Today is Wednesday the 23rd of April, in the 1st week of Eastertide.

Salt of the Sound sings, ‘I Need Thee Every Hour’.

I need Thee every hour

Most gracious Lord

No tender voice like Thine

Can peace afford

I need Thee, oh I need Thee

Every hour I need Thee

Oh bless me now my Saviour

I come to Thee

I need Thee, oh I need Thee

Every hour I need Thee

Oh bless me now my Saviour

I come to Thee

I need Thee, oh I need Thee

Every hour I need Thee

Oh bless me now my Saviour

I come to Thee

Oh I need Thee

Oh I need Thee

I come to Thee

Today’s reading is from the Acts of the Apostles.

Acts 3:1-10

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Take a moment to enter into this scene… How do you imagine the Beautiful Gate?

Now fix your eyes on the man, lame from birth… How does he appear to you? As he begs for alms, what do you think is going on in his soul? What is he really searching for?

As you listen to the reading again, pay attention to the eye-contact between the man and Peter… Let this moment come to life for you…

Acts 3:1-10

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

“…they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” God did a marvellous thing for this man…As you end this time of prayer, consider the question: What are you looking for? Might God be ready to give it to you today? Speak with the Lord in these closing moments…

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

World without end

Amen

Thank you for waiting around for this short announcement.

We have been listening to our community for the last few years and are now making changes to our app. We will be simplifying your daily prayer journey and hope that these changes will allow for a better service and an even smoother time of prayer.

From the 28th April, we will begin to phase in our new app experience over the coming weeks. This should happen automatically, so you don’t need to download a different app.

We believe that prayer should be between you and God, therefore we have strong privacy policies in place. However, this unfortunately means that we won’t be able to carry forward any journal entries, favourited prayers or downloads into our new app, as we do not store any data, and therefore can’t migrate it. We are sorry for this and understand it will be difficult. However, we invite those who would like to save any journal entries to do so by copying and pasting the days they would like to move over to a personal digital notebook on their own device. Also, you can note down any favourite prayer days and re-favourite any of them on the new app. You can also get in touch with us through our website or by emailing [email protected] and we can assist you.

Although this is a new change, we hope that the app will bring about a fresh season and a steady home for your prayer life, and we have plenty of new content arriving for everyone too.

Thank you for your support, and to everyone who has given financially towards this project. If you would like to support us in this new stage, please head over to prayasyougo.org/donate to take a look at our new website and to help grow prayer journeys for a global community.

Thank you, and every blessing for Eastertide.