Prayers For The Week 15

 Where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.  (Psalm 65: 8)

God our Father,

We close our eyes in sleep in the knowledge that Your Spirit fills the Universe; that your Spirit sustains the witness of Your Church; that Your Spirit is working in the lives of Your people to comfort, to strengthen, to establish  Your Word.

We move into a new day with the prospect of being drawn deeper into Your Love, of extending our understanding of Your ways, of responding to the call to serve.  

So draw us closer to Yourself and enable us to sing songs of joy, the praise of a grateful people who know God through Jesus Christ, who have been touched by His sacrifice, renewed by His resurrection and inspired by His promises.  

Forgive us that so often we cut off the sources of joy.

Neglecting the Word that keeps us close to You.

Ignoring the promptings of Your Spirit to forgive others.

Setting aside opportunities to support others in time of need.

Father, if You held on to our failure where would be our hope?

But You have assured us in Jesus that sin is not victorious over us, that calling to mind our failure is not a mark of despair but the beginning of renewed aspiration.

So help us to believe that You are on our side as we now go forward to face the challenges of the days ahead. 

Heavenly father once again we find ourselves in your presence this morning and we are safe in the knowledge that you are with us. As we celebrate Pentecost we know that your spirit moves amongst us and because of that we get to know you just that bit better. We know that you find joy among us as we see your absolute power, your incredible knowledge and your everlasting love.

We pray this morning for those in our congregations who need you: a healing spirit, a loving father and a consoling friend. 

We pray for our brothers and sisters touched by illness, affected by a bereavement and isolated by loneliness .

We pray for those who feel that they have no need of your love, those who stand in the boundaries between belief and disbelief and we ask that you enable us to draw them closer to you and closer to understanding.

We pray especially for this year's General Assembly. 

The year past has been a different year and a different Assembly and we pray for the outgoing Moderator Martin Fair. 

We pray for the new Moderator Jim Wallace and ask that you be with him and all who are making decisions about the church this year. 

Go with Jim Wallace as he travels through this country and abroad representing our national church , give him wisdom and strength for the job ahead.

Father we pray today for those in every church in the land, give us a vision that will take some out of their comfort zone and lead us into new ways of serving you, to be beacons of hope in world that has changed

We pray for those we recognise as key workers. Those who selflessly administer care, who enable life to go on and allow families to continue to exist. 

We pray for those who work for peace abroad in war zones and even at home where there is conflict. 

We especially pray for those who work for peace where there seems to be no peace possible like Syria, Pakistan and places where the church is our concern.

We pray for Israel and for calm, we pray for India and for healing and 

Father this prayer for others this morning is heavy and encumbered but we know you are a God who cares and a God who is bigger than anything else in this world. 

Thanks to Alex McEwan who provided the prayers for others.

Prayers For The Week 14

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  (Psalm 27: 13-14)

God our Father,

In these days 

We are asked to be confident in those who govern, in those who administer, in those who research.

We are asked to be confident in one another that we will follow guidance and show consideration.

We are asked to be confident that we will find a way through Covid-19 and regain our quality of life.

We do not despise the skills and expertise of men and women who seek to bring us hope.

But on this day we lift our hearts to the God revealed in Jesus and place our confidence in Him.

The God who was one of us, who experienced the pressures of human living, who knew the limitations of our being, who even knew the death that is our final destiny.  

The God who showed that in the midst of brokenness goodness and love are possible.

The God who assures us that even in death His purpose continues.

This is the God who reveals Himself in the land of the living, the God for whom we wait.

He alone can strengthen us from within as we go forward in faith.  

Our loving heavenly Father, on hearing your Word again this morning, we acknowledge that we are indeed in the presence of a loving, holy and powerful God, who thought us worthy enough to leave all the splendour of heaven and come down to live among us, that we might come to know you as our Lord and Saviour.  Help us to hold fast to the truths and promises in your Word, not only for this life but for the life to come because of our faith and trust in you.

Father, we bring before you our loved ones and ask that you will draw them to yourself.  We pray for our friends asking you to minister to them at their point of need.  

Father, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it has reminded us of the fragility of life.   All of us have watched heart-breaking images on our television screens, read reports in our newspapers of India, Brazil and other countries and we have felt so helpless in the face of such a deadly virus.  Then we remember we can do something – we can pray – we can bring the people, their situations and their loved ones to you in prayer, asking for your help, power and love to walk the difficult road with them.   We also pray for the medical personnel who work in difficult, understaffed and under-resourced countries where the people are not just fighting the virus but are malnourished, scared and without hope.  

Father, our world is so vast, so unequal in that so many people live in countries where they do not have enough food or clean water, no proper government, many random acts of violence resulting in death, and the people themselves feel that they do not matter.  We are also aware of people who live in countries where there is no peace, and, this morning, we pray for Israel and ask that things will not further escalate.  Father, the situations we have prayed for this morning are complex and multi-layered and too big for us to solve on our own and we give them over to you asking that you will intervene and bring peace, intervene and bring equality, intervene and bring hope to the despairing. 

Prayers For The Week 13

 Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and for evermore.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.  (Psalm 113: 2-3)

We join our hearts to praise the Lord who created the Universe, who sustains the Universe, who has it in His heart to renew the Universe.

