Have you noticed that prayer has a way of becoming depersonalized? Eugene Peterson tells us that we depersonalize prayer because we have a tendency to generalize God – to slip into a place where we treat him like a force or an idea or a concept, or we make prayer into a task that gets checked off the list rather than an ongoing conversation with our Friend and Father. When this happens he is no longer a person to us but an “it,” and we can’t have a relationship with an “it.”

Any of us who have ever tried to live a prayer-filled life have experienced this, and apparently Jesus’ disciples did as well. In watching Jesus pray they could tell that he had something they did not – that he approached God in a way that was qualitatively different from the way the disciples did. The disciples asked Jesus about this, and the words he gives and stories he tells in response forever changed the way people look at prayer. Sunday we will spend some time learning from Jesus how to pray.

And speaking of prayer, I have a piece of pressing family business I want to ask you to pray about. This week we begin our summer/fall session in children’s ministries, and we do not have enough workers to staff all four rooms. Our team is comprised of a number of truly heroic veterans who have been with Life’s kids since the beginning and are literally watching them grow up in Christ! We also have some great newbies who have jumped in and are giving themselves to this great ministry as well (and praise God, we keep adding more kids too!). But we’ve also lost some of our team due to moving, illnesses, and scheduling issues, and are coming up short handed.

Will you consider serving in this area? Children’s ministry is truly one of the most crucial things we do, and we need to do it well. We have the privilege and responsibility of raising our children to know and love Christ, and this ministry is absolutely critical for our outreach as well. More and more of those who are brought by friends are coming with kids, and we need to be well equipped to receive and bless those children too. The commitment is one Sunday a month for six months. Will you jump in? This is a crucial ministry of the church, and we need your help to make it happen well. To sign up or get more info, please email Bridget at bcp0138@lausd.net.

Thank you friends for being the church. Lord bless you, and we’ll look forward to being with you this weekend -

Tim
Mt 6:33