Week 3 of the Advent Prayer Service!

This past Thursday was the third week of our Advent prayer service. Once again Michael pushed us in our meditation to really re-think the way we look at gifts - both giving and receiving...it was so awesome! I suggest taking a moment to read the bible passages before you read over Michael's meditation - especially 1 Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, Psalm 126, John 3:23-30

This is our third week of this Advent meditation series. The first week I talked about what Advent is: a coming or arrival, when we celebrate Christ’s first coming into the world and we focus on our waiting for his Second coming into the world. That meditation we focused on a material possession we had and on its meaning and how it contributes to our waiting for Christ’s Second Advent. The second week we talked about preparing the way for Christ’s coming. Our meditation was on the receiving of gifts and how that can be a time of preparation for Christ’s coming by taking a moment to be thankful and realize how that gift continues to spread love in our lives.

The goal of these meditations is to take a moment to be still in our waiting for Christ’s coming and to see how gifts in our lives can be little reminders of God’s greatest gift to us, His son Jesus Christ.

In today’s New Testament reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians there are four verses I would like to focus on while we are meditating about giving a gift. These are verses 15-18. Verse 15 says: “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.” I think sometimes we give a gift because we feel obligated. This can be a form of evil. Especially if the first gift that was given to us felt like an obligation too. Gifts should not be obligations but reasons of joy and desires to share that joy. Verse 16 speaks to this. “Rejoice always” is all it says. We should rejoice in our gift giving always. Verse 17 says “pray constantly.” This reminds us to remember and invite God into our gift giving. By praying we are seeking Christ to be in the gift. And Verse 18 says “give thanks in all circumstances;; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Many times we expect thanks for our gifts that we give and forget that the gift itself is a representation of thankfulness. Thank you for being born. Thank you for being in my life. Thank you for being my friend. If we think about it more often our gifts are “thank yous” to God for placing that person in our lives.

So let us begin this meditation by closing our eyes and taking some deep breaths
*Think of a gift that you recently gave or are planning on giving.
*Who are you giving it to?
*Why are you giving it to them?
*What is the gift?
*Why did you choose that gift for them?
*How are you thanking God through your gift?
*How is your gift a representation of your wait for the coming of Christ?
Take a few more deep breaths and let us pray:

LORD almighty God we ask you to help us to give gifts of joy and thankfulness. Thank you for giving us your most precious gift, your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.