¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us —
² so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
³ May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.
⁴ May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
⁵ May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You.
⁶ The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
⁷ May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
~ Psalm 67

Sometimes our vision, and our prayers, are too narrow. God’s purpose, which will be fulfilled, is that all the peoples and all the nations will praise Him – and sing for joy. Remember that when we pray – Your kingdom come. It’s a great and glorious vision, which will one day be a great and glorious reality.

“Those that have God for their God, have enlarged hearts as they have enlarged comforts. They have an everlasting spring that supplies them in all wants, refreshes them in all troubles, and then runs most clearly and freshly, when all other streams in the world are dried and stopped up.”
~ Sibbes

Petition: Please join with us in praying for:

1. The World — The number of confirmed cases is 28,891, 676 (up 1,910,945 from last week).
There have been 922,441 deaths of people with Covid-19 (up 41,127).
India has now overtaken Brazil as the nation with the second highest number of cases – although with a significantly lower death rate.
Spain has seen a resurgence – although again with a lower death rate than during their first wave.

2. Australia — now has had 26,651 cases (up 372 compared with 608 in the previous week), with 810 deaths (+57 compared with 146 the previous week).

There are 137 people in hospital (-176), with 17 in intensive care (-9).
7,016,090 tests have been carried out, with 0.4% being positive.
23,457 people have recovered. There are 1,341 (-760) active cases.
We note with thanks the large drop in hospital cases and the significant improvement in Victoria.

3. Vaccine and Cures – The Oxford vaccine, whose trials had stopped, have now started again, and it is hoped that once these trials are completed, the vaccine will be available in Australia at the beginning of next year.

4. Church – Some churches are reporting a significant drop in income.
Pray that the Lord’s people would continue to invest in the Lord’s work.

5. Personal and Family – We have a particular responsibility as Christians to remember, respect and provide for the elderly. This is an article I wrote encouraging the church to do so.

A Prayer of Repentance:
Lord God Almighty, we confess that our vision is too small.
We are so self-absorbed that we do not share Your heart for the nations.
Enable us to lift our eyes beyond ourselves and to see Your glory in all the earth – in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving:
God, our God, You bless us. You give us abundance beyond measure.
We receive so much from Your hands in every way.
Teach us to count our blessings, and like Your servant Paul,
grant that we would learn the secret of contentment in any and every situation.
In Christ’s name, Amen.