There is a rich selection of PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS in The Book of Common Prayer beginning on page 37. Praying through them one a day is a good way to familiarize yourself with them. You’ll find prayers and phrases which will help and inform your daily prayers and you’ll pray for things you might not have thought to pray as you go. We continue our survey of references to the Holy Spirit in our prayer books in this section of the BCP.
6. For Missionary Societies
When was the last time you prayed for a Missionary Society, or for a Synod, or Theological Students? Have you ever prayed for any of them in your personal prayers? I’ve prayed for Synods because I’ve been involved in many of them. But I have to confess, I haven’t prayed for Missionary Societies since the last time I worked through the PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS in The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), p37. Which is one of the good things about using a prayer bookt in ten to pray. One is led to pray for things one might neglect otherwise. Things like Missionary Societies in prayer number six on page 42:
Send down the grace of thy Holy Spirit upon thy people, and grant that they may give cheerfully of their substance for the evangelizing of the world.
What is the grace of the Holy Spirit? The grace He sends is in all He provides—the Gifts, the Fruits and always the Truth in Jesus. Although the Holy Spirit is The Comforter, His grace brings more than just comfort. As James Ryle says, grace is God’s empowering presence to be who He made us to be, and to do what He calls us to do. Dallas Willard describes grace as that which empowers us to be able to do what we are unable to do on our own.
And what will this grace empower us to do in particular? “Give cheerfully of my substance for the evangelizing of the world.” Give cheerfully? Oh. A great prayer for “they” who are not me. But in praying it, I am forced to face up to the fact that “they” includes me. Sigh. So having the Holy Spirit sent down upon me is not just about speaking in tongues and prophesying and falling over and all that fun stuff. It’s also about giving cheerfully of my substance—who I am and what holds me together and makes me me, what I earn and have been given. Things easily thought of as mine. That doesn’t sound very charismatic!
And here’s another disturbing thought. This Holy Spirit prompted cheerful giving is from my substance, not God’s. In other words, the way the Holy Spirit has convicted me, is that my tithe is God’s in the first place. Not mine, His. So the giving in this prayer must come from my substance after the tithe and cheerfully! It is an offering over and above my tithe “for the evangelizing of the world”! As I pray through this prayer and write I realize that, at the moment, none of my regular offerings go specifically to missionary societies and evangelization. Things that make me go, “Hmmm!?!?”
7. For General, Provincial or Diocesan Synods
We have most significant Synod coming up in July next year. General Synod 2019 will include second reading of the resolution to change the Anglican Church of Canada’s doctrine on marriage. Prayer number seven, which also begins on page 42, For General, Provincial or Diocesan Synods is another excellent BCP Holy Ghost prayer for such a gathering.
Save its members from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe so to direct, govern, and sanctify them in their deliberations by thy Holy Spirit, that through thy blessing the Gospel of Christ may be faithfully preached and obeyed, the order and discipline of thy Church maintained, and the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour enlarged and extended.
If ever there was a time when our Church needed to be directed, governed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit as synod members deliberate, it will be in Vancouver in July 2019.
As you pray this prayer, consider how and where the Holy Spirit always directs God’s people—always to the Truth that is found in Jesus (John 14.17, 15.26, 16.13, 17.17, Eph 4.21) and never away from Jesus, his teaching and example. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct synod members ever and only to Jesus and his teaching on marriage and all other matters before General Synod 2019.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will also govern us all—the synod members in their deliberation and all of us in our behavior and response to their decisions. Examples of the Holy Spirit’s governance are the commandments Jesus made through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.2) and Paul being prevented from doing certain things by the Holy Spirit. For example, he was forbidden to speak in Asia and not allowed to go to Bithynia (Acts 16.6-7) and he was “constrained by the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem even when he was anxious as to what might happen to him there (Acts 20.22-23). The Holy Spirit guides and governs by saying go ahead, go here or go there and by saying don’t go.
Pray also that the Holy Spirit will sanctify—set apart as holy—the synod members for their task. That their motives and decisions will be holy and pure and “sanctified in the truth” of God’s word (John 17.17) which is, of course, the work of “the Spirit of truth” (John14.17, 15.26, 16.13) and that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we do not “ordain” in our “Rites or Ceremonies” any thing that is “contrary to God’s Word written” (Article XX. Of the Authority of the Church, BCP p706).
A Note on Praying Out of Books
I have heard some say that praying “in The Spirit” can’t be done from books. I used to think it myself. I am now convinced that praying “in The Spirit” can be done with and without books. I also believe there is a fair amount of praying with and without books which is not “in the Spirit.” It is a matter of the heart and of The LORD’s leading. Sometimes one of my spontaneous prayers for someone or something is enriched by a phrase or an idea which comes from a Prayer Book prayer I use regularly. For example, I will often pray that The LORD will “visit their homes and drive from them all the snares of the enemy” and “preserve us in peace” (from COMPLINE, BCP 726) and that The LORD “will give thine angels charge over them, and defend them from all dangers of body and soul” (from a Prayer for Home and Loved Ones, BCP 633). I don’t see how I could improve on those Intercessory sentiments. It’s exactly what I would like The LORD to do from the heart and earnestly.
Using the Prayer Books systematically in as tools for prayer will have praying for things you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of on your own and will improve your prayer vocabulary.
Gene+
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