Morning Prayer Friday, 28 August 2020
Good morning, dear friends, and welcome to this new day!
We have arrived at the last Friday in August – the beginning of the Bank Holiday Weekend this evening –
the last holiday before Christmas.
Our last chance to be still until the dark of winter.
Regardless of your role in the community – up to your elbows in activity or retired into observation –
life over these past few months has been, continues to be, stressful and anxious.
We need to pause all obligations for a time, to stop the noise so we can hear.
The psalm writer calls us to do just that.
Come and see what the Lord has done,
the astounding deeds he has wrought on earth.
In every part of the wide world
he puts an end to war.
He breaks the bow, he snaps the spear,
he burns the shields in the fire.
He says ‘Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’
The Lord almighty is with us: the God of Jacob our fortress.
Psalm 46: 8–11
Lord as we conclude another week, bring us into your stillness,
help us let go our striving for a time,
to let drop our burdensome thoughts for a while,
so we can listen for your presence.
We pray for everyone stressed and busy preparing for school:
children and young people, teachers and helpers, bus drivers and anxious parents.
We pray for young people preparing for college, university
and that first step away from the security of home.
Give them peace from pressure and cover them with your strength and protection.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for the situation in Kenosha,
for people under pressure from difference imposed,
from division apparent but not acknowledged,
from a life made insecure by those meant to secure it.
May the voice of the voiceless be heard crying for justice,
may their right to a fair life be recognised and actioned.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We pray for refugees and people running for their lives,
so afraid they will leave everyone they know,
everything they know as home for a chance at life.
Make us into a welcoming people, dispensing peace
and a time of stillness in a place without war.
Lord, hear our prayer.
We give thanks for this new day and the weekend ahead:
for relief from the storms and winds now past,
for the blessings we will receive today.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians from his imprisonment:
And now my friends, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right and pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is excellent and admirable – fill your thoughts with these things. Put into practice all you have learned or heard or received and the God of peace will be with you.”
Philippians 4: 8,9
So, let us go out today knowing that we are deep in the presence of God.
Help us all give up control to God and find lasting peace in the stillness – at least for this weekend.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Amen
