During the past few years we have participated in the global initiative, Thy Kingdom Come, and we are doing so again this year. We have been encouraged to pray for the life and witness of the worldwide Christian Church and also to each pray for, perhaps, five people whom we long to see come to an awareness of the presence of Christ in their lives. You may have seen the many posts about it on Facebook and also know that Lectio365 will be focussing on this each day.
Thy Kingdom Come is taking place for the ten days from Ascension Day (Thursday 13th May) up to and including Pentecost Sunday (23rd May). As we begin to re-emerge from lockdown we are reminded that Jesus calls us to abide in him. We know that it is vital that we seek God’s leading and direction in the coming weeks and months as we love God and one another, listen to God and one another, learn from our experiences over these past months and live out our love for God and one another.
The pandemic has changed our lives individually and also the life of our church. With this in mind we would like to invite you to use these ten days to pray specifically for the life and witness of St. Ed’s and St.Peter’s, alongside praying for those you long for to know Jesus.
Each day we will use a short passage of scripture followed by a brief reflection, a question or two to ponder and a couple of prayer suggestions to use as a springboard for your own prayers. You may also like to say the Lord's Prayer.
Here are some verses from the Bible to encourage us on our way!
Jesus said, ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.’ (John 15:9)
Look to God and to God's strength; seek God's face always. (1 Chron 16:11)
The Lord is near to all who call; to all who call on God in truth. (Psalm 145:18)
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (Col 4:2)
Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth: set up your Kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God: have mercy on me a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God: renew me and all the world.
Amen.
Ascension Day Thursday 13 May
Read Colossians 2:6-7
Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him, keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving. (GNT)
Pause for thought:
Living things need nurturing in order to grow. The same goes with our faith. Our faith, our life in Christ, is a living, growing, blossoming, transforming relationship with the Father, who is creator, Jesus, our Saviour and the Holy Spirit, who lives within us.
If we are to grow and mature in our faith we need to believe - not in the sense of being able to recite creeds and doctrines but rather, as the word believe means, to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God, abiding in Jesus, living each day with the awareness of God's presence with us and living lives of responsive love. God nurtures us with grace and love - it is God's work and God asks us to be willing for that grace and love to be active in our lives.
Ponder:
How can we put our roots deeper into Jesus?
What role does thanksgiving play in this?
Pray:
Pray that we may know God better and love God more.
Friday 14th May
Read Psalm 138: 9
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever. Do not forsake the work of your hand.
Pause for thought:
God’s purpose is that we know his presence and peace in all things. What has lockdown been like for you? Are there things you need to bring to God for his healing? This psalm voices the Psalmist’s desire for God to transform him. It speaks of the Psalmist’s recognition that God is already at work in his life and he longs for this to continue. It is only as we open ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we come to understand, at least in part, something of the love, grace and kindness of God in our lives. Sometimes we need to be reminded that God is for us, our present help in trouble and the healer and keeper of our hearts. God is faithful and present.
Ponder:
What does it mean to you that God has made you to be in relationship with him?
How might becoming more aware of this affect your life as you, ’abide in him?’
Pray:
Talk to God as you would to a friend about what this means to you.
Saturday 15th May
Read Galatians 5:22-23
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. There is no law against such things. (GNT)
Pause for thought:
In our results driven and obsessed society and culture we are always aiming at and being pushed towards, targets. Bigger profits, higher grades, goals achieved. It's good to have things to aim for but can put an awful lot of pressure on people causing burn out and mental and physical illness. The pandemic has certainly focussed our priorities as we have learned many lessons about what truly matters and who are the people and what are the things that really matter and are of immeasurable worth.
The fruit of the Spirit, grown in us through God's work of grace, cultivates the growth of God's Kingdom of love and acceptance, of inclusivity and grace where worth is not based on worldly achievements, possessions, or what we look like, but rather on God's overwhelming love for us and all creation.
Ponder:
How can we enable the growth of God's fruit in us and our churches?
Pray:
Ask God to open our hearts to the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in us individually and in our churches that we continue to see what is really important and where we value and accept everyone.
Sunday 16th May
Read Ephesians 3:20-21
To him who by means of his power working within us, is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for or even think of: to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, for ever and ever. Amen. (NLT)
Pause for thought:
We are so often amazed when God answers our prayers! Why is this? Scripture tells us over and over again that God hears our prayers and longs to answer us. We must be intentional in listening to God so that we can ask for the things that God longs to give us.
We have a God who longs to pour out love , joy, peace, justice and mercy to a hurting and broken world. God very often does this through us, the Church. God does this as we seek to bring awareness of God's presence into our families, our communities and our nation.
Ponder:
How can we listen more intently to God and be bolder in praying for more than we can ask or imagine?
How might this impact our churches and community?
Pray:
Let's pray for the desire to seek God's will for our churches and for strength through the Holy Spirit to act accordingly.
Monday 17th May
Read John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (NRSV)
Pause for thought:
Possibly the best known verse in the Bible, John 3:16 (and 17) are words of love and hope. God reaches into our messy, broken world with compassion and grace. God comes to us in Jesus that we might know the healing, forgiveness and transformation God longs to give us. This is the Good News we are called to share in our communities. It’s a truth that needs to settle in our hearts. God loves the world; God is making all things new-even me! God is in the business of restoration, reconciliation and renewal. Such words of hope for a world that so desperately needs to know this.
