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

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Opening

Speak these words out loud:

Let us take up the cross and follow Jesus,
whatever the cost.

from Luke 14.27-28

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 17.14

One of the hallmarks of wisdom, we are discovering (hopefully!), is the importance of de-escalating things.

Yesterday, we looked at how responding to evil with more evil only creates, well, more evil. A better way is learning and training ourselves to respond with good. Your reaction may have been, ‘Well I’m not evil so that’s not for me.’

Well how about this one? I’m not sure I know a single person who doesn’t argue or quarrel. Some people have blazing rows, others don’t but are passive-aggressive instead, arguing with looks and pointed comments (and often gossipping with their friends). Whether it is because we are in a foul mood, or the other person is being obnoxious or hypocritical, or actually wrong about something, or for many other reasons, we all quarrel, in one way or another.

Yet as Proverbs tells us time and again, there is no point arguing with a fool. And here we are warned that we should be very, very careful with we argue with anyone. For what happens when a dam breaks? Devastation. The more we argue, the more holes we poke in the dam wall… and the closer we come to ruining our relationships.

How are you argumentative? Is it with all-guns-blazing? Quiet menace? Somewhere in-between?

How – and with whom – can you be less argumentative, and start repairing the holes in the dam, instead of poking new ones?

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:

Mary Wilson, Cynthia Taylor, Dot Betts

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

We also pray for: Pre-Schools in Amington

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.

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.