Time to Pray – Daily Prayer for Tuesday 17 July, 2018

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope.

Romans 15.13

Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.

A poem: A Song of God’s Grace

We have complete freedom:
to go into the most holy place by means of the death of Jesus.
He opened for us a new way a living way:
through the curtain, through his own body.
Since we have a great high priest
set over the household of God:
let us draw near with a sincere heart and a sure faith,
With hearts that have been made clean
from a guilty conscience:
and bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10.19-22

The opening prayer

By night and by day we worship the Lord; let us pray with one heart and mind.

We remember God’s presence and pause in silence.

Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our daily sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

The readings

Isaiah 7.1-9

In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Then the LORD said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smouldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram – with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah – has plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; therefore thus says the Lord GOD:

It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
For the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

(Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.)

The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you do not stand firm in faith,
you shall not stand at all.

Psalm 48.1-7

Great is the Lord and highly to be praised,
in the city of our God.

His holy mountain is fair and lifted high,
the joy of all the earth.

On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place,
stands the city of the great king.

In her palaces God has shown himself
to be a sure refuge.

For behold, the kings of the earth assembled
and swept forward together.

They saw, and were dumbfounded;
dismayed, they fled in terror.

Trembling seized them there; they writhed like a woman in labour,
as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.

Matthew 11.20-24

Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.

For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’

The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.
Amen.

This week’s prayer:

O Lord, we beseech you
mercifully to receive the prayers of your people who call upon you,
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power
faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

We thank God for what we have and pray for what we need.

Today we pray for ourselves, that God would teach us to love him with everything we have and teach us to love our neighbours as ourselves. In our local church, we ask God to care for those who are ill or housebound. In our world, we pray for people looking for work in our local community. We remember before God those who have asked for our prayers, or who are in need of them.

A prayer for the day

Creator Spirit, Advocate promised by our Lord Jesus: increase our faith and help us to walk in the light of your presence, to the glory of God the Father; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lord be with us

now and forever.

Let us praise the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father, comfort our hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Amen.

2 Thessalonians 2.16-17