{"id":18871,"date":"2025-08-30T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T23:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/?p=18871"},"modified":"2025-08-01T16:13:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:13:51","slug":"prayer-for-the-week-30th-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/2025\/08\/30\/prayer-for-the-week-30th-august-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer for the Week – 30th August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Luke 12:13-21 \u00a0The Parable of the Rich Fool<\/p>\n

Reflection \u2013 Motivation<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not fair\u201d is something we hear often from children whether it\u2019s because one has received more ice cream, sweets, toys or even affection. Although not considered in law to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong until the age of 7 children as young as 18 months are able to identify what is not fair.<\/p>\n

A fair distribution of wealth is something that is sort by many in the fight to eradicate poverty. The ideal of communism was that all were equal and should have equal share in goods and money. Communes are a group of people wo live in community sharing possessions and responsibilities. The early church lived by this principal, handing over possessions, money and land to be shared equally by all. However, all systems can fall prey to the human characteristic of greed.<\/p>\n

Greed (or avarice)<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate\/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power.<\/p>\n

In the parable someone in the crowd comes to Jesus asking for a division of the inheritance with his brother. He was obviously a younger son as the eldest son got twice as much as the other siblings. What was his motivation? This seemed quite a reasonable request, but Jesus was always able to see beyond the obvious towards the true motive of the individual. The division of family inheritance was the normal practice so was \u201cfair\u201d according to the customs of the time. Jesus saw the motives of the brother so told him to be aware of all kinds of greed. He was not to covet his brother\u2019s inheritance thereby breaking the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0Commandment. Many covet other\u2019s possessions, wealth, lifestyle, job and so much more and strive to keep up with the object of their covetousness.<\/p>\n

However, our worth is not to be seen in terms of our possessions. God\u2019s riches are love, generosity, kindness, patience, and compassion. We are to share with others out of the richness of God\u2019s provision. That might include sharing wealth and possessions, but above all we are to share God\u2019s love and the Kingdom values. We can do that if we treasure God above all.<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How satisfied are you with your life?
    \nHow far do you crave possessions?
    \n3. Are you generous with your possessions?
    \n4. Where are there signs of greed in yourself, those whom you know and in the wider community?
    \n5. What are the effects of greed?
    \n6. Where does generosity need to be practiced? How would this make a difference?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Prayer<\/p>\n

    Loving God
    \nDrive from me a heart full of avarice, a heart full of hate, a heart full of impatience, a heart full of pride.
    \nGod of generosity, give me a generous heart full of compassion.
    \nGod of compassion, give me a loving heart full joy.
    \nGod of love, give me a patient heart full of forgiveness.
    \nGod of forgiveness, give me a humble heart full of contrition.
    \nThrough the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, through the example of the Son, and through the generosity of God. Amen<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Leonora Wassell – CoChair<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Photo by Priscilla Du Preez \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Luke 12:13-21 \u00a0The Parable of the Rich Fool Reflection \u2013 Motivation \u201cIt\u2019s not fair\u201d is something we hear often from children whether it\u2019s because one has received more ice cream, sweets, toys or even affection. Although not considered in law to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong until the age of 7 children as young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[349,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer","category-prayer-for-the-week"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 06:25:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}