Author: Bellshill Central

We didn’t manage to meet online via Zoom his week but an online prayer service I’d prepared below for you to take part in, in your own homes.

Let us pray together

Song…As we are gathered

Opening words

Almighty God,
You sent Your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church.
Open our hearts to the riches of Your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love, joy, and peace.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.

Prayer of approach

Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the sure foundation of our faith,
and when our faith is weak
it is because we are not resting our hearts upon You,
but trying to go it alone or dependent on flimsy grounds.

Forgive us when we wander from Your paths
and find ourselves lost and troubled or doing foolish things.
Keep us safe in Your love
and so let our faith be sure and steadfast whatever we may have to face in life.
Help us to be more understanding and forgiving of others
as we should if we follow Your ways.

Lord Jesus Christ we thank You for Your faithfulness to us,
for Your willingness to forgive
and to let us try again to be Your people.
Here in our church today,
strengthen our faith that we might go out from here restored
and ready to help others in their needs.

We ask it in Your name,
and further pray now together in Your words,

Our Father, …

Psalm 50

A Psalm of Asaph.
¹ The mighty one, God the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
   God shines forth.

³ Our God comes and does not keep silence,
   before him is a devouring fire,
   and a mighty tempest all around him.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above
   and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ ‘Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!’
⁶ The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge.

⁷ ‘Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
   I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt-offerings are continually before me.
²² ‘Mark this, then, you who forget God,
   or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.
²³ Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me;
   to those who go the right way
   I will show the salvation of God.’

Prayer of thanksgiving and intercession

Loving Lord and Father of all, we bring You now
our thanks and praise for all You have given us
and blessed our lives with.
For the wonderful world in which we live,
for the summer season
and the promise of the harvest.
Give us grace to accept Your gifts
and help us to share them unselfishly, wherever we see need.

Dear Lord and Father of all
we thank You for Your still small voice of calm
that reaches out to us through the strains and stresses of life,
and in that calm now we bring You our prayers for others and for our world.
Heavenly Father teach us to pray with love
and understanding and grace.
Help us to see and to hear the needs
that are all around us.
Teach us, O God, to care.

There are those who are despised or avoided
because they are troublesome or difficult,
or because they are just different.
We could help them if we cared:
so teach us, O God, to care.
There are those we just do not like,
and those we think are somehow not worthy of our time.
We could help them if we cared:
teach us, O God, to care.

There are those we perceive as a threat to our way of life,
and those whose needs are all too visible as they perish from want.
It all seems too much for us alone to deal with.
Yet we could help them if we cared:
teach us, O God, to care.

And there are those for whom we do care,
those we worry about and fear for,
our own families and friends in illness,
or troubles,
or in danger.
Father, our care for them is not in doubt,
but teach us what we might do to help them better
and to bring them comfort and strength.

Lord Jesus,
Your Church is an ever present witness to your love,
a living echo of Your voice of calm,
we are a part of that Church and so too, we are,
each of us,
called to bring Your love into a world which needs it daily.

In all the needs of the world,
Lord, You are there.
We too could help if we cared:
so teach us,
O God, to care.
These things we ask,
in Jesus’ name. Amen

Song ….. Dear Lord and Father