After a wet winter, it is good to have the days stretching out again and the colours of flowers once again beautifying the landscape, to be able to turn down the heating and enjoy the prospect of days and the odd week enjoying the British countryside! It is always essential that we recognise our Lord God at work in both the days of promise and the times of bleakness and dark.
I recently attended the funeral of a good friend who died very suddenly in his fifties. As I had visited him in the hospital’s Chapel of rest with his wife and read Psalm 23 aloud, I was invited to read it again. As you may know it includes the words, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil.’ As believers we know that Jesus will be with us, even in our darkest hour.
A well-run community hall, golf club or fitness group can be hugely beneficial and give a sense of community. The difference between those groups and church fellowships is that, yes, in a church fellowship there are sound relationships between all those attending - horizontal relationships, but also a vertical relationship with the living God, freely accessed through prayer.
Throughout the Bible people pray. We have prayers recorded from Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Solomon, Paul, James, Jesus, and many others. There is no limit on the frequency, length, or type of words that we can use in our prayers.
I recall listening to Pete Greig preach on the Holy Trinity Brompton podcast. If you want to listen to it, go to ‘I believe in miracles’ on the ‘HTB’ session. He is the founder of the 24-7 prayer international group, which has reached more than half the nations on earth. He declares prayer to be, ‘the heartbeat, the bottom of the volcano. Without prayer, we are religious, but we don’t have a relationship.’ He reminds us after reading from James chapter 5 verses 13-18 that the brother of Jesus encourages us to, ‘come what may, you must pray’. Prayer is as vital to the Christian believer as oxygen; through prayer we discover more clearly the will of God and draw closer to our Saviour.
One of the ways God demonstrates His loving care of us is through the people He sends to support us in times of personal crisis. I am sure that everyone has examples of this loving care and patient, courteous goodwill towards us. Recently, there have been a couple of events in my life when I have witnessed people going that extra mile, because they care. It is a great encouragement to see these signs of God at work. He loves us, He protects us, He guides us!
May God go with you, Pastor David