. This is also an appropriate time to pray for our brethren in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, which, recently, were devastated by the storm ‘Sendong’. White envelopes are available for your free-will offerings for the purpose of helping the people of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities.
Christmas is God’s invitation to worship . . . let us therefore, like the shepherds, the Magi, and the people that surrounded the stable on that first Christmas, respond to God by spending time with Him and His people in prayer. Prayer connects us to the Prince of Peace and the Prince of Peace empowers us to live life and celebrate a worry-free Christmas.
‘When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were and they fell down before Him and worshipped Him.’ ….Matthew 2:10-11 NLT
Let the wise men inspire us to worship instead of worry.
Prayerfully,
REV. ARNEL TAN
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