"excel in this grace of giving" (2 Cor. 8:7)

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Why prayer matters

When he taught us to pray 'give us this day our daily bread', Jesus brought and held together the spiritual and the material worlds, things we often find it easier to keep separate. Praying alone and together about the material needs of our church is both a duty and a joy and a vital part of creating a culture of generosity in the church.
Archbishop Michael Ramsey used to describe prayer as being in the presence of God with what is on our hearts. To pray personally about money, and specifically the invitation to generosity, is to invite the Holy Spirit to search and challenge our hearts into letting Jesus be Lord of a very personal, sensitive and powerful area of our lives. To pray intentionally for the mission and ministry needs of our church is to take very seriously the promise that God provides and to resist a great divorce between spirituality and our material lives.