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:
‘Where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.’
from Matthew 6.21 (Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount)
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.
An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgement starts quarrels. (NIV)
People who do not get along with others are interested only in themselves; they will disagree with what everyone else knows is right. (GNB)
Proverbs 18.1
Are you the sort of person other people like to be around?
I suspect most of us think we are – after all, who wouldn’t like ‘me’?! But, do we talk too much, or over others? Do we always bring conversations round to ourselves? Are we always quick with our own story, instead of listening to the stories and experiences of others? When others are speaking, do we really listen, or are we thinking of what we might say next? Are we quick to disagree with others, to argue with them, to quarrel?
I confess sometimes I can be quite ‘disagreeable’. Remembering to bite my tongue, shut up, and listen – this is a lesson I am still learning. Is it one you are learning too, or perhaps one you need to learn?
The simple truth is, the world would be a much kinder and more pleasant place to be in, if we all learned to take more of an interest in other people. I don’t mean gossipping about them when they aren’t there, I mean listening to them when they are.
Remember CS Lewis’s description of a humble person: ‘He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.’
How can you actually show interest in someone else, today? More importantly: whom can you show interest in?
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:
Don & Jean Sands, Helen Slim, Gill Knight
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: Primary 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.