Before our prayer reflection this week, I want to confirm our plans going forward for Springford Baptist Church. Starting this Sunday, July 18th we will be meeting for worship in person together, rain or shine. If it is clear, we will meet outside ((please bring a lawn chair). If it is rainy, we will now be able to meet upstairs in our church again. We will continue to wear masks and to maintain safe distance to ensure everyone’s safety. This plan will continue throughout the summer with us holding worship services each Sunday morning at 10:30 am. We thank God that this will be possible and welcome you joining us!
I came across something that my Mom had written inside a Bible that was given to her in 1944 when she was 19 years old. In her handwriting she had inscribed these words, “God is as close to you as the floor. Just bend your knees and begin to walk with Him.” When you think about people in your life who have been committed to praying, you will be thinking of people who have been close with God. These phrases that my mother penned speak of a choice made in a desire to be close with God. I don’t know who spoke these words to her or if she read them somewhere, but they certainly did influence her life. Our desire to be close with God must be accompanied by prayer because praying is an essential part of walking with God. When we are on our knees, (literally or figuratively) we are ready for God to reveal Himself to us and to guide us. In the Bible we can read this promise from James 4:8, “Come close to God and He will come close to you.” There is a mutual aspect to this. When we long to be close with God, He is already wanting that too. It seems to me that during this pandemic, many people have recognized a desire to be close with God. What happens now that we are returning to some of the regular patterns of life that had been suspended. Will we still crave closeness with God? If we choose to bend our knees in prayer, we can expect to continue to feel God’s closeness and to sense the promptings of His Spirit over our everyday lives. Tomorrow, Wednesday July 14th at 1 pm is the time we have set aside to bend our knees in prayer and I hope you can join us.
Praying that we will want to come close with God in prayer, Pastor Lola
Our God, we thank You for all the ways You have been close with us in these past months. We have been keenly aware of our need for you and our need for You does not change with the lifting of some restrictions. God, we can see evidence that we have grown closer with you through consistent prayer. We have come to anticipate this time of praying together as a time to experience Your closeness. Forgive us for the times when our prayers involve us doing all the talking. Please further develop our closeness with You as we learn to listen to You with open hearts and minds. We are aware that You walk with us and we think of You carefully showing us the steps we need to take. When we get off of the path that You intend for us, we pray that You will bring us back to closeness with you. Thank you that prayer is a powerful means of having your Spirit lead us. Please intensify our desire to be close with You. Our God we want to understand things You are wanting to teach us about this gift of prayer. Please guard us against using prayer as an attempted means to manipulate the outcomes that we want. May our prayers always reflect a bended knee attitude of seeking You. When the road seems so steep to climb, please assure us that you are walking with us. When we aren’t sure how to respond to the challenges of living here and now in this world, please clearly reveal what You are asking of us. Thank You for Your Word the Bible that records for us the lives of others who wanted to be close with You. We are praying that we will always be discovering You at every turn. We ask for our lives to be the means of inspiring others to trust You. Thank You that something that we do or say may reach out to someone in ways we are not aware. Please use what we do and say or what we write in the front of a Bible to speak Your words for whoever needs to hear them. We pray for those in leadership who have impact through the decisions that they make. In an atmosphere of mistrust, we place our trust in You God. When we are close with you, we pray that we will be known as people Who can be trusted by others. Please make us aware and conscious in our prayer times of when we are not as close with You. We want You to use our prayers to draw us back to You. Thank You for the restoring of our souls that happens when we come close with you and You come close with us. Here we are God on our knees in prayer and waiting on You. Come close we pray, In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.