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October 2015 Prayer Column

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Help with prayer

If you have decided to do a prayer leaflet for your church, perhaps following the suggestions of the last few months, you may have told people what prayer is, why it matters, how your church prays, how visitors can make a prayer request, and how they themselves can pray for others – briefly, of course!  But one more topic it may be wise to include is how they can get help on how to pray, if they feel they need it.
The Bible is the primary source of help and guidance, in this as in so much else.  You could suggest they read the Psalms, and see how it’s done.  If you have a place of prayer in your church accessible to visitors (give directions), you may also have provided a few booklets, leaflets and other prayer resources there, which people can use if they want.  And perhaps a few written prayers to start them off.
But even if you don’t have a place for such resources, you could point to where help and guidance may be found.   If you have a prayer meeting you could invite them (time, venue) so they could learn by doing.  Or there’s a vast amount of written material at Cornerstone in Newmarket Street, Skipton (by far the best Christian bookshop in the region), or more locally they could try Acorn Bookshop in Sunbridge Road, Bradford.  And our Circuit website has links to very good helps on prayer: www.bradfordnorth.org.uk/prayer.html.
If we think prayer is important, a leaflet may be one way to encourage it.

Roy LS

A prayer for each week

Lord of the word, expressing the cosmos into being and yet also taking time to speak with your children, please help us pray to you in faith as a way of living, finding words when we can, or in silence.  Amen.

Lord of the word, spoken, written and signed, we praise you for the great gift of communication: yours to us, each to each other, and ours to you – please guide our tongues and open our ears in prayer.  Amen.

Lord of the word, who in Jesus came to earth as the Word: your message to us personified, but also creating fresh beginnings with his words – please help us to pray in his name for new wholeness.  Amen.

Lord of the word, rock solid and utterly dependable, yet also living and active and searching to the core of all being and aims, please help us pray to you with openness and honesty, seeking your way.  Amen.

Your own prayers


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