Thought for the Day
A one-minute read to inspire or challenge. Written by members of the church and updated every few days.
11th September 2026
THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY ARE YOURS.
These words which conclude the Lord’s Prayer as provided by Matthew have much occupied scholars because they do not appear either in the most ancient texts, nor in Luke’s transcription of this prayer. These words are in fact a summary of King David’s valedictory prayer in 1 Chronicles 29: ‘Yours Lord is the greatness and the power, the glory, the splendour and the majesty… yours Lord is the sovereignty… might and power is of your disposing’. It is not surprising that their grand perspective was adopted very widely in the scriptures in circulation in the early church.
My problem is rather different – it concerns the way in which the main body of the prayer addresses the problems of being a disciple in a broken world, a world where sins need to be forgiven, and where the sinners are also the sinned-against, a world where disciples have to confront manifold temptations to do wrong, and then to be delivered from evil; a world too where for many living with famine the prayer for daily bread seems unanswered; all in all a world in which the Devil seems pretty active.
Contrasted with this is the affirmation of divine sovereignty which is not simply descriptive of a future heavenly estate, because modern translations deploy the language of ‘now and for ever’ rather than ‘for ever and ever’.
The truth is that our discipleship has to be worked out in a world of parallel jurisdictions: the temporary illegitimacy of the Devil’s work whatever form it may take and however dire its consequences; and the underlying truth that this is God’s world in which he is sovereign and duteously and lovingly cares for his own.
John Briggs
9th September 2026
If spared and the Lord tarry, Merry and I will be in Littleover in Derby in a month’s time for a special Centenary. The Baptist church there (founded 1813) provided me with my first pastorate, as it has done for a number of other ministers over the years. Its claim to fame in our denominational […]
4th September 2026
I am going to appropriate last week’s New Testament reading as a manifesto for the Tyndale Thought for the Day: Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think (Romans 12.2, NLT). In the context of Paul’s letter, chapter 12 […]
2nd September 2026
September, the new academic year, has always been a time of fresh starts for me. I know that the calendar hints at January being a time for new resolutions and that the church calendar insists that the year starts at the beginning of advent but September is when my personal starting gun fires. So how […]
26th August 2026
In the BBC TV series Saving Lives at Sea, we see the volunteer lifeboat crews going out in all weathers, risking their lives to save those who, for whatever reason, are in peril on the sea. They are prepared to take on the worst storms, at any hour of day or night, and they are […]
21st August 2026
I have a diary from some years ago bought in Switzerland where each date is dedicated to a saint – 365 of them. Our small dictionary of saints omits most of them. It does include some but many that are there are said to be probably mythological. The well-known ones are those we see in […]
12th August 2026
After a slow journey north along the M6, car warning light on (eek!), we turned off at Penrith for the Lake District. The hills and mountains were ahead of us, around us – and our spirits lifted. I had somehow forgotten quite how beautiful it is in this part of the world. It was also […]
7th August 2026
Languages have long held a fascination for me. Indeed, I’ve often wondered where I’d have ended up if I’d placed the emphasis on languages rather than science when I chose my O Level subjects, followed by A Levels, followed by my first degree in Botany. Assuming at some stage I’d still have felt a call […]
5th August 2026
THE PORNOGRAPHY OF VIOLENCE. Reading the paper the other day, these four words stood out for me – the journalist was writing about how sophisticated drone warfare had become, so accurate that beyond the old ability to target a tank or other armaments, it is now possible to target an individual soldier and graphically display […]
1st July 2026 – Taking a break
Thought for the Day is taking a short break, but we’ll be back on August 5th.