Happy 2023!!
With a new year brings new goals, new hopes, new dreams. I encourage you to spend time in prayer. Ask God to lead you into this next year, guiding you and steering you.
At Unity, the new year brings a new preaching series.
We will spend the next two months studying the life of David. When you think of David in the Bible, what do you think of?
Maybe that he was a king? King David, right?
Maybe that he fought Goliath when he was a child?
Maybe that later in his life he had a fall from grace, committing both murder and adultery?
There are so many stories that swirl around in our minds when we think of David.
This winter we will study his story— from his time as a boy to when he gave up the throne.
The scriptures tell us that David was a man after God’s own heart. Even through his many mistakes, he sought to walk closely with God. We can learn much from David.
He wrote at least half of the psalms in our Bible— he is specifically noted as the author of 75 psalms! Many of the psalms were written during experiences in his life when he particularly needed God.
For example, David wrote a psalm as he hid in a cave from the men King Saul sent to kill him. From that cave, he wrote these words…
I cry to you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.
—Psalm 142:5-7
I find it incredible that David, when his back was against the wall, named God as his refuge. Not only that, but he trusted that God would deal bountifully with him. What a wonderful perspective.
I encourage you to also write a psalm to God. Don’t get hung up on making the language flowery or eloquent. Simply take a sheet of paper, think of an experience in your life where you need a reminder of God’s presence, and write a message to God.
I hope that this series about David’s life will help all of us become people after God’s own heart.
This Sunday we will ordain and install our new elder class. This is our opportunity, as a congregation, to pray for our leaders. We will pray that they seek God’s will in every decision they make and that God would use them to lead Unity, through wisdom and grace, into 2023.
This Sunday is also communion Sunday! And we will return to our normal service times of 9:30 and 11 am.
See you on Sunday!
—Pastor David
