Hello Everyone
This Weeks Prayers are in the shape of LECTIO 365, a National & International Aid which exists to Help us pray in groups or as individuals. The aim is that our prayers, wherever we are, at whatever time we pray, are being prayed to our Father in heaven 24-7 every day of the year.
SO, I TURN TO GOD IN PRAYER
PAUSE
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God. (Pause and pray)
Prayer of Approach
Loving Father, I still my soul now and remember that You are here with me, You are here in me, You are here for me. Lord Jesus, I worship You. Holy Spirit, I welcome You.
RESPOND AND REJOICE
I choose to rejoice in God’s goodness today, joining with the ancient praise of all God’s people in the words of Psalm 100.
Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving.
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Having begun the new year after the birth of Jesus I am reflecting on the birth of the Early Church in the book of Acts and also a key moment in the life of the church in the 1700s.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them Acts 2:1-4
At 3am on New Year’s Day, 1739, the Holy Spirit also came to an all-night prayer meeting in Fetter Lane, London. ‘The power of God came mightily upon us,’ recorded John Wesley in his journal, ‘insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground.’ * Echoing the experience of those who were propelled out of the upper room in Jerusalem to preach the gospel, John Wesley, too, was propelled out of that prayer room in London to ride 125,000 miles preaching the gospel, while his brother Charles Wesley began writing 6,000 hymns. And their 25-year-old friend, George Whitfield, crossed the Atlantic to stir the fires of America’s First Great Awakening. The world would never be the same again.
ASK
Jesus said that the Father loves to give the Spirit to those who ask (Matthew 7:11) – just as John and Charles Wesley asked that day in London.
And so, as I open my hands in front of me, I ask You, Father, to fill me with Your Spirit. Fill me with new power for this new year, just as You filled those disciples 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and 282 years ago in Fetter Lane, London.
And now, I lift up my hands and I pray for my community, for my nation, and for the nations of the world. I ask You, Father, to stir the fires of another Great Awakening of Your Spirit.
As I return to this familiar passage, I try to imagine what it was like to be in that room, seeing what seemed like tongues of fire dancing in the air, being filled with the Holy Spirit for the very first time.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them Acts 2:1-4 (NIV UK)
The Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in other tongues. As the story continues, the Spirit enabled them to speak about Jesus with boldness, to endure hardship and persecution, to perform miracles, to serve the poor, to discern and make difficult decisions, and much more. These are the kinds of things that Spirit-enabled people do. What might the Spirit be enabling me to do this year?
YIELDING PRAYER
The Methodist Covenant prayer, written by John Wesley himself in 1755, is prayed by millions of Methodists at the start of every year. It’s a liturgy of profound and beautiful surrender, and so I join with sisters and brothers in Christ around the world as I pray it now.
I am no longer my own, but Yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full,
Let me be empty,
Let me have all things,
Let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious, and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
You are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.**
Closing Prayer
Father, help me to live this day to the full,
being true to You, in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,
being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost,
proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.
*‘The Journal of John Wesley’, John Wesley
**Methodist Covenant Prayer, https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/the-methodist-church/what-is-distinctive-about-methodism/a-covenant-with-god/
Keep safe, keep praying.
Peter
