Prayer

Monthly Prayer March 2024: The Lord will provide (Gen 22:14)

It’s a wonderfully comforting and reassuring text, but not a blank cheque. We met a woman once who’d taken it literally and given away more than she possessed to what she considered deserving needs, counting on the Lord to provide for her generosity. But he didn’t, and she got into serious debt. She learned the hard way that you shall not put the Lord to the test (Mt 4:7). We don’t lead God, we follow: he chooses the way and leads us (Jn 22:19-23). We don’t even do what we think the Lord should want and expect him to back us: we first find out what he wants us to do, and then ask him to provide for all we may need, for that work.

And provide he does, sometimes lavishly and even miraculously. So that even if it seems there won’t be enough to support us, we don’t sink in the world’s rough seas. But, like Peter on that occasion when he saw the Lord standing on the water, we must only step out of the boat when the Lord calls us (the other eleven disciples weren’t called, and obediently remained aboard – Mt 14:28-31). When he does call us, faith is what keeps us afloat, or solvent. That is, trust in his word and in his power to make possible what he has called us to do, and acting on that faith. For what it’s worth, Jean and I have both seen this to be true in our own lives, as well as with others. But we have also seen things go wrong when people try to do what the Lord has not called them to do, like the lady who presumed that the Lord would provide. He will indeed provide: whatever we ask in his name (Mt 7:7-11; Jn 16:23-24), ie, what he has authorised by calling us to follow. Pray carefully to be guided in his way.

A Prayer for Each Week
Week 1: Dear Lord, please help me to do what you want, because you are my Lord, and to you I have determined to entrust my life, come what may. Amen.

Week 2: Dear Lord, you are the Way: the way through this sad world to the joy of being with you and the Father. Please help me follow you faithfully. Amen.

Week 3: Dear Lord, provider of all our needs (but not all our wants), please show me what you would like me to do, and make it possible as I work at it. Amen.

Week 4: Dear Lord, limitless resources are in you, Creator of all that is, but only for your world-saving purposes. So please help me join you in your work. Amen.

Week 5: Dear Lord, you don’t expect us to try and do everything, so please help me to say Yes to what I should take up, and No to what I should drop.
Amen.

Your own prayers

Roy Lorrain-Smith
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Monthly Prayer April 2024: Taking on the mantle

In John 17, Jesus completes his long farewell discourse to his disciples before he goes to the garden where he is betrayed, arrested, and tried, leading to his conviction, crucifixion, and, later, his resurrection and ascension. That was all soon to come, but here he prays for himself, his disciples, and for those who later would believe through their word.
For himself, he asks that God may glorify him so that he may glorify the Father, as he has been doing throughout his time on earth by completing the work God had given him to do – but now back in God’s own presence with the glory he’d had with the Father before the world existed.
He then prays for his believing disciples: that •the Father will keep them in his name; •safe from the evil one while they remain in the world as his witnesses; •having unity together, just as Jesus and his Father have; •filled with joy; and •sanctified in the truth, ie, God’s word.
And finally Jesus prays for those who will become believers in him through the word of his disciples, which includes us: •that we too may be perfectly one, as evidence to all the world that Jesus was sent by God; •with the glory that Jesus has given us. And he desires most fervently •that we may be with Jesus where he is, to see the glory the Father has given him because of his love for him before the foundation of the world.
Now that we are those believing witnesses, we can take on his mantle of prayer, that we and others who may follow will be open to all those great blessings. Much to ponder. Much to pray. That many may receive.

Roy Lorrain-Smith

A prayer for each week

Week 1: Lord God Almighty, it is marvellous beyond measure that you allow, invite, and expect our prayers through Jesus – holy and unapproachable though you otherwise are. May we never neglect or abuse this privilege. Amen.

Week 2: Glorious God, light and bright beyond our capacity to behold, yet revealed to us in name and nature by Jesus on earth, may we always and in everything reverence you glory and obey your word, through Jesus. Amen.

Week 3: Invincible God, in your keeping we are safe from the evil one and his threats and lies aiming to tempt us away from you. Please, in the name of Jesus, give us the sense and discernment to remain in your care always. Amen.

Week 4: God of Community, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bound together in loving unity and glory from before the foundation of this earth, please keep all your believing children in unity, through Jesus, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Organiser: Roy Lorrain-Smith

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