Sing to the Lord, and praise him! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us (Psalm 96.2, GNB).

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Opening

Speak these words out loud:

By his power God raised Jesus from the dead,
and he will raise us also.

1 Corinthians 6.14 (NIV)

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 22.10

If only we took our relationships more seriously!

Perhaps it’s me, but sometimes I think that the more a relationship matters, the less effort I put into it. If I’m honest, sometimes I make the effort to smile and be friendly to a delivery driver than to my own family!

The problem with this Proverb is that – again, perhaps this is just me – the first time you read it, you start thinking of all the ‘conceited people’, the ‘mockers’ that you would like to ‘get rid of’ from your life. And actually, a small part of the lesson from this Proverb (maybe 15%) is that we do need to be careful about whom we spend time with.

But the other 85% of the lesson is that all to often we are the ‘conceited person’, we are the ones being quarrelsome, we are the ones arguing, insulting, name-calling.

It’s so easy to identify this sort of behaviour in other people and then decide we want to have nothing more to do with them. It’s much harder to be honest and recognise it in ourselves – so we can ‘get rid of it’ from our own behaviour first.

Jesus said, ‘You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye’ (Matthew 7.5, NIV).

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:

Marian Cox, Christine Farmer, Judith Walker

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: Youth Work – something new

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.