October 2, 2023 - Ephesians 4:12-13

“Their (pastors) responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12-13 NLT

Lord, we thank you so much for the pastors and spiritual leaders that you put in our lives to help us grow. They are such a blessing. Today, we ask for you to pour out blessings over them and send them refreshment and encouragement. We ask for you to continue to send people into our lives that will challenge us to grow in our relationship with you.

We also ask for you to help us continue to grow. Give us such a strong desire to dig into your word and pull out the secrets and treasure you have for us each day. While we are grateful for the other people that help us grow, we don’t only want to rely on them to bottle or spoon feed us.

Please forgive us for anytime we have gotten complacent and don’t take the time to dig into you ourselves. The time that we are lazy and just want to be bottle/spoon fed by others. That is not how we grow in pleasing you. We will be really limited in our growth if we only rely on others.

Lord, we want to grow mature in you. We want to know how to feed ourselves, relying on you to lead us to our daily “bread” in your word and by taking the time to listen to your voice. We thank you that each day you are inviting us to sit at your table and feast with you. We are so grateful for the abundance that you want to reveal to us. Holy Spirit, we ask for you to keep us motivated to take the time to sit and eat. Help us learn how to be effective in growing into mature followers of Christ.

In Jesus name, amen.