Luke 19:9-10 says: “Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too, is a son of Abraham.For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
In life, we sometimes feel really lost and don’t know where we are going and what we need to do.
On the tree write down an area in your life, ministry, work or spiritual growth where you might feel small, inadequate or not up to the job.
Luke 18:9-14, ‘The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.’
In the parable, the Pharisee prays in front of everyone and uses his prayer to look down on the people around him, including a tax collector. The tax collector stands at a distance to everyone around him and prays “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The parable tells us that the tax collector went home justified by God, not the Pharisee.
We have all made mistakes in life and this parable tells us that the most important thing to God is to humble ourselves and repent.
Are you like the Pharisee or the tax collector? Do you need to repent?
Dear Lord, We pray for humility in our hearts. Let us be kind, gentle, loving and forgiving wherever we may go. Allow pride to never get the best of us. Help us to not have a boastful tongue against anyone. Let humility invade our souls. Amen
This week I looked at Psalm 121:
In my Bible, there are little notes written along the outside, some are explaining the passage but the one for this Psalm was written in the style of a letter to us from God. It said:
‘My child-I never sleep. I never take a vacation or go on a break or ask for a substitute. I watch over you constantly. I see you come and go – I’m always caring, loving, protecting you 24/7.
Your faithful Father’
Even though God is always looking over us, there are times when we feel completely alone. The Psalm tells us that we are never alone and that God is always there.
The creative prayer idea is to hand out paper and ask people to write down a time that they felt that God was not there. Then read out the Psalm and ask people to write down a time when they really felt the presence of God.
Dear Lord, I pray that we will strongly feel your presence in our lives today. I pray that we will hear you voice guiding and directing us. May you reveal to us how much you love us. Amen
Luke 17:11-19 is about 10 lepers who got healed by Jesus, but only one came back and thanked him. This made me think about how we can sometimes forget to thank God for what he does for us.
The idea for this week is to hand out the outline of the man or plain paper and ask people to write down something that God has done for them, e.g. an answer to a prayer. They could then either keep them or put them at the front of the church, I don’t know which one is best.
This week I looked at Habakkuk 1:2 (How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence”, but you do not save?) After reading about the passage I found that he wrote this to try to help him understand why God did not appear to be answering his cries for help. This made me think about times when I’ve felt totally ignored by God because a prayer wasn’t being answered. The thing that helped me was a video by an Australian girl that was living in America with her husband. She was waiting for her American residency so that she could travel back to Australia to see her family there. She showed the quote that is on the photo I sent saying that this was helping her because she knew that God’s timing is perfect. She has now received her residency and knows that the timing of it was perfect.
I believe that God’s timing is perfect and that what we pray about will be answered in the perfect timing. We also may not get the answer that we were expecting but that is because God has something better in store for us. I don’t know what is going on in people’s lives and what they might be struggling with and I don’t know if they are waiting for an answer to a prayer and feel like it will never come but what I know is that God’s timing and answers are perfect so we just have to keep waiting for that perfect time and answer.
For the prayer side of it, you could ask people to pray for something that they are struggling with in their life or a prayer that they feel hasn’t been answered yet. You could then say this prayer to round it up.
Dear Lord,
Please help me trust you and in your timing. I tend to get impatient and I tend to take matters into my own hands. I know this is a weakness of mine. I am so sorry. Holy Spirit please transform this part of me. Help me to trust in you Lord and trust that your timing is perfect.
Amen.
For creative prayer this week, I thought about in harvest we celebrate food growing. I linked this to how we grow as people. The idea is to have a plant pot (or a bowl) at the front of the church. People can then write their prayers on a seed template. An idea for the prayer could be about growth, in faith or as people. The prayers would then be put into the pot at the front of church.
Theme: Wandering away from God The idea is to read the verse and say that sometimes we do wander away from God and leave him behind. Then to ask the questions: Have you wandered away from God? Do you know anyone that has wandered away from God? The Bible says that when we find our way back to God, he rejoices. I’m going to pray about finding our way back.
Dear Lord We pray for those who are lost, whether it be us or people that we know. We pray that they will find their way back to you and rejoice as you will rejoice. Thank you Lord for taking care of your lost sheep. Amen
Sunday@3:
Theme: How God is involved in our lives.
Key Verse: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105
This verse reminds me that God is always with us to guide us and help us. The creative prayer idea is that each person gets the outline of a foot and write down a time when they have needed God’s guidance, a time in the future that they will need guidance, a verse that could help them get through tough times or a pray of guidance for the future.
I looked at the Bible verses for this week and looked at Psalm 1.
I focused on verse 3 and thought about when I struggle to do the right thing and need God’s help to do it.
The idea is to show the slide above and hand out some leaf cutouts and ask people to write down something that they are struggling with and ask for God’s help to do it. If possible, could the white tree from the prayer room be moved to the front of the church so that people can put the leaf on the tree or screw it up and put it at the bottom of the tree.
The leaves as Hannah described in Bishop Auckland Methodist Church at the end of Morning Service
