MU Devotion – Ascension Wednesday 20th May
Wednesday 20th May MU Devotion – Ascension
Reflection
Tomorrow is Ascension Day and remarkably that means it is forty days since Easter Sunday. When this lockdown started, we could barely contemplate not being at Church for Mothering Sunday let alone Holy Week and Easter. Still we have not only managed, we have discovered new ways of being church. New ways of holding our Mothers’ Union family together.
Ascension Day also marked a change for the disciples as followers of Jesus. After he ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet their relationship with Jesus was no longer a physical one. They now had to find new ways of drawing strength from Jesus. Strength that would come soon in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once they receive the Holy Spirit’s power, they are commissioned to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The first in a chain of disciples spreading knowledge of Jesus and his love for all. A chain which continues to this day with each of us.
At Ascensiontide, we are reminded of our mission to bring this knowledge of Jesus to those around us. One initiative which takes its inspiration from Jesus’ words is – Thy Kingdom Come. An 11-day call to prayer between Ascension Day and Pentecost where people across the globe are encouraged to pray ‘Come Holy Spirit’, so that friends and family, neighbours and colleagues might come to faith in Jesus Christ. To make this a more personal experience we are encouraged to pray daily for 5 friends or family to discover the love Jesus has for them.
In the words of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury – “In praying ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ we all commit to playing our part in the renewal of the nations and the transformation of communities.”
The transformation of our communities into places where the love of God is witnessed in all our interactions with each other. Where our communities, rather than our buildings, become our Church, gatherings of the faithful bound together through love and service of God and each other.
Just as the disciples had to reinvent themselves for the new world without Jesus, we too have the chance to become through the power of the Holy Spirit, something so much greater in our small part of the ends of the earth. To become witnesses to the life and work of Jesus at this time and in this place.
With love and prayers at this Ascensiontide
Revd Sandra
PRAYING FOR YOUR 5 INDIVIDUALS DURING THY KINGDOM COME
Thy Kingdom Come encourages every Christian to pray for 5 individuals so that they would know God’s love for them in Christ.
ASCENSION DAY Jesus
Pray for your 5 friends to encounter Jesus in all his grace, challenge and love, that they might say with St Paul, ‘For me, to live is Christ’.
FRIDAY AFTER ASCENSION Praise
Pray for your 5 to be woken up to all that they have already received from God in their lives, and all that he offers them in Christ, that they might praise him.
SATURDAY AFTER ASCENSION Thanks
Pray for your 5 to recognise the goodness of God in their lives, that they would turn to God in gratitude and trust.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION Sorry
Pray for your 5 to be led by the Holy Spirit to understand the cost of God’s love for them in Christ, that this great sacrifice would lead them to repentance.
MONDAY Offer
Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring an understanding of life in all its fullness that will be theirs as your 5 put everything they have at the disposal of God.
TUESDAY Pray
Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of your 5 now, as you pray for specific things that you know they face.
WEDNESDAY Help
Pray for your 5 that they would know that they never have to face anything alone, but that in their need they would call on God for help.
THURSDAY Adore
For the eyes of your 5 to be opened to all that Jesus offers them and that they would turn their faces to him and enjoy the warmth of his love.
FRIDAY Celebrate
Pray for yourself and those others the Lord sends to help show your 5 their route home to God, that they would know the loving father running to greet them.
SATURDAY Silence
Pray for the Holy Spirit to put on your heart the desires of heaven for your 5.
THE DAY OF PENTECOST Thy Kingdom Come
Pray ‘Come Holy Spirit’ for your 5 friends, that they may joyfully enter the Kingdom of God and find themselves used by God to pray and act ‘Thy Kingdom Come’.
Extract from the Church of England – Daily Prayer for Thy Kingdom Come.
