“Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

 

What is the difference between worry and concern? Sunday’s sermon (10.6.2024) addressed this distinction. Worry is what paralyzes us and begins with “what if” thoughts, often not rooted in reality. Whereas, concern is acknowledging the facts and realistically responding to the concern with action.

We have been given the facts of our financial status. We have more facts to gather to make a realistic decision in the coming weeks at the Special Congregational meeting on Sunday, October 27th at 11am. Your Council and other concerned members of the congregation, are pitching in and working together to look “outside the box” for realistic responses.

Worrying, will get us nowhere. Only facts and action will change our situation.

While these facts are gathered, I invite you to look at your ability to give generously. All that we have is first and foremost from God. We give to God, from a place of gratitude and joy, not from a reaction of fear. As God has been generous, we return to God what is not ours, but rather for the kingdom of God to be used for the goodness of all people; for the ministry and mission of the gospel of Christ’s love.

I invite you to reevaluate where you might be able to give with gratitude and joy this coming season of autumn harvest. As many in the fields are gathering in the produce of their hard labors, I too, hope you might reap and share what you have sown.

I am always trusting in God’s guidance, knowing that God’s ways are far more expansive than our own. I am excited to see God’s goodness through you as an overflowing fount.

In Christ,

Pastor Pam