Prayer and choosing to turn to God in prayer has been such a vital part of our response to this challenging time that we are living in as a result of the pandemic and various other crises with which our world is dealing. Recently, I called a friend for her birthday and she told me that she had knit me a pair of purple socks and was going to send them to me in the mail. I was grateful, but there is more to the story that made me extremely grateful. She told me that while she has been knitting these socks she has been praying for me. Sometimes we know that people are praying for us and sometimes we do not realize it. What a gift it is to know that people are remembering you in their prayers. This is a significant gift that we can give to people. When we let people know that they are in our prayers, they can be encouraged and receive strength. I want all of us to recognize this week that our prayers for each other are essential. We can read in James 5:16b, “The prayers of a person living right with God are powerful and effective.” Yes, our sincere and humble prayers make a difference! This week, we are planning to return to meeting inside our church for our Sunday worship service. It has been a long time since this was possible. Please pray that we will approach this wisely and be well prepared for this new venture. We will pray for safety and well being as we look forward to gathering. We will pray for those who come to worship and be inspired by God’s Presence with us. We will continue to pray for the end to this Covid virus, as we find ourselves concerned with the number of new cases being reported. Even if there are few cases in our area, we need to keep on praying for places where it appears a second wave is showing increases. Knowing that our prayers are powerful and effective, please plan to join us for prayer today Wednesday, September 30th at 1 pm.
God’s Grace as we come to our loving God in prayer, Pastor Lola
Our God who loves and cares for us, we thank You today for this remarkable gift of prayer. Your Word tells us that when we are living right with You, our prayers are powerful and effective. Thank You that we can commit ourselves to this time of prayer. We want to focus our attention on You. We want to trust You for the ways You will move to answer our prayers. Thank You God that we can choose to pray for each other. Thank You for those who faithfully and regularly pray for us. Thank You for those for whom we pray. Our God, we are given strength and hope from You when we know that people are praying for us. We want those for whom we pray to also receive strength and hope. We pray today that if there are attitudes in us that You need to renovate that You will do that. We do not want anything in us to interfere with You answering our prayers. We have prayed for and looked forward for some time to meeting together again inside our church. Thank You that we are anticipating that for this Sunday coming. We pray for the details that need to be in place for this to happen. We ask You to protect us and keep us safe as we follow measures to make this possible. We never want to take for granted the privilege of being able to gather for worship. We want to deeply appreciate the things You have been teaching us in these past months. Thank You God that this has been a time when several prayers have been offered up to You. Thank You that this has been a time of recognizing our dependence on You. Lord, we turn our attention also to all the situations of need in our world. You are aware of every circumstance. There is a profound need for Your love when many people are displaying hate and intolerance. As well as praying for people and engaging in this powerful activity of prayer, we pray to engage in the powerful activity of love. We ask that praying for people will cause us to love them and understand them in ways we never have before. Please open our eyes to see You more clearly, to see others more clearly and to see ourselves more clearly. Thank You that our faith in You makes it possible to face the huge uncertainties that we are now experiencing. We pray that we will be sensitive to the feelings of others. We pray for those who are feeling afraid. We pray for those who are feeling disappointed and discouraged. We pray for those who are angry with the way things have gone for them. We pray for those who have felt alone and deserted by You. In all the feelings we have, please remind us that You are near and have not forgotten us. We look to see the outcomes of all these prayers we have been praying. Gather us close to You as we keep on giving each other this priceless gift of being cared for and prayed for. We bring our prayers to You our God who has arranged for our prayers to change us and our world. Thanks You Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.