These are my prayers for us as a church in the years ahead, however many of them the Lord allows. I pray that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will. I pray that you would walk in grace in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him and bearing fruit in good works! I pray that you would be strengthened with all power from God, and that His power would sustain you for endurance and patience and supernatural joy which overflows in hearts full of thanksgiving. I pray that you would remember, and believe, and be certain that He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints, and I pray that this would liberate and motivate you to live for Him!

There is a painful proverb which says, “Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.” (Proverbs 27:10b) As someone who lives with both of his brothers very far away, this has rung true. There is just something irreplaceable about physical presence and proximity. You simply cannot match it, try as you might.