Topic: Prayer

God’s ultimate will is not for our earthly well-being, but for our eternal well-being. The Lord is not building for us a mansion here on earth, but a temple for us to enter in that heavenly City. As we grow in salvation - through searching the Scriptures, through desiring the spiritual milk of God’s word, and asking for help in Jesus’ name - our desires will inevitably look more like God’s desires; our joy will multiply; and we will steadfastly endure any trials as we follow in the steps of His Son Jesus Christ.

Today is not ultimately about Thomas, it is about all of us. Thomas is the one who reminds us that the eyes of faith are far superior to the eyes of sight. The trials we face today are many. The doubts that we have are many. But Jesus comes to meet us in the middle of it all. May we always possess the eyes of faith to view our trials through the lens of the Resurrection.

Can you really be a Christian when you don’t pray every day? A recent Pew survey indicates that roughly half of all professing Christians do not pray every day. Without daily prayer, we cannot be truly happy. And when we pray, we should pray like the tax collector, begging for God’s mercy. We need to be people of real prayer.

It is said that our issue as Christians is not that we ask God for too much, but that we ask God for far too little. The same is true of our frequency in asking. Our problem is not that we come to God too much, but that we hardly come to him in prayer at all. Listen as the Rector encourages us to be persistent in prayer.

What are you anxious about? By virtue of living on this side of the veil of tears, the list is long. Sometimes our anxieties are big: the safety and security of our country; the rising tension in national politics; the kind of future our children and grandchildren will be born into; the state of the economy (“did you hear we hit another 40-year high for inflation?”); nuclear war; natural disaster; widespread disease. We are anxious about many things. This is why the story of Martha hosting Jesus at her home is memorable to us, because it is relatable. Being anxious is normal, but it is not helpful. Listen as the Rector explains how we can focus on that which is necessary by the power of prayer.

We only recite the Long Exhortation as a congregation a couple of times over the course of the year, typically only during the season of Lent. Long though it may be (as the name implies), this beautiful prayer is packed with theology and teaches us much about how we should approach worship.

The Church calls us to “prayer, fasting, and almsgiving” in observance of a Holy Lent. Listen as the Bishop-retired explains what each of these three disciplines means, and what each looks like in the Christian life.

The Te Deum is a beautiful, ancient prayer. Yet, it does not get the same attention or use by the Church as the Creeds. Listen as the Rev. Galloway unpacks the deep theology behind the words of this prayer.