Please note that there will not be a WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER for next week September 1st when I am away. I will be on holidays August 27th-September 1st. If you have any urgent concerns during that time, please contact our Chair of Deacons, Nancy Lester.
Often when we come to this time of the year, people are wishing that summer would stretch on longer. We have enjoyed these months and all the beauty they bring to us. This seems to have been a good growing season and so flowers and fruit and vegetables have been thriving. The mild weather permits us to appreciate being outdoors and this is a time for sitting out and camping and cottages and leisurely drives and picnics and marveling at God’s creation. We find ourselves saying, “If only we could have more of this.” On the other hand, the extended effects of the pandemic seem to have lasted much longer than we would have ever imagined. Many of our plans and activities have been altered. We all wonder how much more of this strange reality that we are living, we will have to endure. We find ourselves saying, “If only this could be over.” Our lives can contain so many “if onlys” can’t they? Whenever we are wanting things to be different than they are, we tend to enter into a wishful state that considers how much better life would be “if only”. Scripture in James 4:14, 15 reminds us, 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” Now that is a different perspective isn’t it? How will our outlooks change if we are looking for the Lord’s will in all things and praying that we as individuals will pattern the living of our lives with that as our focus. This week for our WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER, we will be praying for God to move us from our plentiful array of “if onlys” to “if God…” Please join us for this set aside time to pray tomorrow, August 25th at 1 pm.
Our God who loves us and understands completely all that we think and feel, we come to You now with our myriad of “if onlys”. We have our expectations of how we would like our lives to be and how we would prefer things to unfold. Whenever life is good and peaceful and we would like that to continue for us and others, we tend to express our lists of “if only.” Whenever we encounter disappointment and regret, we tend to enter into a session of “if onlys”. We know that our wishing does not change how things are. Our reflecting over our lives demonstrates that You God continue to guide and provide and to bring us through whatever we face. For this we give You thanks. We realize that our outlooks would be different if we really did think in terms of “if God” instead of “if only”. With this recognition God, we pray for Your will and Your way in everything. We pray God for Your will in all the details of our lives. Please bring about Your will regarding our health. We pray for Your will in our aging. We ask for Your will in all of our relationships. Our God we need to welcome Your will, especially with those with whom we disagree. We pray for Your will to prevail through living in the midst of this pandemic. We pray for Your loving will in our troubled world. As we desire to live into Your will, we pray for the various ways You can and will love through us. God, we are conscious that every second of time is a gift from You. We do not want to wish away our lives longing for and striving for “if onlys” that are not part of what You have planned for us. When we are trusting You, we find that we can accept Your will. Sometimes our trust wavers and we move back into a space of trying to control the outcomes. Even in our anticipation of tomorrow, You offer us peace if we consider that if it is Your will Lord we will do this or that. Forgive us for trying to arrange our lives to please us and accomplish our plans and intentions. We release these to You and pray instead for Your holy plans and intentions. Oh God, we do not want to resist what You intend for us. We want to welcome You continuing to reveal Yourself to us and calling us into a place of obedience to You. God we want to find ourselves expecting You to accomplish Your will in and through us. Please initiate this and move us into the this space of availability to You. Thank You God that it is never too late to want to do Your will. In all the places in our lives where there need to be adjustments and rearranging for this to happen, we invite You to be at work. It is the joy of our lives to honour and to please You. So God, whatever prevents us from living wholehearted lives of “if God” every day, please deal with those issues in us. God when You call us, we want to step forward into your care filled plans for us and we will give You the glory in Jesus’ matchless Name, AMEN.