An act of worship at home
23rd August 2020
Reading Romans 12 vv 1-8
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Reflection
As someone once put it “It’s the little things that annoy us; we can sit on a mountain but not on a pin.”
“Rivers gain more attention than the little streams that create them. You can name the great rivers of the world but you cannot name their tributaries. However, without the tributaries there would be no river. It must be remembered, too, that the smaller streams, while less well known, are purer and are found on a higher elevation. Some of our lives are tributary lives. It is our role to provide the pure water from the higher elevation that enables another to be a mighty river of power and influence.”
Someone else said that “Little things become great things when they are done to please God.”
In other words the things we see as small and unimportant, maybe some little act of kindness to someone, phoning them and asking how they are, saying thank you to them, can have a wider consequences than we may ever realise.
Small things matter to God, and for our own sake they must matter to us.
Eugenia Price wrote this – “If only we could get hold of the life-changing fact that there are no little things with God! Your seemingly small trouble is of eternal importance to Him at this moment.”
It all began with a seemingly tiny event, the birth of a child in a cowshed in a little Middle-Eastern town called Bethlehem. But it is in the life of Jesus that we truly begin to see the wider picture in small things, in the many small steps of love and obedience by Mary and Joseph,
by the disciples and of course most of all by Jesus himself.
A small word here, “Go” or “Stand up” or “You are forgiven” and a life is changed forever.
The lightest touch and the world is transformed.
Small steps that led from a stable in Bethleham to a Cross outside Jerusalem, leading from the snugness of a manger to the infinity of the resurrection.
Small steps of love leading from the gift of life to a child to the gift of eternal life for us all.
Small things matter.
Prayer
Father, as we travel through this coming week, may we know your Holy Spirit in our lives.
Open our ears: to hear what you are saying to us in the things that happen to us and in the people we meet. Open our eyes: to see the needs of people around us. Open our hands: to do our work well, to help when help is needed. Open our lips: to tell others the Good News of Jesus and bring comfort, happiness, and laughter to other people. Open our minds: to discover new truth about you and the world. Open our hearts: to love you and our fellow men as you have loved us in Jesus.
And little by little may our lives be a blessing to others and fulfilling for ourselves.
We ask that in every part of our life you will help us to widen our knowledge, deepen our love,and strengthen our service. Amen.
Hymn
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee:
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love:
Take my feet, and let them be,
swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing,
Always, only, for my King:
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold:
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine:
Take my heart − it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store:
Take myself, and I will be,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Blessing
May we know the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, upon our every step, our ever thought, our every breath, as we follow in the steps of Christ, this day and always. Amen.
