Morning Prayer Thursday, 11March 2021
Lord, open our lips, and our mouths shall proclaim your praise!
Good morning and welcome to this session of morning prayers.
Ordinarily, our sister Glynne Gordon-Carter would be bringing us our devotions,
but she is a wee bit under the weather.
Hold her in your prayers, will you!
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, we call your holy name in prayer and humbly ask
that this morning you would guide us by your spirit as we face this day.
May all the challenges and the blessings we face mould us
into a people that you are proud of, in Jesus’ name.
Amen
A reading from Psalm 92
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your truth in the watches of the night,
on the ten-stringed lyre and the lute,
with the murmuring sound of the harp.
Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad;
for the work of your hands I shout with joy.
O Lord, how great are your works!
How deep are your designs!
The foolish man cannot know this
and the fool cannot understand.
Psalm 92: 1–6
A reading from the Prophet Ezekiel
‘”I will take you away from among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God. …”’
Glory!
Ezekiel 36: 24–28
God’s promises are never late.
Even as we start to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel,
as a result of the vaccination programme, we are fully convinced
that God will create a new heart in us and breathe into us a new spirit.
A spirit that will allow us to be his Church in this new dispensation and reality.
A Church that looks with compassion and care to those who have been left wounded
and on the margin in the wake of this pandemic.
Let us hope we can rise to the occasion.
Prayers
We pray to our God who is our shelter and strength, always ready to help us in times of trouble….
We pray for the elderly, confined to their homes, and separated from family and support;
for children, who have just returned to their school and the anxiety they feel;
for those who have lost their source of income and now they fear what the future holds
and if they can keep their own homes.
We remember too those who have no homes
and those in the community offering extraordinary, everyday kindness….
Lord, you are in the midst of us: help us in our time of trouble.
We pray for all medical staff and hospital workers,
who go to work knowing the risks they face;
for medical researchers, seeking ways to prevent and to cure;
for social workers, protecting the vulnerable;
for care workers, providing contact and support to those who have no other help;
for teachers, worrying about their charges;
for farmers, delivery and shop workers, security guards, keeping the nation provisioned;
for cleaners, fighting the spread of infection,
and all other front line workers.
Lord be with us in our time of need; help us to do what has been asked of us,
and give us grace to help others do what has been asked of them.
We pray for the Church, for our fellow members in the body of Christ throughout the world;
for our own fellowship at the Ecumenical Church of Christ the Cornerstone,
for all the other LEPs in Milton Keynes and people of all faith
that we would be united by our common purpose and the love of service to God’s people.
Lord, you are in the midst of us: keep us fearless in proclaiming your Word
and works and make us to be lights in the darkness!
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.
Amen
Closing Prayer
God of our Salvation, you have ordained that we should serve you in serving one another.
Look down with favour upon your people
weighed down by the cares and anxieties of this pandemic.
Give us grace to work together, with honest and faithful hearts for all your people.
May our concerted efforts lift your trodden people to the glory of your name.
Amen
Have a blessed day?))
Revd George
