Daily Prayer for the 8th Week after Pentecost

Congregation Prayer Topics

Pray for the ministry of Peace Lutheran Church:

Ê      That the LORD would help each disciple to be a faithful steward of the gift of life and faith.

Ê      That the newly confirmed would give thanks for their faith.

Ê      That each of us would gently tell about our hope in Jesus.

Ê      That the outreach to people with disabilities would succeed.

Ê      That the grant requests would be successful.

Ê      That the new officers of the District would be blessed with wisdom and skill to perform their duties.

Pray for the members and friends of Peace.  

Pray for people according to their needs:

Ê      For protection of the men and women in the military:

Ê      For those who mourn loved ones

Ê      For those who need the LORD’s healing or consolation:

Verse of the Week

Ephesians 1:3-4 (ESV)
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Psalm of the Week        Psalm 85

From the Formula of Concord (Epitome)

Article XI Concerning the eternal predestination and election of God

10. This teaching is useful and comforting for all those who are concerned about the revealed will of God and follow the order which St. Paul observed in the Epistle to the Romans. There he first of all points people to repentance, acknowledgment of their sins, and then to faith in Christ and obedience to God before he speaks of the mystery of God’s eternal election.

11. That “many are called and few are chosen” [Matt. 20:16] does not mean that God does not want to save everyone. Instead, the reason for condemnation lies in their not hearing God’s Word at all or arrogantly despising it, plugging their ears and their hearts, and thus blocking the Holy Spirit’s ordinary path, so that he cannot carry out his work in them; or if they have given it a hearing, they cast it to the wind and pay no attention to it. Then the fault lies not with God and his election but with their own wickedness [cf. 2 Peter 2:9–15; Luke 11:47–52; Heb. 12:15–17, 25].

12. A Christian should only think about the article of God’s eternal election to the extent that it is revealed in God’s Word. The Word holds Christ before our eyes as the “Book of Life,” which he opens and reveals for us through the preaching of the holy gospel, as it is written, “Those whom he has chosen, he also called” [Rom. 8:30]. In Christ we are to seek the Father’s eternal election. He has decreed in his eternal, divine counsel that he will save no one apart from those who acknowledge his Son Christ and truly believe in him. We should set aside other thoughts, for they do not come from God but rather from the imagination of the evil foe. Through such thoughts he approaches us to weaken this glorious comfort for us or to take it away completely. We have a glorious comfort in this salutary teaching, that we know how we have been chosen for eternal life in Christ out of sheer grace, without any merit of our own, and that no one can tear us out of his hand [John 10:28–29]. For he has assured us that he has graciously chosen us not only with mere words. He has corroborated this with an oath and sealed it with the holy sacraments. In the midst of our greatest trials we can remind ourselves of them, comfort ourselves with them, and thereby quench the fiery darts of the devil.

13. Along with this we should strive as diligently as possible to live according to God’s will and to “confirm our calling,” as Saint Peter admonishes [2 Peter 1:10]. We should especially abide by the revealed Word that cannot and will not fail us.

Readings for the Week

Looking Forward to Next Week:  9^th Sunday after Pentecost