Manchester Methodists

What makes your grace so amazing, Lord God, is that it is free and totally underserved. We have done nothing to earn or merit your goodness to us – in fact it is only your mercy and your great love for us that makes it possible for us to approach you! And yet we are able to do this because, through Jesus, we know our sins have been forgiven, that all that separates us from you has been done away with, and we have received the gift of life, through your Holy Spirit living in us. We thank you, Lord, and ask that you will help us live today in ways that bring you glory.

Amen

Liz Stuart

Save the date! Join us @ Fallowfield Methodist Church for a welcome service for Rev. Dr Joseph Muwanzi, Wednesday 9th September @ 7.30pm.

Lord God, it’s not easy to live as your people even in Western society, where we are met with indifference rather than physical opposition. Our tendency is to want to fit in, to not cause an argument or to be seen as different, and yet we come across so many situations in our daily lives where we see or hear of injustice, conflict or oppression – situations where we know we should speak out, but lack the confidence and the courage to do so. Lord, through your Holy Spirit breathe new life and energy into us, that we may follow the example of Jesus in reaching out with compassion, in speaking truth to power, so that all we say and do may ‘ring with the sound of your love’.

Amen

Lord God, nothing is hidden from your sight, and as we come to worship you today you know our anxieties, our hopes and the burdens we carry that no-one else sees. Help us to put these on one side, to rest in your presence, to open our hearts and minds and lives to your Holy Spirit - and as we offer our praises and our prayers to allow you to lift us up to a place of peace and light. The pressures of life will still be there, Lord, but as we are reminded of your faithfulness and your great love, may we find ourselves strengthened and more able to face whatever tomorrow brings. For you have promised to be with us at all times and in every situation we find ourselves, and in this certainty we place our hope and our trust.

Amen

Liz Stuart

As we look back over the past week and reflect on the people we have met and the conversations we have had, it’s interesting to see what a variety there has been. A brief chat at the supermarket checkout, or in the queue at a bus stop. Maybe a longer conversation at the hairdresser or the doctor or a business transaction; a catch up with a family member – or simply passing the time of day with a neighbour. Lord God, you give us so many opportunities to interact with other people, and perhaps to be there for them when they especially needed someone to talk to – those God-given moments that we can’t foresee. Lord, help us to be more aware of those around us, to see beneath the surface, and be ready to offer a listening ear and, above all, your love.

Amen

If we’ve been overwhelmed, knocked off balance, filled with fear or foreboding by events of the past few days, whether on the world scene, or in our neighbourhoods, or in our own lives, then we need to remind ourselves just how great our God is! That while all that is going on around or within us may cause us anxiety or alarm, God is still in control, and will in the end have the final word. For as we look with dismay at the flimsy nature of peace negotiations, while we are horrified, and rightly so, at violence and discrimination and the abuse of power, and all the evils that human beings are capable of, we have the Cross of Jesus to remind us that life and light and love have, and always will, conquer the power of darkness and death – and may we hold onto this for here, and only here, will we find hope!

Amen

People put their trust in all sorts of things, Lord God – in their career, their possessions, their savings, in different therapies – all in the hope of a finding happiness, security, fulfilment, along with guarantees for the future - and so often these hopes and dreams come to nothing. But you, Lord, offer us a wholly different type of security, happiness and fulfilment, that is rooted not in our own achievements, but in what has already been won for us in Jesus Christ your Son. For through His death and Resurrection we not only receive forgiveness and a right relationship with you, we are given new life through your Holy Spirit living in us, assuring us of your presence with us and your love guiding us – and a hope that will never disappoint us. We thank you, Lord!

There are times, Lord God, when nothing seems to go right in our little world, with one disappointment or disaster after another, and we begin to despair of ever finding a way forward, and to become so immersed in our problems that we shut ourselves off from those who seek to help us, and even from you, Lord. Indeed, we sometimes have to reach rock bottom before we turn to you, but when we do, Lord, we find our anxieties quietened. Not because our difficulties have miraculously disappeared, but because we are putting ourselves and our trust in a greater authority, helping us to gain a new perspective. For nothing is beyond your power, Lord, and with your love surrounding us, and in the strength you provide, we somehow find new peace and hope.

Lest we become too ‘chummy’ Lord Jesus, we need to remember just how great and glorious you are. We often seem to focus on your humanity, your ‘earthiness’, forgetting all you gave up to become born as one of us, and all you returned to after your Resurrection. Yet it is so important to remember this, for it is only through your divinity that you were able to overcome the power of sin and death, to rise to life, and to offer that life in all its immensity, all its fullness, all its eternity to us. So let’s take time today to wonder, to bow down in awe and to worship you in all your majesty, in the sure hope of one day being for ever before your throne of grace in heaven.

Amen

When we think of all you have done for us, Lord Jesus, in coming to earth, in your life, death and Resurrection, all our efforts to follow you pale into insignificance. For you set us an example to follow, of reaching out to the least and the lowest, in your suffering and death you showed us a love which knows no limits and in your Resurrection the power to overcome all that would separate us from God, even death itself. And yet you accept us as we are, in the poverty of our witness to all of this, and in our inability to follow your way of living and loving. We thank you, Lord, and ask that, through the power and guidance of your Holy Spirit, we may always seek to give of our whole selves to you, and to live to your praise and glory.

Amen