Thoughts By Ian Bentley
“In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Philippians 4:6
On Sunday 19th Sept, by the grace of God, a number of us met at the café in the park to share communion together for the first time in many months. For many it was the first time they had seen each other since lockdown began. It was big step forward on the path towards something more normal.
I wonder what you have learnt over the past 16 months as we have suffered this pandemic?
I think many have come to realise the limitations of our human power. We have not been able to save lives, to save businesses or to overcome the virus.
We recognise, perhaps in a new way, that we humans are weak, frail, lacking in wisdom and so many other qualities. Yet still we persist in trying to sort things out on our own.
Our daughter, Anna, when she was little, often used to say “I do it my own”. That’s fine. Learning to do things for ourselves is part of growing up and being independent. But we are limited in what we can do. God knows our limitations and so his word encourages us, rather than strive to sort things out ourselves or worry about the things we can’t deal with, to come to him in prayer.
In this the Christian life is counter cultural. It is not about learning to “do it my own” but of learning to depend on God and, through seeing God answer our prayers, to grow in trust of him.
The bottom line, as we have seen so clearly in these last months, is that as humans we can’t “do it my own” - we need God’s help and the words “in everything by prayer” are so relevant.
Paul’s purpose in writing was to encourage this church to bring everything, every part of their individual and corporate life through prayer to God in dependence and trust.
I point us to these words to encourage us to be doing just that. We bring every part of our church and personal lives to God. I do so knowing from my own experience that we need continually to be encouraged to pray and I do so to help us see prayer as our first response to whatever confronts us rather than our last.
As I look at the days ahead I have no idea what lies before me and certainly no idea what lies before you. We can spend a lot of time worrying about the future and through that worry gain nothing or we can bring everything to God in prayer and through that know peace of heart and mind. In everything by prayer.