Advent Devotion - Day 28

ADVENT DEVOTION - DAY 28

December 24, 2022

Greetings, Church of the Servant, and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve is one of the most special days of the Christian year. No matter what you will do today, who you will be with or where you will worship today and tomorrow, I want you to know how wonderful it has been to celebrate the birth of our savior with you during the Advent Season. I also want to take a moment to thank the staff who have poured hours into writing the daily Advent devotions. I have gleaned a great deal of insight and meaning from their words, and I am sure you have too! Please thank them when you next see them for their words and devotion to our congregation.

Today, I want to share an excerpt from part of the service of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols located in the United Methodist Book of Worship. As you read this prayer, I hope you will do so deliberately and with great purpose. Before we gather to sing tonight, it is important for us to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for this evening. Today’s devotional prayer is a perfect way to begin the day. As you pray the prayer below, pause and think of those who could benefit from your prayers. Say their names out loud as boldly as you will sing in worship later today.

Tonight, we will sing carols, read the word of God, and light the Christ Candle as we worship. Until we gather this evening, let us pray:

Beloved in Christ, this Christmas Eve it is our duty and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels and to go in the hearts and mind to Bethlehem, and see this thing, which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger.
 
Therefore, let us hear again from Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our sin until the glorious redemption brought us by this holy Child, and let us make this house of prayer glad with our carols of praise.  
 
But first, because this of all things would rejoice Jesus’ heart, let us pray to him for the needs of the whole world, and all his people; for peace upon the earth, he came to save; for love and unity within the one Church he did build; for goodwill among all peoples.
 
And particularly at this time let us remember the poor, the cold, the hungry, the oppressed; the sick and them that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children and all who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love.
 
Lastly, let us remember all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.
 
Amen.

 

Merry Christmas Beloved,

Dr. Matthew Mitchell
Senior Minister
Church of the Servant
ServantOKC.org
405.721.4141
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