St Peters RC Church Hamilton

“Be patient ... until the coming of the Lord.” James 5 v 7
Waiting, waiting, praying.
Counting, counting, trusting.
Hoping, hoping, asking.
Expecting, expecting, pondering.
Watching, watching, wondering.
Looking, looking, pleading.
Anticipating, anticipating, interceding.
Praying, praying, supplicating.
Christmas is coming, rejoicing bringing.
What is God’s purpose?
What are we heading towards?
A gracious purpose,
True love offered us in Jesus.
Renew us Lord, renew us in Jesus.

“ ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and
that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you’.”
John 15 v 16
We need Your help.
We need Your Spirit in us.
We need to focus on Jesus.
We need Your love ever before us.
We need to go and grow in this love.
We need the Lord Jesus!
Jesus’ presence is our peace.
In Jesus is the power of love.
Advent preparation will lead to adoration.
A gracious purpose
As You come to us in Jesus,
According to the working of the Spirit.
The Spirit who makes saints out of sinners.
The cause of Christmas is Jesus,
Forgiveness beyond our trespasses.
Evil is banished in Jesus.
Let us cherish the love of Jesus,
A gracious purpose, most gracious,
Most wonderful, life’s eternal purpose.

“Happy is (s)he who has the God of Jacob for his (or her) help, whose hope is in the LORD his (or
her) God.” Psalm 146 v 5

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“ ‘Is it not yet a little while til Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be
esteemed as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind
shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD,
and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel’.” Isaiah 29 v 17, 18, 19
Lord, as we move through Advent praying, waiting for the celebration of Christmas, I wonder
what You want to say to us? Is the current day message not the same as of old? “They shall
Isaiah 35 v 2 see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God.” Prepare us, Lord, prepare us.

Isaiah 35 v 3 Say to us even now “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees,” for in
You is our strength of faith, in the hope and the promise You offer us in Jesus. May we be open
to the impact of His and Your Spirit.
“Say to those who are fearful hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come
Isaiah 35 v 4 with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you’.” May Your
Spirit convince us of this for He is the Spirit of truth.
Lord, dearest Father, show us Your kindness as You reveal the truth of Your love for us in
Jesus. Prepare us now to receive from Your holy Son, our hope, Your promise fulfilled that First
Christmas.
Grant strength through the prayer of faith to all who are downtrodden, frightened, oppressed,
depressed, in want, hurting, stressed, in life’s most difficult, demanding, destructive
circumstances. Lift them up in hope. Please cure all our ills.
Lord, for those who are dying, dreading annihilation, or fearful of meeting You and judgement,
please change their dread into anticipation of the joy of coming to You accompanied by the Lord
Jesus, bringing this about by the Spirit of prayer.
The fire of the Spirit is the fire of Your love. May this both burn away the dross of our sin that
we prepare to begin again in Jesus. And may the Spirit impart the grace and blessing of hope as
we pray. Open out Your goodness before our expectant gaze.
As we prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ Jesus, the mystery of our redemption, may the
Spirit enable us to open our life before You, asking for cleansing, help, healing, the first part of
the process of salvation.
Psalm 96 v 10 Lord, look with mercy upon us as we “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns’,” declaring our
trust in You. Let us firmly believe that in Jesus You will judge us as having been made righteous.
Holiness is a profound blessing, thank You.
As we pray in Advent, moving towards the celebration of Jesus’ First Coming, we can say with
Psalm 96 v 13 conviction “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth,” for
it is in Jesus we hear Your truth at work. Thank You for Your mercy in accepting us as brothers
and sisters of Jesus.
Jesus is the truth which satisfies our quest for help, for life’s meaning and purpose, for an eternal
blessing and joy for the journey home as we are accompanied by Your holy Son, love manifest, made
real to us in the forgiveness we receive. Let us ever pray to say ‘Thank You’ for all Your blessed
mercies.
Lord, may we never take Your love for granted for this power of love renewing us, transforming our

