Monthly message

Dear All

At Synod the other week, Graham Thompson, our District chair talked about a ‘year of prayer’ and of how he wanted to encourage deeper and more committed prayer across the district. The trouble with prayer sometimes is, we just don’t know where to start. What I say to that is, start with scripture, and let the Word of God teach you to pray. I’ve put together for you a sort of prayer diary which may help to guide you in your prayers. You don’t have to stick to it rigidly – let it be a springboard to assist you as you let God’s word inspire you! The Bible is stuffed with prayers and they are often impassioned and extravagant, but always heartfelt – nothing timid or lukewarm here! Let’s learn from our ancestors in the faith how to bring ourselves fully, honestly, beseechingly before God in prayer. You’ll need your Bible handy to look up the references!

Sunday Ephesians 3.14-16. On the day that we meet to worship together, Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians church is apt. Paul prays nothing less than that they will experience to the uttermost the extent of God’s love for them so that they can live richly, deeply and fully as Christ’s people.

Monday Psalm 3. This is the prayer of someone up to their necks, who feels they can’t cope any more. Like many of the Psalms, it’s raw and honest but shot through with hope and trust in God.

Tuesday Psalm 51. Clearly, the prayer of someone who has messed up quite spectacularly and needs more than forgiveness – the Psalmist needs to be renewed, restored, refreshed and given the chance to make a new start. The Psalmist is in no doubt that God will grant it.

Wednesday Psalm 139. This is the prayer of someone delighting in their relationship with God which is at once cosily intimate and utterly awe inspiring (God knew and loved before we were even born is the message!)

Thursday 1 Samuel 2.1-10. In this famous prayer, like the even more famous Magnificat, Hannah, who has pleaded with God for a son, experiences an answer to prayer which opens her eyes to how God works – tending and watching over the outcasts and marginalised and humbling the arrogant.

Friday Nehemiah 1. 1, 2-9. Nehemiah finds himself the leader of a people who have endured exile and loss and are yearning for home. This is still the experience of too many around the world and we are called to bring the brokenness and the divisions of our world to God in that essential task we call ‘interceding’.

Saturday Matthew 6. 5-15. The Lord’s Prayer. No commentary needed! Say the words of this prayer slowly, and put your heart into each word.

Blessings, Ben