I hope you are able to spend a few minutes at noon each day as we pray together as a church family. These prayers are to help you with that:
Monday
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
Lord Jesus, yesterday we celebrated your breathtaking, eternal victory over death. Please would you help us to trust in this victory every day; may our celebration of Easter Sunday continue throughout the coming weeks and in our whole lives. Please may this pandemic even enable us to know more deeply that whatever happens - whoever we can see or spend time with - nothing can separate us from your love. Where we are feeling isolated and alone, please may we know your love especially at this time. Amen.
Tuesday
“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isaiah 55:10-12)
Holy One, you say that your word, your teaching, will always achieve the purpose for which you sent it. We pray for those who don’t normally attend church, but who heard or read your word in Easter messages this year, online, on television or radio, or by other means. Please would it bring more of your children to know and trust in your love and forgiveness. Amen.
Wednesday
Heavenly Father, we pray for NHS workers who have returned to medical work from retirement, other employment, or family commitments, in order to help during the pandemic. Please would you give them the energy and stamina they need in order to return to a pattern they are not used to, and help them to settle quickly into the work they need to do. Where they are trying to fit the work around other responsibilities, please would you help them to do that well. Amen.
Thursday
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” (Psalm 139:1-4)
All-knowing God, it is sometimes hard to be alone with our thoughts; please help us always to remember that you are with us even there. Comfort us, we pray, when we feel like no-one knows what we are feeling in our isolation, and help us to remember that you know our hearts even better than we do. Help us to live with passion for you, especially when living is mostly inside our houses.
We pray for those key workers who are less visible but are still critical to our communities and our country: factory workers manufacturing food and medical equipment, but also all the sundries we take for granted; waste processing workers; technology workers who are keeping our lines of communication open, and everyone else who we don’t see; please help us to be grateful, and please help them to work safely. Amen.
Friday
Untiring God, thank you for our teachers, especially those who have continued to work at school over their expected holidays in order to care for the children of key workers. Please give them rewarding times in their teaching, and energy to continue when they had expected to rest. Amen.
Saturday
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:19-21)
Thank you, Loving Father, that you have brought us together into a church family. As we approach another Sunday and we miss our church services together, help us to remember that, although we are limited by the virus, you are not. Please help us to find ways to continue growing together as citizens of your eternal household. Amen.