Sunday 19th April | Alicia Down
Readings
Reflection
In all the readings above, they have a similar theme of celebration and the significance of how great God is. Psalm 81 is a celebration for the Festival of Tabernacles and the Jewish people are worshipping and praising God for rescuing them out of Egypt in the Exodus time. The people are singing for joy to God who is their strength (v1) which made me reflect on the present and made me wonder are we still joyful when we worship God regardless of our situations and surroundings are we joyfully praising God who is our strength?
The celebration in the Exodus passage is the Festival of the Passover; God delivers the Jewish people out of the hardships of Egypt due to their persistent prayer. This God who lead the Jewish people out of Egypt is the same God we follow and worship today. We need to maintain our faith that God will deliver us out the hardships we are all experiencing together, through a persistent prayer life we can be confident that God will deliver us too.
In 1 Corinthians 5 it describes Jesus as the Passover lamb who has been sacrificed for everyone who believes in him. The lamb that the Jews slaughtered during the Passover in Exodus, is symbolic for the ultimate sacrifice that is Jesus who died on the cross to cleanse everyone from their sins. We should be looking towards the future in how we can glorify him in the way we live and what better timing them now to delve deeper into our relationships with God and be joyful that we can call Jesus our saviour.
Prayers
Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you are a God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Thank you, Lord, that throughout history your plan was to bring Jesus to be our ultimate saviour and save us from our sins.
Help us Lord, to glorify Jesus in all that we do and to be the best example on how we live our lives.
Help us Father, to remain joyful with all that is going on, to find our joy from you and to share it with everyone we love.
Amen.
Collect
Almighty Father,
You have given your only Son to die for our sins
And to rise again for our justification:
Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
That we may always serve you
In pureness of living and truth;
Through the merits of your son Jesus Christ our Lord
Who is alive and reigns with you
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.
Amen.
