Midday Prayers - Thursday 21st May 2020

Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement, running for the 11 days between Ascension Day (today) and Pentecost (31st May), that encourages Christians across the planet to pray specifically for 5 friends to come to know Jesus.

In previous years we have held prayer events at the church at various points during this time. Obviously, that is not going to be possible this year. So instead we're going to be meeting on Zoom at midday each day to spend about 20 minutes praying together for our friends, neighbours, community and also our nation and the world at this time of crisis.

Not everyone will be able to make it at 12pm, so each day I will put the text of our time together here on my blog, so if you want to follow the same pattern, but at a different time, you can do so.

(If you want to know how you can join us on Zoom then do get in touch.)

These prayers have pulled resources from Thy Kingdom Come and 24-7 Prayer.

Prayers for Thursday 21st May

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 wonder of creation joining in the ancient praise of all God’s people in the words of Psalm 8.

Read Psalm 8:1-9. (NIVUK)

For the director of music. According to gittith.  A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?^[c]

⁵ You have made them^[d] a little lower than the angels^[e]
    and crowned them^[f] with glory and honour.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their^[g] feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

[Open time for Prayers of praise]

Video – Who is Jesus? Tom Wright. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D6II_Nq-tQ

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 in which we:

·      Pray that our friends will encounter Jesus and that they will choose to follow him.

·      Pray for those people and situations that are on our WhatsApp prayer board.

·      Pray that God will use us – whatever that means (e.g. that we will have the courage to open our mouths, the strength to be obedient to God's prompting)

·      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.

Pray that as well as prayer, we will also creatively demonstrate how we care at this time of social distancing.

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.

Wait for it

How good are you at waiting? I guess your answer to that question depends a lot on what it is that you are waiting for. It probably also depends on how long you have to wait, or whether you even know the answer to that question.

One of the challenges at this time of lockdown is that in a lot of cases we simply don't know how long we are going to have to wait. The government has given us some initial dates when certain things may happen (assuming that other conditions are met) but there's lots of things that we simply don't know and we just have to wait.

And waiting can be hard.

Yesterday we had a meeting of the preaching team as we continue to plan for the autumn term. But although we have been told that church opening is included in the July 4th date - what that actually means is very far from clear. So as we try to plan for the autumn are we planning for fully online church still, fully open and back to normal church (highly unlikely) or somewhere in between the two? In the end, we agreed that we just have to wait a bit longer before trying to make any decisions.

Some of you will be aware that tomorrow is Ascension Day. Ascension Day comes 40 days after Easter and marks the day when Jesus returned back to heaven at the end of his earthly ministry. And one of the things that Jesus said to his disciples was that they were to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. He didn't tell them how long they would have to wait - but he had told them that after he had left he would send the Holy Spirit. 

From what we know about Peter, I imagine that he was probably more than a little impatient to get going with the task of making disciples (see Matthew 28:19-20). But I also expect that his experiences over the last three years, and particularly over the last 40 days, had led to him trusting in Jesus' words more. So if Jesus said 'wait' they would wait.

They had learnt to trust God and to obey him.

Here's this week's assembly from Barton on this theme of waiting.

The Holy Habit of Generosity

This Sunday we're going to be concluding a series that we've been doing in our all-age services since January 2019. Obviously, this one is going to be a bit different to the rest, as we won't actually be in the church building.

The series has been called 'Holy Habits' and it is based on the book 'Holy Habits' by Andrew Roberts.

The Holy Habits picked out in this book (it doesn't claim to be an exhaustive list) are taken from one of the descriptions of the church that we find in Acts - in Acts 2:42-47.

Holy Habits are not something that we do in order to be a Christian or to try and impress God. Rather they are habits that we look to develop because as we do we will become more and more like Jesus.

This week we're going to be looking at the Holy Habits of Gladness and Generosity.

As well as making videos about different books of the Bible, The Bible Project also make videos that explore a particular theme that runs throughout the Bible. Well, they've made a video on Generosity which explores how selfishness is the result of not trusting that God is the generous host who can be trusted.

If it's good enough for Joe Wicks...

Someone suggested to me that I include a 'spot the difference' element into my Wednesday morning assembly videos - apparently, it's something that Joe Wicks does. Well I guess I can. If it's good enough for Joe Wicks...

Today's assembly is looking at the story of breakfast on the beach from John 21. Having denied even knowing Jesus, Peter has decided to go back to what he knows best - fishing. But Jesus has forgiven Peter, and now he wants Peter to forgive himself. Jesus still has a lot more for Peter to be doing.

We all mess up at times, and we get it wrong and we let Jesus down. But he is loving and forgiving. He gives us a new start and a second chance. And a third, fourth, fifth...