1 Praise the LORD! …
3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
– Psalm 150:1, 3-6, NRSV
In This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer (one of the resources I often use for my own daily devotions), author Laurence Hull Stookey offers a series of church-focused prayers, one to be read on each day of the week. The “Thursday” prayer reads:
to adoration daily.
Guide and inspire all who plan
and who will take leadership
in the worship of our congregation when again we gather in prayer
on the Lord’s Day.
To musicians, lectors, preachers, and all others,
give a full measure of your Holy Spirit,
that they may glorify not themselves but you.
Prepare my heart
and the hearts of all yoru people
to receive their ministries
with joy and gratitude to you,
and extravagant generosity toward others.
This we pray through Christ, the Risen One.
Amen.
Stookey — a United Methodist professor, liturgical scholar, and pastor — knows church well. He’s familiar with the fact that in many churches, Thursday is a day of worship preparations. Bulletins are prepared. Sermons are written. Music rehearsals are conducted. Thursday tends to be the day for worship prep!
Of course, here at Wesley we’re blessed with so many vibrant music ministries that we can’t fit them all on Thursdays. During the time before COVID-19, we had music rehearsals on Wednesday, Thursdays, Sundays, and other days too! And yet, for church musicians, Thursday still holds a bit of that special “worship prep” significance.
In that spirit, I offer you this on this Thursday, dear people of Wesley Church. Frank Arbushites — Wesley’s own Director of Bell Choirs / Organist — worked with some of our Wesley musicians to create this musical blessing for our church.
Many thanks to Frank, as well as to Allan Cole and Kay Somers,
for offering their musical gifts!
May their music uplift your spirits this morning. And as it does, may you remember:
Our God is bigger than coronavirus.
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too.
We are people blessing people.
We are Wesley Church.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
Want to know more?
- Learn about our church and its ministries: https://wesleychurch.com/
- Make a gift to support our mission: https://wesleychurch.com/giving-2/
- View our recent messages: https://wesleychurch.com/sermon-message-on-video/
- View previous devotionals: https://wesleychurch.com/pastor-candys-devotionals-2/
