Skip to main content

Prayer column for March 2014

Expecting the unexpected


You may not have heard of Charlestown Meadows – fields by Buck Lane on the lower edge of Baildon about to be built on – unless you’re an avid reader of the Telegraph & Argus.  It’s council-owned land, and they are putting in infrastructure in the expectation, or hope, of attracting private enterprise.  So it did, early on, in the guise of travellers’ caravans, but they can’t have filled in the right forms and were turfed out, leaving behind them the usual jetsam of their presence, including, to my surprise, a towelling dressing gown which still graces the approach road to the site.  It caught my eye and I did a rough and hasty sketch of it one afternoon.

Why?  And what’s this got to do with prayer anyway?  Well the ‘why’ is simply that it caught my eye and seemed bizarre enough to note.  And the prayer connection is that it occurred to me afterwards that we don’t do enough if it – I mean we don’t do enough of noting the bizarre, the unexpected, the unusual, especially in unlikely and out-of-the-way places.  Because that’s where and how God often seems to choose to work in response to our prayers.  So we may miss his answers and toss them aside as insignificant flotsam if we’re not watchful.  Perhaps I should have done a more careful drawing.

Roy Lorrain-Smith

A prayer for each week

Lord of the obscure, as well as the under-your-nose obvious, please open our eyes to see what you are doing in Bradford North, that we may support your work and glorify your name, through Jesus.  Amen.

Lord of jobs, and fields, and industry, and prosperity and harvest, who loves to give richly through earth’s bounty, please may we respond to your generosity with thankfulness, and work wisely with it.  Amen.

Lord of the unexpected and surprising, calling unlikely people in out-of-the-way places into your service, please help us to discern your hand and support your work, as you lead, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Lord of the moment, whose Spirit moves mysteriously, now pointing to this or prompting that, please awaken us to his blessed nudging, open us to his fresh hope , and arouse us to eager obedience.  Amen.

Lord of all life’s jetsam and flotsam, which to us may seem but worthless waste, please work your miracle of recovery on our rejects and wreckage, that our failures may become a fanfare of your glory.  Amen.

Your own prayers


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Circuit Talents Challenge

"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money ..." Matthew 25:14-30 Why don't you take up the Circuit Talents Challenge by taking a £5 note and making it grow for the Circuit? More details ...

For such times as these! - A good news story from Windhill!

For such times as these! (Esther 14:14) On June 1st James Stannet (from e:merge , a Christian Youth organisation) began his youth work for Christchurch LEP in Windhill. He says, "Well! June has been a really busy but very productive month. On Wednesday, in the park, numbers are climbing week by week, now averaging 25. Good partnerships have been made with local organisations. this has been a blessing: enabling us to deliver varied sport activities and build good relationships.' 'The Hope Revolution, youth event, based at Christchurch LEP was a massive hit. A BIG Thank you is expressed to the Church for the support, encouragement and prayers. 200 people attended the Fun Day. Despite the rainy weather, 100 young people took part in local projects: two house clear-ups, school garden project (Windhill Primary) and running the Fun Day. 10 Christian Organisations working together resulting in several families requesting Christian children's activities.' ...

The wind among the trees

I sat among the trees once. And a wind was blowing. Quite a strong wind; I could hear it in the trees –   rushing, rushing. A lovely sound, soothing to my ears. I stopped what I was writing and began to listen. I remembered that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was like   the wind. You could hear it; see its effect. But you couldn’t see the wind itself. You couldn’t see   where it was coming from, nor going to. And I wondered, “Are you showing me something about your Spirit, Lord?” So I sat, and I listened, and I watched. They were big, old trees where I sat. Tall they were, in an ancient wood, well-branched,  shapely. Beech, grey bark against the clear blue of the sky. And leaves: they were leaves that knew the wind;   leaves that let the wind know them. They looked, like beach leaves look in a wind: full of life –   and with a certain beauty all their own. I watched the great crowns of those great trees. I watched the branches sway and the ...