Midday Prayers Tuesday 26th May 2020

Preparation: As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breath slowly; to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

[Pause]

Rejoice: I choose to rejoice today in the assurance that God will bear my burdens, joining in the ancient praise of all God’s people in the words of Psalm 68.

19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, 
who daily bears our burdens.
20 Our God is a God who saves; 
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.

Spend some time praising God.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxdt2JbxUGM 

Ask:

Pray the Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.


[Open prayer time]

• Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of your 5 now, as you pray for specific things that you know they face.

• Pray for those people and situations that are on our WhatsApp prayer board.
• Pray that God will use us – whatever that means (e.g. the courage to open our mouths, the strength to be obedient)
• Pray for our community and nation as we’re all affected by the impact of Covid-19.
• Pray for our government.

Yield:

Lord, we pray that you will show us how you want us to be part of the answer to the prayers that we have prayed.

Father, help me to live this day to the full,
Being true to You in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,
Being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost,
Proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.

What is the current value of R?

As I watched the video that we're going to be using in today's midday prayers I couldn't help my mind going to 'R'.

If you're reading this somewhere other than the UK, or at some point in the future, you may wonder what 'R' is. But if you're living in the UK at this time, we've heard so much about 'R'. 'R' is what the scientists are calling the current Rate of Infection for the coronavirus. If R = 2 then each person who has the virus, on average, infects 2 others, who each go on to infect 2 others etc. To control the virus you need the value of R to be less than 1, as then the number of cases begins to fall.

In this video, Archbishop John Sentamu talks about how last year he was praying for five people to come to know Jesus. Some of those people did, and they, in turn, went on to pray for five more. Imagine the impact if the five people you are praying for, all chose to follow Jesus and they, in turn, prayed for five more ...