November Prayer Diary

Zimbabwe
I  alone  know the plans I have for you,    plans  to bring you prosperity   and  not disaster, plans to bring about the future you  hope for.                    (Jer 29 v.11)

As you read  this  the visit from our  Zimbabwe friends  may  be over but our prayers will continue to be with them  wherever they are.  

Loving Lord, we give you our strong thanks for the blessing of this contact with our fellow workers.    Grant them to know and feel the love of all those they have met on their travels  and  help  us to keep  a memory of   the  strength of their witness and the  joy  of their coming among us.    May   they   take  back  with them a sure knowledge of our commitment to the twinning arrangement and our  loving interest in all  the work  that they  do and our brothers and sisters  in  Zimbabwe.
                                                                                      Amen

 

God,  our  heavenly Father,  we glorify your name,  together with all creation.
We pray that you bind us together with your love.  
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.  You prayed for unity amongst your disciples;   we too pray for unity in our churches.
The Lord  of  unity,  the Lord of Covenant, help us to be faithful parties in our Presbytery Covenant.  
Bind us together in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

 The prayer of Matorofa

Excerpts  only   from
A   Prayer for Peace  from the Moderator

Jesus, Light of  the  World  in  whom peace  endures  and  burns  brighter than the sun, we give you honour and praise.
Reconciling Jesus, through whom all relationships that are broken may   find   a way to heal, we give you honour and praise.
Almighty God, whose heart breaks for the suffering we cause to one another, we bring our prayers to you for every place where deep division and enmity have brought peoples to war or the brink of war.  And we pray for all those who fall victim to such conflict.
We pray that one day the sun may rise on a world that does not have war built in to its economy and that one day the sun may set on a  different  way  of dealing with our differences so that the dividend of peace may outweigh the dividend of war.
So with earnestness of heart we pray for peace in the lands of the bible and in every war torn place on earth:
.   that enmity may be replaced with understanding
.   that the dignity of every human being should be preserved
.   that  hatred be set aside for the sake  of peace  and
.   that out of the ashes of destruction may rise a land where all  may  live secure and free
And this we pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

 In the Moderatorial  Year  the Moderator will be presenting doves made in al-Kahf workshops in Bethlehem from pieces of glass salvaged from  among the rubble of past invasion of Bethlehem – symbols of hope and beauty from the ashes of despair

Advent
 See,   the   former  things  have  come to pass,  and new things  I  now declare…                                                                    Isaiah   42:9

 Jesus looked at  the  disciples  and said:  For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.                               Matthew 19:26

 “The good news of Advent is about the coming into human life of the God who makes all things new – and all things possible – by striking at the heart of humanity.   God does this , not like some magician producing wonderful tricks out of a hat,  but by inviting us first to reflect on ‘the former things that have come to pass’-by asking us, in other words,  to view with the eyes of faith God’s own track record,  and then act accordingly”

Living God,   your ways are indeed not our ways,
Nor your thoughts our thoughts
We look back, with pride in what we have achieved;
You   ask  us to look back  in wonder at what you have done.
We look forward,   conscious of our need, and cautiously confident in ourselves;
You ask us to look forward,  to know your will  for all  creation, and to put our trust in you
But most of all, this Advent, we pray:
give  us grace to live in the present moment,  to welcome  your coming in Jesus.  And to attend to what we must now do.
So may our impossibilities become your  possibilities,
In  the new things that you will bring to birth in our world.

Extract from   Light of the World     Wild Goose Publications
Rev Dr John Harvey