Ponder:
Do I know the truth of God's love for me? Do I need to ask God to make me aware of it?
What does God's Kingdom look like here and now?
Will you commit to praying The Lord's Prayer every day - perhaps at 12pm?
Pray:
Pray the Lord's Prayer slowly, pondering each phrase and using it to help you to pray further.
Tuesday 18th May
Read: Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths
Pause for thought:
As we seek the way forward in this new post-pandemic time, we perhaps need to ask ourselves questions and they may even be hard questions. What have we learned, what have we discovered about God that will help us as we take the next steps in the easing of lockdown? Are there things we have learned that will strengthen and encourage us, are there things we need to let go of and say goodbye to so that we might be free to serve God and our community in new ways? When we acknowledge that there is an awful lot we don't know, we are finally able to admit that we need God and allow God to be God. We are loved and need not fear the future because God will direct our paths-if we allow it!
Ponder:
What have you discovered in your journey of faith these last months? What has been good, what not so good or even possibly really hard.
Pray:
Share your thoughts with God. Ask for God’s wisdom and pray that we might live in faith and trust.
Wednesday 19th May
Read Micah 6:8
God has already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple. Do what is right and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love. And don't take yourself too seriously - take God seriously. (The Message)
Pause for thought:
Quite simply, God has shown us what God's Kingdom looks like. God has spoken to us through the law and the prophets and ultimately God has spoken to us decisively through Jesus. Jesus shows us God's Kingdom in reality. God's Kingdom is completely contrary to the ways of the kingdoms of the world. It is justice, joy and peace. We can't change the world alone but together, with the Holy Spirit working in us and through us, we can pray and work for change in the places and situations we are in.
Ponder:
What part of God's creation am I most mindful of?
How can I, as an individual, and how can we as the church in Taverham and Ringland, announce the Kingdom of God?
Pray:
Ask God to show you where you might make a difference.
Thursday 20th May
Read: Psalm 103:1-5
Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits- who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like an eagles.
Pause for thought:
These wonderful words of praise spring from the Psalmist’s heart. They are words that express the Psalmist’s joy at God’s faithfulness in the past and confidence that God will continue to be faithful. We have so much to give thanks to God for. God has always been faithful to us and we have much to give thanks for in our fellowship at St. Ed’s and St Peter’s. Whatever the future holds we can be confident that God is with us and will not leave us. Our strength and confidence are in the real and expectant hope that all God’s promises have been and will be fulfilled in Christ.
Ponder:
Spend some time today recalling God’s goodness and faithfulness to you and to our churches.
Pray:
Let your recollections lead you into praise and thanksgiving.
Friday 21st May
Read: John 15:5
Jesus said, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I, in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.’
Pause for thought:
We turn again to the call of Jesus to abide in him. Jesus, not just the example of love but the source of love. It is in his love that we find our true home, the place where we really belong and where we discover how much we need him. As we seek to share Jesus in our community it is important that we abide, pray and rest in the goodness of his love. We need to recognise that all our mission and worship is God’s work in us and through us. We need him! Our primary call is to remain in this place of abiding, of relationship where everything we do is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. Let’s look for where God is already working and join in!
Ponder:
What practical steps can you take to help you abide in Christ?
Where do see God bringing life and might you respond and join in?
Pray:
Bring your thoughts and feelings about what it earns to abide in Christ into your prayers today.
Ask God to show you if there is something he is doing that you can join in with.
Saturday 22nd May
Read: Ephesians 3: 14-19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Pause for thought:
St. Paul prays the most wonderful prayer for the Christians in Ephesus. We will never really understand the fullness of God’s love for us simply because it is so much! But, we do discover more and more of this love and we discover that God is infinitely knowable. We see God, fully revealed in Jesus, his love filling the universe and filling us. Oh that we might discover more of the wonders of God’s love for us. How the world would be transformed and God’s Kingdom fully bring freedom and justice and peace and forgiveness and healing and hope. Jesus is all these things and more. To follow him means fullness of life not just for us but for all.
Ponder:
What are God’s words of invitation to you in this passage of scripture?
Pray:
You might like to make these words of scripture a prayer for yourself and for our churches. Pray them slowly and abide in the wonder of the enormity of God’s love for you and for the whole creation.
Sunday 23 May Pentecost
Read: Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
Pause for thought:
The day the Holy Spirit came in all fullness was a life changing day; life changing for the disciples and ultimately for the whole world. Under orders from Jesus to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promised Holy Spirit to come from the Father (Acts 1:4-5), they couldn't have known what was going g to hit them! The Holy Spirit filled them to overflowing, have them courage to share the good news of Jesus and released in them gifts that would bring about the birth of something new - the Church. God, in Christ, is making all things new. This is good news for us, our churches, our communities and the world.
Ponder:
What does 'God making all things new,' look like in us, our churches and our community?
Pray:
Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, ignite in us your fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
note attached is a printable version of the above in case that is easier for you to use.