I love the Message version of 1 Timothy 2:1-3, urging us to pray: “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Saviour God wants us to live.” This seems to me such a practical and all-comprehensive call to prayer. It takes us beyond ‘conventional’ prayer (eyes closed, hands together) and introduces us to all the different ways we can pray and also gives us such a broad scope of intercession. At this time when governments are having so much say in our daily lives and in many ways are dictating how we should live, the call to pray for those in authority over us is also very timely. As we pray, our eyes are taken off ourselves and our focus can be on God, who is all-powerful and whose purposes are never thwarted.

Having said that, it’s much easier to talk about prayer than it is to actually pray. This is why we are so keen to vary how we pray so as to actually engage in praying rather than mentally agreeing it’s important and then moving on without praying. Tomorrow (Saturday 7th November) we will still be doing our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer initiative. Praying while walking is a great way to pray. It means we pray with our eyes wide open and with hearts that ask God to bless real people in real locations. If you can’t walk around Goldthorpe tomorrow, you can pray while you shop wherever you are; if you can’t walk or get out at all, you can still pray between 10 and 11 a.m. tomorrow. We will be out walking and praying in Highgate at that time.

Then on Wednesday 11th November at 10.45 a.m., we will be holding our ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting on the Dearne Churches Together Facebook page. We’ll be thinking about remembrance and looking at how we can pray using creativity. One thing I have been doing with my granddaughters this week is making poppies. We have made poppy cards looking at Philippians 1:3 (‘I thank my God every time I remember you’) to send to our friends and family since we can’t see them right now and we have also made craft poppies to give to people. These are all different ways we can pray, asking God to bless and help those we love and combining prayer with action, something that’s always useful to do.

Prayer needs to be ongoing, however, a daily conversation with God that’s not limited to set times but overspills into our daily living. It involves adoration, praise, thanksgiving, confession of sins, personal prayers and intercessions for others. Let’s commit ourselves to pray every way we know how for everyone we know, asking God to guide us as we pray.

I’ve been thinking a lot about celebrations, as people have struggled with this aspect of life this year. Celebrations –  birth, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, leaving school and even funerals – have all been affected by the restrictions placed on us this year, and the reason this has hit us so badly is that these are occasions when our need for community overrides our desire to be alone. These ‘life events’ need to be shared; celebrations are times when we fully acknowledge that we are not meant to be alone and can rejoice in the people who matter to us. Everyone has had to alter their celebratory plans this year in some respect, and it’s been especially difficult for people going through these important rites of passage without the physical presence of others with them. Even though we can be grateful for videos and phone calls, there’s something so important about actually being together.

In our church, we like to mark people’s birthdays by singing to them as they stand on our ‘birthday box’. Yesterday, Garry sang to Isla, who will be celebrating her first birthday later this month, and to two other children (Layla and Tatijana) who will aso not be able to have their normal birthday parties and celebrations. We pray these children will know the joy of celebrations however their families manage to do this and that they will continue to grow and flourish in God.

Children are a reminder to us that life goes on and that there is much to celebrate in the ordinary. We like to sing children’s songs in our services, and even though we have not been able to sing together, the children have still enjoyed dancing to music and listening to truth in song. This is as it should be. All of us still have much to celebrate in Jesus Christ, no matter what is going on around us. We are His children, bought with His precious blood. We are forgiven and restored to a whole new family relationship with our heavenly Father. Celebration must remain a part of our everyday experiences. May we dance with abandon, sing our hearts out and celebrate who God is and what He has done for us!

We may not be allowed to meet in our building to pray collectively, but we can still pray as we are outdoors taking our regular exercise. On Saturday 7th November, we would urge people to do this as part of our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer initiative, praying wherever you walk. In fact, we would suggest you do this every time you go for a walk, as praying and walking are excellent partners at any time of the day, week or year!

Maybe you could also take photos of where you have walked and send these to us; please also let us know the nuggets that God drops into your heart as you walk.

We have been praying the priestly blessing from Numbers 6 as we walk the streets and this can continue to be our prayer, for God’s blessing is what will ultimately make the difference in people’s lives:

“‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
²⁵ the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’ (Numbers 6:24-26)

Listen to Michael Card’s version of this blessing in song here. (Click on ‘here’ in the previous sentence to hear the song, ‘Barocha’.)

What Do We Do When We Get Answers?

When we ask questions of God and He answers us, those answers will be important. James says that God is ultimately looking for people who will do what He says: ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ (James 1:22) This is a very simple but very profound truth.

