Individuals are at the heart of God’s plan. Whilst Jesus came to save the world He does that 
one person at a time. The spiritual life of this nation depends on the people of this nation returning to Christ one by one. The people we are responsible for are our neighbours, those we live amongst not only in our street or block of flats but also those with whom we work or attend school or university with, those we meet as we go about our daily lives and, of course, our friends and family.
- Pray for the people who live immediately around you. Visualise or name the ones you know, otherwise pray for them by house number or flat number.
- Pray for opportunities to share your faith in some way between now and Christmas with people you meet most regularly (e.g. at work)
- Pray for blessing on your own church’s outreach programmes to the local community
- Pray for on-going initiatives to bring the Gospel to local communities across the country, for example: Fresh Expression churches, Messy Church services, advertising campaigns, local area missionaries and evangelistic campaigns
- Pray for chaplains in schools, hospitals, the military and so forth as they represent Christ in these places
As you pray for the nation by praying for your neighbours, friends and family you might find this song helpful in calling the “Dry Bones” to “Come Alive”
Bible Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
CARE have launched a website devoted to information about, and prayer for, the Election. It is www.engaGE19.org.uk and their suggested prayer for today is included above.
Each week we will be focussing our prayer as below:
- THIS WEEK: Spiritual needs of the nation
- NEXT WEEK: Election Candidates
- W/c 24th November: The Media and Election Communication
- W/c 1st December: Policies and Manifestos
- W/c 8th December: Election Week
(local Parish vicars and rectors) and the leaders of local churches of all denominations. Pray not only for your own church leader but also of others locally that you either know yourself or are aware of. As you pray think to yourself about the last time you encouraged your own pastor/priest/vicar/minister and also about how you might speak positively to them this coming Sunday (if you are a leader, think the same about your Bishop/Overseer/Co-ordinator).
Today we pray for the Archbishops and other national church leaders, be they the leaders of traditional denominations or newer church movements. These leaders play a strategic role in our nation and are often the subject of abuse by other Christians because they have not spoken out strongly enough on a particular issue; for that reason there is often also not unity between the different church leaders. At the same time, however, it has to be said that there is much more unity today than there was fifty years ago.
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Jesus is the standard for Truth, philosophies that are built around Him tend to lead to honesty in public life; those which ignore or reject Him often lead to an increase of deception and ‘dissembling’ in governments and transactions. As we pray for the U.K. today we pray for a return to truth, in itself a prayer to return to making Jesus central to all we do.
is an important characteristic, and one which is often lacking in our dealings with each other in this nation. The Biblical word that covers this, and more, is Righteousness. It is a word which means being lined-up with Jesus and with the Word of God, to make sure all our dealings with each other are conducted the way Jesus would have us do them. Integrity is about keeping our word, not crossing our fingers behind our backs when we make promises, being consistent with what we say to different groups of people, and so forth.
Millions had died, and today we give thanks for their sacrifice as well as remembering in order to be able to avoid war in the future.
for the nation today it is appropriate that our theme is repentance. Following the war, there were national ceremonies that sought to bring the nation back to God, it is not past sins but present ones that we need to focus on today.
Our Government works because it is enshrined in the relationship between the Sovereign and Parliament. Parliament, chosen by the people, makes laws on behalf of the Queen; a Bill does not become a Law until it has received Royal Assent. Whilst in practice she has always given it, in theory this means that no dictator or force can do things in this nation as they would be stopped by the Monarch.
Advent 2021 