Part of our daily prayers is to ask God to let His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt 6:10) We will be thinking about this in our prayer life throughout May, particularly joining with the Church of England initiative ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ from Ascension (21st May) to Pentecost (31st May) to pray for people to come to know the Lord and for revival in our nation. (We need to be praying for this all the time, though!)
We have many opportunities to pray for people, including work colleagues, neighbours, friends and family. One of the initiatives in the campaign is to ‘Pray4Five’, urging us to pray for five people to come to know the Lord. Why not make a heart-shape like the one below and write on the back the names of five people you want to pray for during this period? As we said recently, sometimes having visual reminders can be helpful in prayer. One woman has said that she spends five minutes praying for five people each time she has a hot drink, and as she does that five times a day, she is praying in manageable ‘chunks’ for her friends and family.
There are many ways to pray (check out the website for ideas, including the Family Digital Prayer Map and Light the World initiatives), but most of all, we need to see that praying for God’s kingdom to come is part of our daily lives. One of the themes of the initiative is ‘prayer and care’ and it’s true that our love has to be seen in action. Here are 5 ideas on how we can care and love those we know, even when we are socially distanced:
1. Keep up contact. Make a phone call, send an email, letter or card saying that you are praying for them at this time.
2. Keep an eye out for the anniversaries of life events. Make that phone call to let people know you care.
3. Send a small gift or book purchased online.
4. Serve where you can in delivering groceries or medications.
5. Make sure the people you pray for know how much you value them by whatever means you can find.
Above all, let’s make the most of every opportunity we have to pray for people to know the love of God, to receive Him into their lives and to follow Him wholeheartedly.
