This Week's Prayer Theme:
16th. Feb. 2020
In recent weeks, many disasters, and concerns, have
been in the spotlight.
Please pray;
- for those dealing with the aftermath of the bush
fires in Australia.
- for medical staff, and others, coping with the
Coronavirus outbreak.
- for communities impacted by extreme weather
conditions, and armed conflict.
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever
present help in trouble".
Psalm 46; 1.
This Week's Readings:
Psalm 42(NIV)
1As the deer pants for
streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2My soul thirsts for
God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3My tears have been my
food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4These things I
remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the
protection of the Mighty One d with shouts of joy and praise among the
festive throng.
5Why, my soul, are you
downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet
praise him, my Saviour and my God.
6My soul is downcast
within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the
heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep in
the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8By day the Lord
directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
9I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the
enemy?”
10My bones suffer
mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your
God?”
11Why, my soul, are you
downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet
praise him, my Saviour and my God.
Paul’s Vision and His
Thorn
1I must go on
boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and
revelations from the Lord.
2I
know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.
3And
I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know,
but God knows—
4was
caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is
permitted to tell.
5I
will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except
about my weaknesses.
6Even
if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking
the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by
what I do or say,
7or
because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me
from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan,
to torment me.
8Three
times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9But
he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10That
is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,
in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Prayer Requests
At the church we regularly pray for the needs of our local community and its people, as well as the needs of the wider world. If you have any particular prayer requests, please contact us. These requests will be handled confidentially.