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.

One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys. (NIV)

A lazy person is as bad as someone who is destructive. (GNB)

Proverbs 18.9

We haven’t had many proverbs about laziness recently – there are quite a few (mostly coming up in the next two or three chapters).

Here we see an important principle for the Christian life:

not doing something we should
is as bad as
doing something we shouldn’t

I find it much easier to come up with a list of wrong things that I do and think (either as a one-off, or patterns of behaviour that I battle) than to come up with a list of things I don’t do but should. If you know the Book of Common Prayer, the general confession for Evening Prayer includes these words:

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us.

Book of Common Prayer

When the Bible talks about ‘work’ it’s much broader than ‘having a job’. It covers all the things we do and ‘put our hands to’, using the gifts and talents God has given us, serving the needs of those around us – and most importantly, taking responsibility for growing as disciples.

Do you do those things? Or do you leave them undone?

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:

Kath Hastilow, Michael Ackroyd, Pauline Sawle

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: Marriages & Family Life

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.