St Peters RC Church Hamilton

What a most glorious life we receive when the Holy Spirit helps us to glory in Your perfect love by developing the wisdom of love within us under the leadership of Jesus.

May the Spirit develop our wonder as the wellspring of praise, awed by the work of Your hands with all of us and in the natural world.

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have Ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him and the son of man that You visit him.” (Psalm 8 v 3, 4) 

“I will praise You, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Your works and that my soul knows very well...Your eyes saw our substance, being yet unformed,” (based on Psalm 139 v

14, 16) and You breathed life into us.

“In Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me” (v 16) in this universe of wonder, and a most amazing planet, our earth, “When as yet there were none of them.” (Cont)

Catastrophically we ruined life by our sinfulness, yet even then, being the Lord of mercy You acted by sending Your beloved Son to live and die for us, all to our delight.

We praise and exalt You above all things forever and ever, as You reign over all creation to fill us with Your love, through the perfect life of holiness of the Lord Jesus, and His sacrificial death becoming our forgiveness.

We delight in learning this and then by praying, coming to live according to Your principles, Spirit brought, Taught and accomplished through our friendship with the Lord Jesus, the One who is our worship.

Oh the manifold blessings of this time of silence praying, rejoicing, praising, offering all thanks to You for Your steadfast kindness and faithfulness towards us. May we become lost in wonder, love and praise, as a hymn states, for You pronounced all of life as good.

Forgive us when we impair this and do not respect life fully, properly from conception to the grave, when You have made us in Your likeness and image, blessed us and declared us holy thereby. Forgive us our wrong doing as we plead mercy through the forgiveness Jesus won for us.

As Your Spirit fills us with love and respect for You, with obedience which is reverent, accomplishing this through our growing friendship with Jesus. Please accept the thanks and praise we daily offer You. May we

never give up nor even compromise this time of silence, our highly prized time of prayer, the Spirit’s insight being such a blessing of grace and favour in Jesus, thank You.

As we see the wonders of the world all around us, and in the skills and talents our brothers and sisters’ offer in the service of the Lord Jesus, let us sing Your praise, amazement never failing to inspire us to raise our

hearts and minds up to You.

May we learn to fix our whole attention on You, alert to the Spirit and listening to, learning from the Lord Jesus. “Today if you will hear His voice, ‘Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion...’” (Psalm 95 v

7, 8) What godly advice is given us!

“Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!” (Psalm 90 v 14)

“Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil” (v 15) because of the errors of our rebellious, ignorant, defiant, devious ways which give satan a

foothold.

“Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.” (v 16, 17)

Thank You for setting us satan and sin free in the Lord Jesus. We rejoice to live in Him, to belong to Him, to be graced and blessed by the possession of His and Your Spirit, the Purifier and Sanctifier. We escape from doubt, despair, dismay, distress, disillusionment, all that is negative brought on by a sense of hopelessness.

You have decreed praise to be offered wholeheartedly, and we rejoice to do this through Jesus. Here is an entirely different quality of silence, that which stops the onslaught of evil.

“Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8 v 2) successfully. We offer all praise and happiness breeds contentment. Thank You.

Prayer develops a faith which can move a mountain of distrust and fear, replacing this by joyful gladness in our friendship with Jesus as appointed and developed by the Spirit of holiness, one in purpose and power with You dearest Father, through Your beloved Son.

The gladness of knowing to whom we belong, why and how, of committing to the love of Jesus and His cause, His heart’s ardent desire for loving service, making real effort with this, praying to be guarded and

guided by the Spirit, His is the love which draws us into unity with You.

We are empowered as we pray, all thanks, all praise and all glory ever, ever be to the most Holy Trinity, the Giver of a life led in love, knowing hope, enjoying peace and finding a true meaning to life, a decided purpose in serving, all according to graced forgiveness won for us at the †, the risen, ascended, glorified Jesus, then sending us the Spirit whose insight is rich beyond any imagining, dreaming, wishful thinking or hoping.

You “Planned long ago to choose us by making us Your holy people, which is the Spirit’s work,”

(based on 1 Peter 1 v 2 NIV) as He draws us into silence to teach us to pray.

Lord God, dearest Father of all mercy, love and steadfast kindness, such faithfulness shown towards us, You “Wanted us to obey You and to be made clean by the blood of the death of Jesus Christ” (Cont) as the

Spirit invites us to pray.

All grace and peace become ours, may we ever praise, amaze, rejoice and delight, because “The LORD is near; so there is no need to be anxious about anything.” (Philippians 4 v 4 The Truth)

Instead of fretting and anxiously worrying, let us “Pray about everything, following our petitions with thanksgiving whenever we ask You anything.” (based on Philippians 4 v 5, 6) For just as Jesus is our

worship, He is our joy in You, Lord God, as intended by the Spirit’s insight.

Thank You so very, very much. Daily keep us praying with praise, worshipping with joy and offering all thanks in hope of the completion of our salvation, which is up to us. May the Spirit ever develop our sense of

trust and dependency upon mercy and the power of holy love, that our success results in our entry to heaven.

Amen.