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Thursday, June 07, 2012

A Sunday Morning Prayer

by Rick Blumenberg /


It was five o'clock on a Sunday morning and I was wide awake in my sixth floor hospital room. The view from my bed overlooked the city of Elkhart, Indiana, and I could see the faint hint of dawn in the east.  Between my window and the horizon stretched the lights of the sleeping city below. I felt a keen sense of the presence of God as I thought about the day ahead and the many ministers who would rise early to begin a day of ministry to their various flocks throughout the city and in the surrounding countryside.

I wouldn't be in the pulpit this morning but my long habit of rising early to pray each Sunday must have brought me awake because I was totally alert with a sense of anticipation for the day to come. I began to pray for my associate who would preach in my place and for the other leaders in our congregation who would carry the ministry much more than adequately in my absence.
I prayed for each Sunday School teacher, each music and worship leader, for the choir and the musicians, asking God to bless every effort and every person involved in either the giving or the receiving.

Then I began to pray for fellow ministers, friends throughout the city, and for their various congregations. As I prayed for each one I also asked God to bless all the churches in their denomination and finally, when I had run out of all the ministers I knew, I prayed for all the others, ministers and congregations of God's people throughout our community and in the surrounding area.

As I prayed I think I began to understand, at least in a small way, how our heavenly Father feels as he looks out over his diverse peoples. I felt a sense of love and appreciation for them all and for the effects of their labors in our community. I asked God to encircle all his people with love and to draw into that community of faith all those who were alienated and alone and who felt so far away from him.

What a privilege it is to be a child of God and to be a part of this marvelous spiritual family where God is Father, Jesus Christ our elder brother and the Holy Spirit binds us all together with his perfect love!

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.
  

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