The Lord who is present in every moment, who knows when every sparrow falls, who has counted every hair, who has clothed every flower.

We stand in awe before our God and know that in His height, His depth, His breadth there is too much for our minds to grasp.

But still by His grace connection is possible through His Son who comes to us as an unborn child, as a cradled baby, as a questioning adolescent, as a carpenter’s son, as a preacher and healer, as an executed criminal,

Who says to us ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’  

The Father in the days of celebration, in the days of challenge, the days of grief and suffering, the days of triumph over the darkness.

The Father with us from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

The Father with us now, revealed by the Son, brought near by the Holy Spirit,

To bless us with His forgiveness, His strength, His peace.

‘Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and for evermore.’   Amen.  

We thank you that Jesus has called us aside to inspire our love, to reveal our gifts, to enable us to serve wholeheartedly. 

We thank you for the assurance that there is a place for all of us in the great plan which will climax in the coming of Your Kingdom.

We thank you for the bond we have with men and women    who have heard the call and walk with us sharing our burdens and inspiring our service.

We thank you for the bond we have with those who have fought the good fight, who have finished the race, who have kept the faith and now enjoy the crown of righteousness.

As we go forward in this life of faith: 

We hold in our hearts our fellow Christians throughout the world who live to tell the story of Jesus and share His love with those in need.

We hold in our hearts the nations of the world under pressure due to hunger, drought, homelessness and strained resources in the struggle against Covid 19.

We hold in our hearts our own nation and those newly elected in the parliament of Scotland as they prepare for the challenges ahead.

We hold in our hearts neighbours, friends, family members who face challenges due to ill-health, uncertainty at work, bereavement, faltering faith.  

Nomadland

 A character in a Bob Dylan song is described as ‘always on the outside of whatever side there was’.  That fits Fern who is the central character of Nomadland.  From bits and pieces gathered through the film we get a picture of a life that was ‘always on the outside’ from the earliest years, always willing to kick over the traces.  So when in her early sixties she finds herself widowed, unemployed and the community around her evaporating she takes to the road and becomes part of a new community of people perpetually on the move.  These are the ‘nomads’ who live in vans, park in designated places and live on seasonal work.  

The movie has a slow paced documentary style enhanced by the inclusion of real-life nomads.  We are very much the observers as Fern makes new friends, finds work and struggles with her ageing ‘rig’.  It’s the latter challenge that creates a tension for Fern that is never resolved.  If she is to keep her rig on the road she needs a large sum of money.  She asks her sister who is wealthy, enjoys a privileged lifestyle, whose husband is involved is business which Fern considers less than honourable.  They are part of the ‘system’ Fern wants no part of and yet she remains dependant on their generosity.  She promises to pay back but you wonder how.  

It’s the hook many of us wriggle on.  There is so much that is wrong in the world and while we hold fast to a vision of the way it should be,  it is not going to change any time soon.   In the meantime, we make the changes we can and live with the compromises we have to make.  

Fern is hardly off the screen and Frances McDormand carries her well.  She combines the edginess, vulnerability and warmth that make for an arresting character and leaves you hoping that while there will always be people on the outside they will have an impact on the rest of us for the better.  

Prayers For The Week 12

 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord,  are loving.  (Psalm 62: 11-12a). 

What else do we wish to hear on this Lord’s Day?

That while we feel our energy diminish, that while we feel our concentration faltering, that while our emotions rise and fall,

You, O God, are strong.

You provide the unchanging centre of our lives to revitalise us, to focus our minds more surely, to stabilise us in the ever-changing circumstances of our lives.  

And You, O Lord, are loving.

You will allow nothing to stem the flow of Your love into our lives,

Not pain, not disappointment, not failure, not even death.

Nothing will ever separate us from your love,

And you have shown this in Jesus,

Who comes to us as the Risen Lord but bearing the wounds that say Your love shines even in the deepest darkness.

What else do we wish to know on this Lord’s Day?

So stay with us as we gather as your people, that in our prayers, in the silences, in the music and in the Word read and preached we may experience Your presence, hear the Voice that proclaims forgiveness, receive the assurance that Your goodness and Your love goes before us into the unknown future.  

Father, we have sometimes spoken of the daily grind,  we have sometimes dreaded the prospect of the day ahead, we have sometimes given in to thoughts of meaninglessness.  

But you have shown us that while all of this is real to us there is also the reality of the Risen Lord in our midst, to ease the burden, to lighten the path, to assure us that no life lived in faith is insignificant.  

We thank you that we have seen this faith in others who  have trusted in Your goodness and love to the end and now know the fulfilment of that faith in the eternal presence of the Risen Lord.  

Let that same faith glow in the hearts of all Your people throughout the world, that their worship and their daily living would be witness to the Resurrection.

Let the nations be transformed in the power of the Resurrection, that peace, justice, compassion will be realities and not just aspirations.

Let the Resurrection be the hope of those nations that suffer most from Covid-19 particularly remembering India and Brazil.

Let our nation experience the impact of Resurrection in her care of those whose quality of life has been destroyed by addiction, violence and abuse.  

Let the Risen Lord be the companion of those we know who have been stricken by the virus, those who care for the sick, those who seek to bring comfort to the bereaved.