Our church building may be closed, but God’s eyes are open and his ears are attentive to our prayers (2 Chronicles 7.15).

Welcome back to the daily proverb!

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Opening

Speak these words out loud:

The Spirit of God has made us;
the breath of the Almighty gives us life.

from Job 33.4

Today’s Proverb

Read the proverb through three or four times, slowly. Pause in-between, maybe write it out by hand – savour the words, let them speak deeply to you.

Proverbs 12.11

This is an interesting one. I particularly like the bluntness of the Good News version on the right!

The application for our working life is obvious: the farmer who wastes time doing things other than tending her crops, will go hungry. But so it is with us in our faith. It’s helpful to see our faith like an allotment, full of seeds and potential. If we spend our time tending our faith, ‘watering’ it, ‘pulling out the weeds’, it will grow and produce much fruit. But if we waste our time on other things, what will happen to our faith…?

Now, as a man, I want to put in a good word for ‘useless projects’. They can be fun distractions, taking us away from the challenges of life for a while. They can restore us and bring us great joy.

But we must always come back to what is most important, or rather who: God. He must be at the centre of all we do.

The same is true for a church family. One of the hardest things is to decide what we invest our time and energy into, rather than spreading ourselves too thickly and trying to do too much – to have an allotment too big for our skill!

Where do you most need to invest your ‘gardening’ time, to help your faith grow?

Prayers

Pray for Five – pray for your five friends / family from Thy Kingdom Come.

Our daily prayer sheet includes the names of everyone for whom we have a signed church family directory form – and local parishes and senior church leaders. Today we are praying for:

Ben & Jess Green, Lesley Willers

Father, please bless them with your peace, and a deep awareness of your presence with them, every day and in every way.

Please pray for our leaders and healthcare workers, and all those working to keep us safe, well, and fed. Please pray that people would unselfishly put others before themselves, and buy only what they need.

Church Family Prayer

Come Holy Spirit,
and make us one in heart and action,
so that we can serve God faithfully:
abounding in love,
maturing in holiness,
and seeking out the lost.
Help us grow as disciples of Jesus –
in commitment, in depth, and in number –
that we may be a blessing to Amington;
to the glory and praise of God the Father.
Amen.

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.

Closing Prayer

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labour in vain.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus
the only way to the Father.

Psalm 127.1, Hebrews 12.2 & John 14.6

May Christ our Saviour give us peace.
Amen.