Evening Prayer Thursday, 10 September 2020
A reading from John’s first letter
11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another. … 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. …
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us.
1 John 3: 11, 14 & 19–24 NIV®
Help us, dear Lord, to love one another, so that we may love you more fully as we ought.
Make our love genuine, a love that reveals itself through our actions and deeds.
Give us eyes to see the needs of others, and the determination to act swiftly to meet those needs to the best of our ability.
We rejoice and give thanks for all the blessings that we have received from your hand,
but let us not rest until we share these gifts with those whose need is greater.
We pray for all those charities and organisations
working to provide for those throughout the world in greatest need.
May we support this work in whatever ways we can and especially by honest prayer.
We pray for all the organisations in Milton Keynes working to help
all those who are suffering at this time as a result of the pandemic.
Throughout the world it is the poorest who are suffering most.
We pray for charities, especially Advantage Africa,
who are working for those who are most deprived,
those who are marginalised in their societies, in circumstances beyond their control.
Show us that, with your help, we can play our part in supporting this work.
As we prepare for the coming night, we know that your loving mercy will protect us,
and so we should show the same love to one another in the days ahead.
We know that the greatest commandment is to love you, our dear God,
and to love others as we love ourselves.
Give us the faith and commitment to keep this commandment always.
Into your loving hands, dear Lord, we place all those who are in need of your special care:
the sick, the lonely, the fearful, the poor, the weak, the hungry and the homeless:
all those who can see no clear way ahead, to escape from their current situation.
We also commit ourselves, our families and loved ones, into your loving care.
We close our prayers this evening by saying the Grace together:
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, evermore.
Amen
