Dear All,

A church sometimes picked up local taxi messages on their sound system. Once, as the Minister finished his prayers and said “Amen”, a message boomed out through the speakers, “Request understood and will be dealt with promptly”! 

It’s not often that we get that kind of response to our prayers! Perhaps some are “dealt with” more promptly than we realise; often it is likely that we need to wait for their answer. Sometimes God will involve us in answering our own prayers. “You want peace on earth-what are you going to do about it?” “You are concerned about that person-could you be in contact with her?”

Prayer is not so much about God doing all that we want as our willingness to be available for what God wants.

It’s for us to say to God, “Request understood and will be dealt with promptly”.

With loving care,

David.

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH

 I thank you, Lord, for the food I enjoy each day, for its plentiful ness and variety. I pray for all who are hungry and malnourished because food is scarce and only of one kind. 

Thank you for all I possess, for the usefulness, pleasure and enjoyment they each bring to me. I pray for those who struggle to make ends meet, whose homes are impoverished and whose choices are limited.  

Thank you for my home, for its sturdiness and space, its warmth and attractiveness. I pray for those with no home of their own, no private space, no pleasant surroundings, those exposed to the decisions of others as to the permanency of where they are now.  

Thank you for my friends, my family and all the love with which I have been surrounded from my first days. I pray for the lonely, the friendless, those with no caring relatives, those who do not know the meaning of love.

 May my gratitude not make me feel guilty for what I have, but may I become more determined to see that others have the choice to enjoy all that I could so easily take for granted. May that determination lead to action on their behalf.

Amen.

Some Previous Prayers

Living God, there is far more about you and your activity than we will ever know; far more to thank you for than we will ever realise. Your love and your purposes are far greater than we can observe: sometimes we may see the plant pushing up through the soil, but we do not see what has gone before that. For all you do which is beyond our observation or experience, as well as for that which we can see and do know, we give you grateful praise.

Amen.

I praise you for continually working in our lives to transform us, even though it means never leaving us alone, never letting us rest content, because you are always refining us, chiselling away at unwanted stone, challenging our attitudes and helping us to move on. May I more willingly co-operate with your process of transformation, that I may become much more fully the person you intend me to be. Amen.

Lord, I thank you for the great adventure of life and all its opportunities. I would learn that the future is not mine to manipulate, although you do give me freedom to make my own decisions. I would also learn that the most perfect will of God does not always proceed in predictable straight lines, but through many twists and turns. Help me to be both a learner, listening to the experiences of other people and a catalyst, raising the questions which people need to answer and enabling action to take place. When one door opens help me to keep knocking at the next one, following through where each avenue may lead. Use me as someone who takes things forward, sees things through and contributes towards developments being made. May I play my part in working alongside others in a team and may I keep learning what it means to work alongside you. Amen.

Sometimes in conversations with other people, Lord, we become aware of some weakness in ourselves. Help us to learn from this awareness, and, in your strength, to move out of that particular rut. Help me to learn today, from the signals others give out, what in my behaviour is constructive and helpful towards them, and what is off-putting; what I say that people may misconstrue; where I fail to think things through sufficiently; where I am hurtful in flippant remarks I may make. May my speech contribute towards the well being of others and be part of your purpose for their lives and mine. Amen.