Tag: prayer

Morning Prayer and Worship: Step by Step

Morning Prayer and Worship
Morning Prayer and Worship
Morning Prayer and Worship: Step by Step
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This is the third week in Lent in the Church Calendar. 

Our general order comes from the Book of Common Prayer (1979) Daily Office and Scripture readings from the Revised Common Lectionary. We’ll sing the song “Like Incense / Sometimes By Step” by Brooke Ligertwood, Rich Mullins, and David Strasser throughout today’s time of prayer. We’ll read Psalm 63:1-8 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Gospel reading is Luke 13:1-9 . We’ll say the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We’ll then have a time of prompted prayer.

If you have a prayer request please submit it here (https://benwardmusic.com/prayerrequest/). Sign up here for the email list (https://benwardmusic.com/email)

Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly (https://patreon.com/morningprayer). Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift (https://benwardmusic.com/donate).

📷 by Tina Nord. https://www.pexels.com/photo/purple-and-yellow-tulips-in-bloom-7451795

Click here for a PDF of the service order with texts and lyrics: https://benwardmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Morning-Prayer-3-20-22.pdf

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Meeting Moments

Great moment in a creative meeting today.  We had much discussion about how to approach someone with an issue…different angles, multiple perspectives.  But then our senior pastor did something that should be normal.  It was so profound I got choked up.  He said, “let’s hold up on talking to them…let’s pray right now that God would show them what is right and appropriate.”

Awesome.

May that be the first thing I do.

Always.

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Just Ask

So these first few weeks at the Church have been a whirlwind. So much to learn about where we’ve been so we can see clearly where to go. The hard part is that there’s a service that happens every week. It doesn’t wait for me to get “up to speed.”

The Lord reminded me a couple of times today that it all does not depend on me. Sure, I’m the one responsible for all the positions being filled and music beieng chosen, etc., etc. But in the end God has called me to this place at this time and the most effective thing I can do with all these needs is ask Him.

Just ask.

He wants to meet my needs. He wants to meet the needs of His Church – the “thing belonging to the Lord.”

The Church is His. I am His. And all I have to do is call upon His name and He will answer.

Everytime…just ask.

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Oh the Wisdom

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 1 Kings 3:10

I want what I ask of God to please Him.  I just want to please Him.

I started reading 1 Samuel a couple of weeks ago and have just kept going because the stories are so good.  I’ve made it to Solomon (1 Kings) now and I know there are some major failings coming up, but the beginning of his reign over Israel is unparalleled.  Such promise.  Such presence of the living God. 

Oh to have a desire for wisdom that pleases God.

Oh that my desires please Him.

Oh that the ultimate yearning in my heart is for Him.  I believe this pleases Him the most.

And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

 

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.  I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 1 Kings 3:7-14

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Like a Little Kid

There are some 300,000 churches in America, and I could have picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but I liked being in this one. Especially the kids. They didn’t need Reverend Henderson’s prayer techniques, or the high-tech mantras of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Their prayers weren’t Rabbi Gellman’s suburban Jewish prayers of Thanks! offered to whom it may concern. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis, and they believed their prayers gave them power, which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents and a kid they knew with burns on his body. Sitting in church on Easter morning, I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if, by some miracle, I ever do, I hope my prayers will be like the prayers of the kids I met at the Love church in Berkeley Springs. Straight-up Gimme! on behalf of people who really need the help. –ZEV CHAFETS in the New York Times Magazine

This is quite an interesting article about prayer (and long if you know the Times magazine).  This last paragraph was so powerful to me.  The author is an agnostic and goes to all kinds of Churches, Synagogues, therapists, etc. to find out about prayer.

In the end the most powerful expression came just as Jesus said it would: like a child.

I want to come to God like that.  So often when I pray I’m concerned with “squeezing it in” or getting to everyone on my list rather than just coming to Jesus with my heart open to the possibility that He can do anything.  Anything for me.  Anything for those I love and care about.  All I have to do is believe.

So, this week, I’m going to lay my heart open before the Lord and be like a child.  Imperfect and full of anticipation.

Just like a little kid.

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