Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Your Word, ELW 517
1 Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word;
Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from your Son
And bring to naught all he has done.
2 Lord Jesus Christ, your power make known,
For you are Loud of lords alone;
Defend your holy Church that we
May sing your praise triumphantly.
3 O Comforter of priceless worth,
Send peace and unity on earth;
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death of life.
Devotion
I may be a young pastor, but I have certainly been in the church long enough to know that we sometimes fight over the dumbest things. I have seen a church argue about the color of the carpet in the sanctuary. Lots of churches have arguments about money. If they have money, they either don’t want to spend it or they don’t know what to spend it on. If they don’t have money, they go over expenses with a fine tooth comb just trying to keep their head above water. In the church, we do have a tendency to turn the little things into the big things. Visitors look at us and wonder if our church is all about the gospel or the carpet.
We need to pray frequently that God would help us remain steadfast in the Word, because there are so many things that want to wrest the kingdom from Christ and bring to naught all he has done. Often the biggest enemies are the small things that we turn into major battles, like what the new church doors should look like. When we pray that Christ would defend his church, we might need to consider the possibility that we are the ones the church needs to be defended from. Yes, it is important that we be ever mindful of what we have been called to be and do as the body of Christ.
Prayer
Lord Christ, keep us steadfast in your word. When we err and fail to be the church you have called us to be, bring us back again. Help us to put things in proper perspective that we may keep your word ever in front of us. Amen.