Prayer on Sundays at 7pm
This Sunday (17 January), as restrictions tighten across Scotland, Christians around the country – and further afield – will join together in prayer at 7pm in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As with previous weeks during lockdown, 14 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer. Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and Rt Rev Dr Martin Fair, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, has been taking part alongside them. “There are some things which make sense for a certain period of time but which come to a natural conclusion - such as clapping for carers during the spring lockdown. Prayer isn’t one of them,” Dr Fair said. “The Apostle Paul encourages us to ‘pray without ceasing’ and Jesus himself offers parables where persistence in prayer is lauded. “It can be hard to keep going when there’s no end in sight; much easier when the finishing line comes into view. In the case of the pandemic, it still feels as if there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. “All the more reason then for God’s people to continue faithfully in prayer. And even better when we can pray across the whole of the Church, unrestricted by denominational divides. “If Sunday at 7pm is in your diary, keep it there. Thank you. If it hadn’t been, it would be great to have you involved. It matters that we pray." “‘O Lord, you have searched me and known me.’ The words of the Psalm speak. The words speak into the uttermost depths of who we are and the word of the Lord searches to the furthermost limits of our being. (Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18) The word of the Lord speaks to us in every season and searches us at all times. Nevertheless, there are times in which we are especially conscious of the immediacy and relevance of the word spoken and we might judge that this is such a time. “We may say at this particular time that we are truly being stretched to the uttermost as human beings and to the furthermost limits of our endurance as a society. These are hard times. At the very moment in which hope has been offered to our society in the form of a vaccine, the risk faced by our society has increased considerably. In the light of this, the challenges we face are difficult beyond measure. Notwithstanding all of this, the word of the Lord endures and still speaks into the uttermost depth and to the furthermost limit. “We are not hidden from God and all we face is known by the Lord whose word endures. Humbly recognising this to be so, we pray.”
We pray: Lord, you search us and you know us Lord, you search us and you know us Lord, you search us and you know us Lord, you search us and you know us Lord, you search us and you know us
|