This summer the Benefice have launched a campaign to ‘Get Prayer Growing’ in the churches of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s.
Rev. Patrick announced the initiative in the service on Sunday 29th June stating that if we feel that our prayers have been answered, imagine what would happen if we prayed some more. ‘Get Prayer Growing’ urges us to “Seek God's face in prayer and to seek God's face particularly and directly for the transformation of our lives, transformation of our churches and ultimately for the transformation of our wider communities.” He went on to say “Often our prayers are about the things that are on our hearts, for those in need, peace in the world, transformation of government and community, which of course is perfectly fine and normal. We would like people this month to pray particularly and directly for our church life. Patrick asked that we “come in humble declaration that we are not perfect, that we need God's work in our lives to find Jesus and to find His work in our church community. Good work goes out to create a harvest and to benefit others that God's bread of love might be shared. Matthew 6:6 says, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
The idea of the initiative is for people to make time in coming weeks to find a quiet place to pray to our heavenly father in humbleness of heart to seek his grace. Each day we will pray for something different in the life of our churches. Patrick told us about the three different levels of prayer, ASK:
Ask - ask for things and await his answer in patience
Seek - seek God's presence, recognise his awesomeness and our own insignificance stepping into His presence and seeking out His heart.
Knock - knock on heaven’s door and be persistent in prayer for those impossible things that we can't do in our own strength.
The hope is that this will become part of our routine over the coming weeks. The last Sunday of August is a United Benefice service at St Paul's where we will be thinking about prayer again. It would be fantastic if people could share their testimonies on how this has transformed their prayer life or praying devotedly has grown green shoots of life in the life of our churches or maybe transformed us inwardly. No sign of growth is too small to be recognised and acknowledged. Patrick finished asking us to go forth and “build the life of the church on the declaration that Jesus Christ is lord.”
If you do not have a ‘Get Prayer Growing’ leaflet you can download one using the link.