A prayer from our service this week celebrating the life of Rees Howells. Adapted for personal meditation.
You may like to have a candle ready to light in your meditation space at home.
Into your presence I come, Lord. A few moments of quietness, closeness in a busy world. Such sanctuary. I come to honour, to hear and to serve you. Breathe on me now, that I might know you, Your power.
Spend some moments in quiet company with God.
Now you may like to pray “Who shall I hold in my prayers today? Who shall I bring to Jesus with me this morning? A person, place, room or situation may rise to the mind. Don’t be deliberate, Be open to the Holy spirit guiding you, giving you love for others.
Now you may like to light a candle, a symbol of your desire to bring this person, place or situation into the loving arms of Jesus.
Lord May your Kingdom come and come. May your will be done on earth and in every heart represented here in this candle, even as I pray, Amen.
Reading
Romans 8:26-38 (From NLT & the Message)
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
