As we turn our thoughts to a new year, we are excited to begin a new teaching series this Sunday with a focus on prayer. Specifically we will center Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done (Luke 22:42).” This prayer of Jesus is short, but rich with meaning and application for our lives as it encapsulates some profound truths about both the power and mystery of prayer.
Christian prayer is neither a religious ritual to magically get what we want from God or a tool to simply get in touch with our inner thoughts and feelings. At its core, prayer is a two-way relational connection with our Creator concerning the various details and seasons of our lives and hearts. As such, prayer has both the power to change our circumstances and change us. In this series, we want to explore various ways that prayer works in our lives to guide, shape, form, and heal us in our relationships with God, one another and ourselves. Wherever you find yourself in your faith journey at the beginning of 2026, we hope this series will encourage you in the power of honest and open connection with God and reveal some new or underexplored pathways for connection with God that you can pursue in the coming year.