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.

Proverbs 18.2

I think the Good News needs two little extra words at the end there: ‘all he wants to do is show how smart he thinks he is.’  (Or she, of course!)

This proverb goes hand-in-hand with yesterday’s, when we thought about how good we are at listening to others rather than always talking about ourselves. Yesterday that person was called ‘unfriendly’ – today we are back with the regular ‘fool’.

Perhaps it’s being stuck at home so much for so long, but I feel like this proverb is even more important for us to hear than normal. People think they are experts on important matters – from Brexit to disease to the economy – all because we’ve read a newspaper article or three, or think only we can see common sense. I’m as guilty of this as the next person!

The truth is, the world is complicated and hard to understand – however simple we think it is. The government’s reaction to the pandemic is a case in point: how do we walk the line between protecting people’s lives from Covid-19, and protecting people’s lives from a broken economy and the poverty, unemployment and hunger that will bring – not to mention other diseases and illnesses being pushed to one side while the NHS deals with the pandemic? The debacle over exam results was the whole situation in a nutshell

We all know the answer: it’s whatever we think.

Today, I think it would be good for us to pray (hard) for our political leaders and their advisors, for wisdom and courage to make decisions in the best interests of the whole country.

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:

Doug & Irene Dean, Patricia Wood

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: Poverty & Deprivation 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.