Morning Prayer Friday, 21 August 2020
Good morning, Cornerstone Family and Friends.
Welcome to the conclusion of a hot and steamy, wet and stormy week.
Let’s begin with a reading from 1 John 4: 7–16.
My dear friends, let us love one another, because the source of love is God. Everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God, but the unloving know nothing of God for God is love. This is how he showed his love among us: he sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. This is what love really is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to atone for our sins. If God thus loved us, my dear friends, we also must love one another. God has never been seen by anyone, but if we love one another, he himself dwells in us; his love is brought to perfection within us.
This is how we know that we dwell in him and he dwells in us: he has imparted his Spirit to us. Moreover, we have seen for ourselves, and we are witnesses, that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is God’s Son, God dwells in him and he in God. Thus, we have come to know and believe in the love which God has for us.
God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God and God in him.
1 John 4: 7–16
The love of God to me through Jesus to others through me –
it’s like a string of fairy lights, where the shine depends on the totality of connection.
Ensuring we are plugged in to Jesus is hard sometimes –
like fumbling in the dark for the light switch –
but passing on the power, passing on the love, is harder still.
These past few months of lockdown have probably exposed the sharper corners of personality,
some irritating habits of loved ones
and the anonymous carelessness of people in the street,
leaving marks on our environment.
For some it has meant cruelty and abuse in a relationship meant to foster family.
Let us pray that today we will stay connected to God
and display his love in everything we do and say.
Lord, give me power to seek out the good in everyone I meet today,
to polish off my dullness and reflect your light,
to greet the day as an opportunity to display your saving love.
In the power of Christ, we pray.
Amen
Lord, give us full measure of your love
that our communities, neighbourhoods and towns may make Milton Keynes
a place renowned for care:
for those needing shelter and food,
refreshment of spirit and destruction of loneliness.
May we all dwell in Christ, in whose love we pray.
Amen
Lord, support the people who work to keep us safe as we go about today:
the cleaners and servers, makers and menders, the friendly voices of loneliness removers.
Help us connect them to the light of your love and know they are appreciated.
In gratitude we pray.
Amen
Lord may your love light our way today and always.
Amen