Prayers
Heavenly Father,
We come before you today to pray for your guidance and wisdom in our use of digital technology. We thank you for the many ways that technology can be used for good, such as connecting with friends and family, learning new things, and sharing the gospel.
We confess that we have sometimes used technology in ways that are not honouring to you. We have used it to spread gossip, to bully others, and to waste time. We ask for your forgiveness and help to use technology for good in the future.
We pray you would help us be mindful of the time we spend on digital devices. We don’t want to be slaves to technology, but we want to use it in a way that brings glory to you.
We pray for the UK Baptist church as we seek to navigate the digital age. Make us a light at this time, a church known for its love, compassion and hope. Help us to show the love of Christ to those who are lost and hurting. Help us to be a voice for peace and justice in a world that is often divided.
We pray you would help us to collaborate with Jesus on social media. Help us to use it to share our faith with others, to offer support and encouragement, and to build relationships. Help us to use it to pray for others, to worship God, and to learn about the Bible.
We pray for wisdom on how to do church in a digital age. How can we connect with people who are in different geographical places? How can we build relationships and community online? Send your Holy Spirit to guide us.
We pray you would give us the courage to experiment and to try new things. Help us to be creative and innovative in our use of technology. Help us to find new ways to share the gospel and to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
This prayer was created with the help of Google Bard, the generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, which responded to prompts taken from articles in this magazine.
The speech-recognition program
It was clever stuff,
the computer recognising my voice
and typing what I said,
but, for all its ingenuity, its use was limited:
it got as much wrong as right,
more often than not misunderstanding my words
or misinterpreting my commands,
the resulting text riddled with errors,
distorting what I’d intended to say.
Lord, though you speak in a multitude of ways,
I’m equally poor at getting the message,
either failing to listen or getting my wires crossed.
I confuse what I want you to say
with what you’ve actually said,
my life, in consequence, a shadow of what it should be,
marred by silly mistakes and deeper faults.
Forgive me,
and give me ears to hear
and a heart to respond.
Amen.
The prayers featured throughout this edition are written by Baptist minister Nick Fawcett, a devotional
and reflective writer. Access his writing at: nickfawcett.uk
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