READ
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Here’s what happens.
Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to rejoice, pray and give thanks at all times and in all places. This is not about how we feel but rather how we decide to act.
DISCUSS
1. How has your week been? How have you seen God at work?
2. How did you go with the idols and distractions that you named last week.?
3. Give thanks for how you have seen God at work and the progress you made last week?
4. What does this passage tell us about God?
5. What does it tells us or challenge us about the Christian life?
6. What are the things that currently give you joy?
7. What are the hard things or people that you find it difficult to experience joy or give thanks for?
8. What are the things that hold you back from being thankful?
9. What are the things that hold you back from being prayerful?
10. What are you going to do about that in the coming week.
PRAY
God of all blessings,
source of all life, giver of all grace:
We thank you for the gift of life:
for the breath that sustains life,
for the food of this earth that nurtures life,
for the love of family and friends
without which there would be no life.
We thank you for the mystery of creation:
for the beauty that the eye can see,
for the joy that the ear may hear,
for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder,
for the expanse of space that draws us beyond the definitions of our selves.
We thank you for setting us in communities:
for families who nurture our becoming,
for friends who love us by choice,
for companions at work, who share our burdens and daily tasks,
for strangers who welcome us into their midst,
for people from other lands who call us to grow in understanding,
for children who lighten our moments with delight,
for the unborn, who offer us hope for the future.
We thank you for this day: for life and one more day to love,
for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace,
for neighbours and one more person to love and by whom be loved,
for your grace and one more experience of your presence,
for your promise: to be with us, to be our God, and to give salvation.
For these, and all blessings,
we give you thanks, eternal, loving God,
through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Vienna Cobb Anderson