The Bridge RSM

In 2026, we want to be a church that gets more engaged with prayer. But like anything, we won't just start praying at length because we resolved to do so. We need training. And that begins with an honest assessment of what our challenges are to a prayer-filled life. Pastor Ryan begins our year in earnest with a series reflecting on What Makes Prayer So Difficult. The starting place? Apathy. It's easy to write prayer off when we're not engaged with it, but beautifully, God has offered His people the dignity of participation. We get to partner with the God of the universe, growing in relationship and bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to bear on the earth through our prayers. It all begins with a single step towards God in prayer. Will you take a step today? What will it be?

Whenever we talk about fasting, we usually ask the question of what we're choosing to go without. Whether it's food or something else, we fixate on the thing we are setting aside. But the whole purpose of setting one thing aside is to take another thing on. We fast from, in order to fast for something greater! Fasting is a tool for us to tend the mess in our hearts and reorder and reorient to the person and way of Jesus. We create space in our hearts, bodies, calendars, and minds to train our attention on the true source and Bread of Life.

What do you live by? Everyone has something they trust in. A source of truth that guides their mental maps of the world they're navigating. For Jesus, that foundation was the Hebrew Scriptures. For His followers, the same holds true, along with writings from His followers in the immediate aftermath of His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We learn to live a life in proximity to God and guided by His Spirit as we engage Him through the Bible and in community. There are a lot of things we can live by, but only one source of life and truth.

God does not pursue you for your treasure, He pursues you for your heart. His love draws back those who don't know Him, those who have wandered away from His love, and those who have become stagnant and complacent. As we start to conclude this Advent season, Pastor Ryan speaks to us from Matthew 2 about how God's love pursues and humbles our hearts, and how He's given us His all-sufficient love in the form of Jesus, born to us as a baby on Christmas. What can you give more than your heart?

Would you characterize yourself as joyful? What about when things go wrong? Biblical joy is enduring and goes beyond circumstances to become who we are deep down. It can overcome fear to help us think clearly in difficult situations. Biblical, divine joy comes from proximity to God in prayer and worship and it's a fruit of our being recreated into the character of Jesus, full of joy.