Good Morning,
Morning Devotions led by Seminarian Tiffany Sweeting of Christ Church Cathedral, Nassau, Bahamas. Please share if you can. Thank you 🙏🏼
Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas & The Turks & Caicos
Morning Devotions led by Seminarian Tiffany Sweeting
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer That calls me from a world of care And pits me at my father's throne Become my wands and wishes known In seasons of distress and grief My soul has often found relief And all have escaped the tender snare By the return, sweet hour of prayer Morning devotions for Wednesday The 14th of August, 2024 Is brought to you by the Anglican Diocese of the Muhammad's Turks and Cakers Islands I am Tiffany Sweeting, a member of Christ's Church Cathedral, and a seminarian at Quadranton College Let us pray Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the Spirit to think and do all those things that are right That we, who cannot exist without you, may be unable to live according to your will Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit One God, forever and ever, amen Our gospel is taken from Matthew chapter 18, verse 15 to 20 If another member of the Church sins against you Go and point out the fault when two of you are alone If the member listens to you, you have regained that one But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you So that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of the two or three witnesses If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church And if the offended refuses to listen even to the Church Let such one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven And whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven Again, truly I tell you If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them, the word of the Lord The passage from our gospel today where Jesus speaks to his disciples about the power of agreement in prayer And the assurance of his presence among believers You see my friends, Jesus manifests his presence in a special way when two or more meet to bring The same applies to us today That if two or three gather together to touch and agree for anything in the name of Jesus It shall be done for them by our Father in heaven In this passage Jesus emphasizes the power of unity in prayer When two or more believers agree on something they ask for in prayer And in aligns with God's will and purpose, God grants their request This underscores the importance of collective faith and the unity in Christian community My friends, we also see the assurance of Jesus's presence whenever believers gather in his name The promise provides comfort and encouragement affirming that Jesus is with us His followers, even in small gatherings, supporting and guiding us You see my brothers and sisters, we are to pray for one another We are to comfort one another We are to uplift one another We are to pray and to confess our shortcomings to God and to seek His forgiveness and to align our lives with His word We are encouraged to pray and ask God to fill us with His Holy Spirit We are to pray in season and out of season We are to pray whether we feel like it or not We are to pray whether the sun shines or the rain falls We are to pray whether we have a job We are to pray whether we have food to eat, a roof over our heads and clothes on our box We are to pray unceasingly, not only in the bad times but in the good We need to give God thanks and praise with every breath that we take We are to praise God whether we house or we don't house And as our Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 34 verse one to eight read "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise will be in my mouth I will glory in the Lord, let the humble hair and rejoice Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord and let us exalt His name together You see my friends, prayer is the conversation that we have with God Prayer is that every fleeting breath that we take Prayer is those words we utter when persons get on our last nerve Prayer is what we utter when we don't know where to turn Prayer is what we utter when all seems lost Prayer is what we utter when God gives us when we least expect it Prayer is what we utter when God makes a way out of no way Prayer is our praise Prayer is our thanksgiving My friends, prayer calls Jesus His life in Luke 22 and 42 Whereas there's not my will but your will be done My question to you my friends is this this morning Is prayer at all costs going to be what you do when you face that cross? Are you prepared to give up everything when you stand before that cross? Are you prepared to allow Christ to fill you with His Holy Spirit and to bring about His divine purpose in your life? John 15 and 7 tells us that if you abide in me and I abide in you Whatever you ask, shall be given to you My friends, when we gather to pray we become one with Christ and experience the sweetness of His presence Matthew 18 verse 19 and 20 has and will continue to remain a source of encouragement for many Christians Emphasizing the importance of community, unity and prayer and the constant presence of Jesus among His followers My friends, I encourage you today to pray Pray for our church, pray for our world, pray for our nation, pray for our people Pray for peace and unity, pray for our families And most of all pray that God's will be done in your life. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that your word has gone forth And now, O Father, may we seek to give you the praise, the honor and the glory May we never cease to praise you with every breath that we take May we continually pray and avail ourselves to the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives That we may be obedient to say, "Have thine own way, Lord. You are the porter and I am the clay Take us and use us, wherever you may have. Have thine own way. Amen. Thank you for listening and if this devotion has been a blessing to you, we encourage you to share it with your family and friends. Rare thy wings shall mow I partition bear to hear most truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless and see him see free his face Believe his word and trust his grace I'll cast on him by every card And wait for his sweet hour of birth And wait for his sweet hour of birth I will be the king of the Lord.