Faith, itself a gift, involves both simple trust and knowledge of God and ourselves. At times the church has emphasized one or the other aspects of faith, but for the full strength of faith to be manifest, there must be knowledge as well as trust. Faith always seeks understanding.
Faith does not originate with individuals or the church, and yet without the church, faith could not be transmitted from generation to generation. Presbyterians have had the gift of understanding of faith as radical trust as well as sure knowledge of God derived from God’s Word, centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ, as set forth in Scripture, and applied to our minds and hearts by the inner work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, God’s people should place themselves daily in a posture of humble receptivity, believing that God’s word is ordinarily received through the reading and study of Scripture, the preaching and sacraments of the church, and through the prayers of God’s people.
Again and again, the need for the recovery of basic individual and group disciplines such as Bible reading, meditation, prayer — daily encounters with God and making use of the means of grace given — must be emphasized. In fact, until much of the Presbyterian Church literally gets on its knees in prayers of repentance, petition and intercession, it’s difficult to comprehend how renewal of the church can ever take place. Covenant renewal in the Presbyterian Church begins with God, speaking to us in individual and corporate worship — the praise of God — and with a renewal of the practice of the disciplines of faith.
Pray to God, then, that the whole church will turn to God in prayer at this time, asking for forgiveness, asking for guidance, praying for one another, the church and the whole world. In the words of the psalmist, “Therefore let every one who is godly offer prayer to thee; at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him” (Psalm 32:6).
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