life is such a grace and favour offered in Jesus. In the Word of life we discover and become a part
of Your gracious purpose. We praise You.
We praise You particularly for the joy that awaits us at Christmas in our Saviour’s birth, true love
come amongst us. Joy is our certainty as our heart and mind is touched by the mystery of Christ
Jesus.
Let us now pray in anticipation asking to be credible witnesses to Your love, mercy and forgiveness.
Let us claim the strength of Your love for us, naming the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer, the Restorer
and the Spirit as our Sanctifier. Let us then live out of the love and mercy received.
Let us be zealous in bringing good news to the poor, healing to the broken hearted, liberty to
captives, sight to the spiritually blind. Let us live in the love of Jesus, that offer of wholeness as we
share in His holiness.
May we as Jesus’ family, work together for the greater good of mankind, extending the kingdom
upon earth Jesus establishes. Let us offer Your love, favour, peace, especially to those who are
mentally ill, chronically sick, outcasts in any way at all. Show us what we must do.
As the Lord Jesus will always seek to strengthen us by His love, let His friendship be extended by us
to all who reach out to us. May we be generous in our kindness, freely offering our time, talents,
resources so as to help. Grant us the grace of a generous kindness.
Halfway or thereabouts through Advent, the time is racing towards the Christmas celebration.
Prepare us as we pray in confident hope and joyful expectation for the coming of the Saviour of the
world, the One to lead us to heaven. How wonderful, thank You!
The Lord Jesus will come to rule the world in His love, Your love, holy Father, the Spirit’s holy love.
“You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them
Psalm 97 v 10 out
of the hand of the wicked.”
Psalm 97 v 11 Thank You for such an almighty, transformative power of love. “Light is sown for the righteous”
a gracious purpose as we turn to Jesus, “And gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the
v 12 LORD, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.”
Let us do this now as we pray. Lord, what specifically should I thank You for? The list has to
start with the grace of the gift of Your Son and Your Spirit without whom we would not, could
not have a true faith, nor the power of prayer, for we would have no knowledge nor experience of
Your compassion.
Thank You for granting us Your every promise fulfilled in Jesus, may we ever witness to this.
Thank You for sending Jesus as hope in a world darkened by sin. He is the true Light of the world
for He reflects Your loving, forgiving nature. Jesus is our freedom from sin, from bondage to satan.
For this we offer heartfelt thanks and praise. May we worship in His liberty.
The gospel carries a message of release that we know hope, joy and peace through Your amazing
love which makes You evident in the everyday circumstances of our life as long as we pray and ask
to receive of Jesus and the Spirit.
May the Spirit make us attentive to our own life showing us what we should offer to You, ask from
You. May we not neglect to pray or else we will miss out on this. Let the desires of our heart be ever
shared with Jesus’ intentions to help all peoples.

May we as we pray, be equipped to live in peace, practising all those things which lead to peace,
especially working so as to give witness to Jesus. Let us feed the hungry, shelter the homeless,
aid the war victims, all works of mercy.
Lord, You both counsel and command us by Your Spirit. Make us receptive, wise, obedient,
responsive to all You say to help the hungry, the thirsty, the strange, the destitute, the world’s
helpless victims. Make us wholehearted followers of Christ Jesus.
Let us follow, adhere to, exalt Your designs for living in justice and freedom, in peace and
prosperity. To think that even in the prosperous west, food banks are required, must tell us
something. Lord, forgive our selfish grabbing of resources.
Teach us to be open, attentive and always receptive to the work of the Spirit as we pray, not
blinded by our own preconceptions, nor prejudices, not rendered powerless by any adversity.
Let us ever look to Jesus, the most powerful Reformer the world has ever known. Let us pray
to share in the effectiveness of His love, Your love, the Spirit’s love, dearest Father.
Christmas is about Your working out Your plan of salvation in human history. Help us to
realise that Your ways are those of wisdom and truth, of loving help and guidance, of a
majesty in all You make holy in Jesus.
Let the whole world become a part of this, then we can in every corner sing with heartfelt
rejoicing in the Messiah, the Saviour of all of mankind, a Servant King who truly inspires us
by His love. Make us a people who love in Jesus, for Jesus, with Jesus.
Jesus comes in poverty, in humility to teach us. Jesus will go to the † willingly, to teach us.
Jesus will reach out to each one of us who pray and claim Him as their personal Saviour, the
Restorer to all grace and favour.
Let us not underestimate any of this, nor the scandalous mystery of our faith that You Lord
God, in Your Son, became Man, One amongst us as the living Word of truth, of fulfilment of
Your each and every promise.
Jesus is true God, true Man, begotten not made, consubstantial with You and the Holy Spirit.
We praise, we rejoice as we lift hearts and minds, will and conscience and imagination to You.
To see Jesus at work is to see You at work. How wonderful!
May the Spirit always enable us to see how You are actually present in our world today. Let us
feel the impact as we respond to the Spirit’s invitation and inspiration to live and work as
Jesus’ followers, His modern day disciples. As we ponder in prayer the mystery of the
incarnation, let us live in hope of the Second Coming.
Lord, as You work with us, in us, through us by Your Son, in Your Spirit, open up new ways
for Your kingdom to flourish, for all peoples to prosper as we call on Jesus. Let the accent of
this time be hope, a blessed hope, a certain hope.
May we ever be hopeful, grateful, joyful in Jesus. May we be sensitively alert to the Spirit.
Make us ready to receive even more of Your gracious purpose in Advent, a penitential season, a
time to return to You.
In the embrace of Your love, mercy, forgiveness, replenish our life with a continuous, confident
faith, with ardent, zealous prayer! Let contrition and repentance always have its blessed and
holy outcome in strengthening us to live for Your purpose alone.

Lord, have mercy upon us for we are sinners who spoil the likeness in which we were made.
We ask for forgiveness through Jesus, pleading our need of mercy. Lord, restore us again and
let the brightest light of Your love ever shine upon us in Jesus as we turn to Your Spirit.
Amen.

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