Sunday 25th July - 8th after Trinity (green)
Theme: Be strong in faith
Readings: Colossians 2:6-15
Hosea 1:2-10 Luke 11:1-13 Ps 85
Theme: Be strong in faith
Readings: Colossians 2:6-15
Hosea 1:2-10 Luke 11:1-13 Ps 85
Collect:
Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Comment
Someone once said that Faith is spelt R I S K. While it is true that there is always an element of risk in faith, true faith is hardly ever blind. The opposite is the case: the more we see, the more we believe.
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he was really teaching them how to relate to God, which meant teaching them what God was like. The most important thing was to learn to think of God as ‘Father’ – the ideal Father, not a flawed father like our natural ones. Our Father is one who is worthy of all our respect and reverence, for he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the King. His reign, when it comes in all its fulness, will be heaven on earth. Even now, we depend on our Father to provide all we need for life and action, we depend on him for forgiveness for our failures and we depend on him for guidance to do the right thing always.
Our relationship with God does not only involve knowing what he is like and how much we depend on him. He wants us to ask him to bring about the future he promises, to give us what we need to live and serve him, and not to take these things for granted. More than that, our relationship involves living in line with what God is and does, so we cannot ask for things without being willing to be part of the answer to our own prayers, and to become more and more people who reflect God’s character in our own. Thus we cannot expect to be forgiven if we are not willing to pay the price of forgiving.
Strong faith, however, involves perseverance. God does not always answer our requests immediately; and sometimes the answer is negative. It is hard when we are praying for a loved one and things only get worse; we find it difficult to believe that God loves them more than we do when this happens. God sent his angel to rescue Peter from prison; why did he not rescue James, who was put to death? Was the church not praying hard enough? We don’t know why God let James be killed. But it did not stop the church praying when Peter was next on Herod’s list (Acts 12). Strong faith takes the knocks, and carries on believing and praying and doing.
And when we don’t know whether God’s answer is going to be yes or no, we carry on praying until we know. That is not unbelief; that is faith in action.
Luke mentions prayer for the Holy Spirit in particular. God does not want us to take his presence for granted, but to ask, and receive.
Someone once said that Faith is spelt R I S K. While it is true that there is always an element of risk in faith, true faith is hardly ever blind. The opposite is the case: the more we see, the more we believe.
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he was really teaching them how to relate to God, which meant teaching them what God was like. The most important thing was to learn to think of God as ‘Father’ – the ideal Father, not a flawed father like our natural ones. Our Father is one who is worthy of all our respect and reverence, for he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the King. His reign, when it comes in all its fulness, will be heaven on earth. Even now, we depend on our Father to provide all we need for life and action, we depend on him for forgiveness for our failures and we depend on him for guidance to do the right thing always.
Our relationship with God does not only involve knowing what he is like and how much we depend on him. He wants us to ask him to bring about the future he promises, to give us what we need to live and serve him, and not to take these things for granted. More than that, our relationship involves living in line with what God is and does, so we cannot ask for things without being willing to be part of the answer to our own prayers, and to become more and more people who reflect God’s character in our own. Thus we cannot expect to be forgiven if we are not willing to pay the price of forgiving.
Strong faith, however, involves perseverance. God does not always answer our requests immediately; and sometimes the answer is negative. It is hard when we are praying for a loved one and things only get worse; we find it difficult to believe that God loves them more than we do when this happens. God sent his angel to rescue Peter from prison; why did he not rescue James, who was put to death? Was the church not praying hard enough? We don’t know why God let James be killed. But it did not stop the church praying when Peter was next on Herod’s list (Acts 12). Strong faith takes the knocks, and carries on believing and praying and doing.
And when we don’t know whether God’s answer is going to be yes or no, we carry on praying until we know. That is not unbelief; that is faith in action.
Luke mentions prayer for the Holy Spirit in particular. God does not want us to take his presence for granted, but to ask, and receive.
Questions
1) Why pray for God’s kingdom to come? What do we expect?
2) How might our faith grow stronger? What do we have to do?
1) Why pray for God’s kingdom to come? What do we expect?
2) How might our faith grow stronger? What do we have to do?
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