19th January 2024

Have you noticed how often we have sung ‘Lord for the years…‘ over this New Year? And how relevant its prayers are for our land, our world and all the people in them? For ourselves most of all and how we treat each other and how we depend on God?

…in living power remake us,
self on the cross and Christ upon the throne,
past put behind us, for the future take us,
Lord of our lives, to live for You alone.

In that spirit we thank God that He knows and cares about all the people and situations  He leads us to care so passionately and feel so indignant about, as we pray about them and look for how God is guiding and showing us how we can let His love flow through us to them so His will may be done and His kingdom come closer.

I’ve had that verse on my mind for the last week feeling that God prompting me to use it for this thought today. Does God guide us and if so, how? If we are alert and open to listen for His voice we shall receive His guidance in many ways, not only Bible passages and hymns but in conversations with friends and their letters, email appeals from charities and television and radio programmes of all sorts. When it leads us to express His outpouring love, we can know the message is from Him and be shown His way to put it into practice.

Lesley Fuller