Getting ready for Sunday (Matthew 6:1-15)

SHIFT in your private devotional life.

Lots of studies show it.  Church attendance is down.  Biblical illiteracy is high.  Just google it.  Just look at what Barna studies reveal about church attendance, about Bible reading, about devotional reading.  As much as America wants to be a Christian country, we're not walking in God's Word publicly or privately as one would expect.

But this shouldn't surprise us.  In the early 20th Century (1919) one church leader (August Pieper) already wrote: 

“Spiritual life among us in a state of steep decline...There is little discussion of the gospel and the grace of God among our people in their daily lives.  Regular  morning and evening devotions no longer predominate.  Joint family prayers and no longer spoken, often not even table prayers. A worldly point of view has slipped in among our Christian people” (The Wauwatosa Theology, 59).

How would you assess our country?
How would you assess our congregation?
How would you assess yourself?

Is Pieper right when he writes those things above?

What should we do about it?  On Sunday we will study what Jesus says about our private devotional life in Matthew 6:1-15.

Meanwhile, chew on these words from Pieper as we seek to grow up in our walk with Jesus.  Here he comments on the encouragement of Jesus to pray for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:11-13).

“We should and will want to pray, not for a specific measure of the Spirit, but for as much as is necessary, that we do not decline in spiritual strength, but grow stronger daily, for as much as is necessary to carry out our office properly, and to edify the souls entrusted to us and to make them rich in good works; as much as is necessary to carry his gospel into all the world and gather the elect; as much as is necessary that the church in our midst does not die out, but grows every stronger inwardly and outwardly, in short, Spirit and strength enough and in overflow for the adornment and perfection of his church - that is what he promised and will give us if we do not cease to petition him for it.”

See you Sunday! Pastor Nate