I think we could all agree these have been strange times. Probably all of us have never lived in a time such as this. Everything that we thought we knew has been brought into question. Patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking challenged. Questions asked of our motives and our actions. No doubt there is some familiarity to the aftermath of a severe cyclone but with a higher degree of consternation about the future.
So what should we do? A question faithful followers of Jesus often ask – what should we do Jesus, in light of our circumstances? Each of us, though influenced by the same global problem, have a different set of problems or situations to navigate. The privileged few say, well not much has changed for us, as we lived pretty simply and quietly anyway – yet even they wonder what now?
In previous letters I’ve described how we might position ourselves in relation to our God for strength and encouragement. I’ve suggested just last week how to engage with the trauma we all face when life is outside of our control. This week I just want to encourage you, as you do life, in a pandemic or not, to engage in one thing ‘without ceasing’. The one thing that will reshape your actions , your world, so that it comes into alignment with God’s will. Pray!
Timothy Keller in a work entitled PRAYER © 2014 Random House Company encourages, ‘never stop praying’ (1Thessalonians 5:17) . He goes on to say … Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray, healed people with prayers, denounced the corruption of the temple worship (which, he said, should be a “house of prayer”), and insisted that some demons could be cast out only through prayer. He prayed often and regularly with fervent cries and tears (Hebrews 5:7), and sometimes all night. The Holy Spirit came upon him and anointed him as he was praying (Luke 3:21–22), and he was transfigured with the divine glory as he prayed (Luke 9:29).
When he faced his greatest crisis, he did so with prayer. We hear him praying for his disciples and the church on the night before he died (John 17:1–26) and then petitioning God in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Finally, he died praying. The power of the Spirit descends on the early Christians in response to powerful prayer, and leaders are selected and appointed only with prayer.
In this season, where our timetables and priorities have been upended, is the best time shape or reshape our lives, our prayer lives, to come into agreement with the one whom we claim to follow. Let this interruption, even upheaval in our lives, count for something. It would be such a waste to come out the other side of this the same way we went in.