Jesus gave us a framework for prayer in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-15, Luke 11:1-4), whichhighlights common factors in prayer:

Prayer is addressed to God, not to people. It is a lifting up of our soul to God (Ps 25:1), a pouring out of our hearts to God. (Ps 62:8) We come near to God and He comes near to us. (James 4:8) Jesus taught us that we have a heavenly Father and our prayers depend on this loving relationship (see Luke 11:11-13)

Prayer involves hallowing God’s name, recognising God as holy, longing to have God at the centre of our lives and our universe. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we recognise that there is more to life than what our eyes are seeing; there is a visible and invisible kingdom. We see that God wants to be involved in every part of our lives on earth, but we recognise also that there is more to life than what we can see and hear and taste and smell and touch with our five senses. Prayer opens our eyes to spiritual realms.

Prayer involves God in our daily living. We ask for God to ‘give us this day, today, our daily bread’ (Matt 6:11), recognising that God is ‘Jehovah Jireh’, the Lord our provider. We want God to be involved in every aspect of our everyday living.

Prayer understands the importance of relationships, which is why we pray for God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. (Matt 6:12) Relationships matter, and forgiveness is the oil which keeps relationships functioning well. There is a direct correlation between receiving God’s forgiveness and passing forgiveness onto others. (Matt 6:14-15) Prayer keeps us anchored to the importance and centrality of relationships.

Prayer understands the spiritual battle of life. We are taught to pray: ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ (Matt 6:13) Paul says, ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ (Eph 6:12) Prayer is one of the spiritual weapons which have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Cor 10:5).

Without prayer, we have limited vision and limited understanding; with prayer, we begin to see, however imperfectly, life as God sees it: how the kingdom and the power and the glory belong to God forever.

In our series on the ‘A-Z of Christian Faith‘, we have reached the letter P: P is for Prayer. Prayer is our ability to communicate with the Almighty God and can involve personal prayer and corporate prayer. It can involve words (Jesus is described as ‘the Word’, so this is no surprise), but can also be silent; it can involve different postures (kneeling, standing, sitting, prostrate) and different traditions (set prayers, spontaneous prayers and so on.) What matters is not so much how we pray as that we pray.

There are many obstacles to prayer, however, including our tendency to prevaricate:

Everything seems to crowd out prayer, but we need to just get on and pray! (see Ps 5:3, Ps 63:6, Ps 119:164) Other obstacles include sin, which means we tend to flee from God’s presence instead of confessing and repenting (see 1 Jn 1:9), and doubt and discouragement, which usually result from God not answering prayer the way we expect Him to, leading us to become unconvinced of His goodness or power. We have to press on, however (see Heb 12:1-2), and learn to pray in all situations (see 1 Thess 5:17).

The acrostic ACTS reminds us that prayer involves:

1. Adoration (focussing our attention on who God is – see Ps 89)
2. Confession (allowing God’s Word to search us – see Ps 139:23-24 – so that we can repent and confess immediately and allow God to restore to us the joy of salvation)
3. Thanksgiving (realising the power of giving thanks in and for everything and learning to give thanks for who God is and for His many blessings – see Ps 136:1, Eph 1:3, Rom 8:37-39)
4. Supplication (learning to seek God earnestly, bringing our petitions and requestions to Him, and learning to intercede for others as well – see Phil 4:4-7, 1 Tim 2:1-4)

Even holidays don’t stop us taking photos after the event!

… And another birthday to celebrate!

Stephen spoke this morning at Cherry Tree Court from Luke 24:13-32. These two disciples, possibly heading home to Emmaus, were downcast: things had been tough and had not turned out the way they had expected. Even when Jesus came alongside them, they did not recognise him at first, and we can be like that too. We can be caught up in our normal, everyday routines and don’t really expect anything to change… but as the Tango advert reminds us, life can become more colourful and exciting than we ever anticipated!

Jesus came alongside the two disciples, and he wants to come alongside us too. When our eyes are opened to his presence in the everyday, then we are no longer stuck in a rut; we are able to experience life in all its fulness and can have our perspectives changed. Jesus can lift us from being downcast, discouraged and discontented; He is able to add colour, zest and life to our experiences!

Igor, the church mascot (who is rather the worse for wear as age hampers him), has been away this past week, enjoying the delights of Shropshire. The scenery has been lovely and he enjoyed staying on a farm, especially chatting with Jimmy, the horse:

Some of the animals in the West Midland Safari Park were a little more intimidating, however!

Incredibly, we’re already in July of this year… I must be getting old, as time seems to go by so quickly these days!

Services tomorrow are at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tomorrow’s family service is looking at the theme ‘Just What The Doctor Ordered’ and at the fact that Jesus is our Great Physician.

On Sunday 9th July, we will be at Cherry Tree Court in the morning, and on Wednesday 12th July at 1 p.m. we will be hosting a service of celebration for the life of Pat Collins. Please pray for all the arrangements for the funeral and for Pat’s family and friends as they attend. If you can help in any way with the service or with refreshments, please let us know.

On Friday 14th July from 5 p.m., we will be having a work day to clear the stage area as we are having flooring done under the stage in August. All helpers will be given supper as a thank you for their service! Come along any time from 5 p.m. to clear away rubbish and tidy up generally.

On Tuesday 18th July at 7.15 p.m. we will be hosting the next ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting. It’s so good to get together with other Christians and pray for our communities.

Please continue to pray for the Monday youth club and Friday Parent & Toddler group, meeting until 17th & 21st July respectively, then having a break for the summer holidays.

On Thursday 27th July there will be the first of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival workshops, featuring a virtual reality film on the history of mining from 10 a.m. – 12 noon and a free aromatherapy session from 1-3 p.m., both events at Goldthorpe Library.

On Monday 31st July, Jeannette Ayton, a local children’s author, will be hosting a creative writing/ storytelling workshop at GPCC from 1-3 p.m. If you know any children aged 6-12 years who would be interested in attending this free workshop, please let Julie know.