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:

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength.’

from Isaiah 30.15

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 14.3

Yet again in Proverbs we see that how we use our mouths, matters. The fool piles out words upon words – talking and boasting about themselves (or their children / grandchildren…).

King Hezekiah was king of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) shortly after Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was conquered by Assyria. The armies of Sennacherib took a load of the fortified cities in Hezekiah’s kingdom, and reached the walls of Jerusalem, before withdrawing (read Isaiah 36-37).

After this stark warning of the danger his small kingdom was in from the large empires to the North and South, you’d have thought Hezekiah would be more wise. But when envoys (spies?) from another country visited, he wouldn’t shut up… he showed them, ‘what was in his storehouses – the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil – his entire armoury and everything found among his treasures’ (Isaiah 39.2, NIV).

He was proud – and showed these envoys of a far-off land all the treasures of his kingdom. No doubt he thought he was safe because they came from a ‘distant land’ (39.3). But this was the first contact God’s people had with the nation that would ransack Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, exile the people, and come to personify evil itself: Babylon.

Your boasts may not do quite that much damage (and to be fair to Hezekiah it was 100 years later that all happened!) but we need to heed this proverb every bit as much as Hezekiah should have heeded it.

Ask God to show you the ways in which you boast like a fool, and ask him to help you speak wisely instead.

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:

Rose Swaddle, Linda Dearne, Simon Dearne

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.