Answers should lead us onwards. Every answer God gives us is important. Every truth laid out for us in Scripture has a relevance to our daily lives. None of it is irrelevant. Jesus said, ‘“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”’ (Matt 7:24-27) Every time God speaks to us, every time we hear the Shepherd’s voice, we need to obey.

What Do We Do With Silence?

What do we do with the times when the heavens seem silent and we don’t know what God is saying? Or when He says things we simply don’t understand and so we feel helpless? All of us have to accept that there are limits to our understanding, that there are some things which are beyond us. We can ask questions as long as we want, but we won’t always understand the answers.

When we are seeking God for an answer, His silence can feel like rejection, like He doesn’t care about us. David prays to God in Ps 35, telling God all about the people who are persecuting him, who are causing trouble for him. He says, ‘Lord, you have seen this; do not be silent.’ (Ps 35:22) Asaph said, ‘O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.’ (Ps 83:1) We are often desperate for God to speak to us, but there can be times when answers seem to take a long time. Daniel experienced this. He understood from reading the book of Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years and so he began to pray to God about this, asking for God to forgive the sins of the people of Israel and fulfil this word. (Dan 9:2-3) He pleaded with God for mercy; He begged God to listen, to hear, to act. (Dan 9:17-19) But it seems it was some time before he received an answer from the angel Gabriel. Later, on another occasion, after three weeks of praying and fasting, he received a vision, and saw one whose ‘body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.’ (Dan 10:6) In the vision, he is told that ‘since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.’ (Dan 10:12-14) Daniel’s prayer was heard by God from the first day, but there was a spiritual battle in the heavenly realms which delayed his answer – a period when God must have seemed silent. We need to hold on when answers seem delayed and God doesn’t seem to be saying anything. It’s not because He doesn’t care. It’s not because He is weak. God will always speak to us at the right time, and we need to hold on in faith, quietening our hearts so that we can listen for the most gentle whisper from One who knows us by name.

We usually ask questions because we want answers! Tonight, we looked at the places we might find answers to our big questions about life, God and everything else!

1. The Bible

if we want to know more of who God is, what He is like, how He thinks and acts, the most reliable way to do this is to read the Bible. Many of life’s questions are answered as we look here. ‘Where did I come from?’ may involve human biology, but the Bible says that God created people, and therefore has an answer to that question. ‘Why do people die?’ is another question the Bible tackles: it says ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom 3:23) and that ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Rom 6:23) People die ultimately because of sin, because of the human tendency to rebel against God’s commands. We can’t really answer why people die just from a biological point of view; we need to know what the Bible says the reason for death is.

2. Other People

God can also give us answers to our questions through other people. That may be our family and friends; it may be other church members; it may be the wider world. It can even be our enemies! But there is no doubt that God speaks through people. 1 Pet 4:11 says, ‘if anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.’ God can use people to speak words of prophecy, tongues and interpretation and words of wisdom and knowledge to us (1 Cor 12:8-10) – and through these things, we often have our questions answered and direction given to our lives.

Of course, it matters that we weigh what people say, because they won’t always get it right, but nonetheless, we shouldn’t be surprised if God speaks to us through other people. It’s one reason church, relationships and community are so important; they are all ways that our questions are answered.

3. God’s Creation

Ps 19:1 says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.’ God is all around us; His creation is singing His praise. Paul says that some of our questions about God can really be answered through the wonders of the created world. He says, ‘By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.’ (Rom 1:20, The Message) In other words, we can sense the presence of a Creator from the wonder all around us and can begin to have some of our questions answered as we explore the wonder of creation.

4. God Speaking Directly

The Bible is full of stories of people to whom God spoke (Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and so on.) Whilst we may not hear an audible voice speaking to us, Jesus reminded us that His sheep know His voice. (John 10:4-6) God can and does speak to us personally and we need ears to hear His voice.

5. Dreams and visions

The Bible teaches us that God can speak to us through dreams and visions (e.g. Joseph, Daniel, Ezekiel.) Often, these confirm what God has been saying to us in other ways, but these can be a powerful way of communication!

6. Angels

Angels are God’s messengers and often come to people with specific messages from God. People who receive these messages may well not have been asking questions as such; we never hear, for example, that Mary and Joseph were asking questions, but God definitely had a message for them which he delivered through angels. (Luke 1:27-38; Matt 1:20-23) But on some occasions, an answer may be given to us through an angel; this seems to have happened to Daniel, who was praying and seeking God and who received an answer from the angel Gabriel, who said, ‘Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.’ (Dan 9:22) Angels might not always look like someone wearing a white dress with a halo shining above their head, since Heb 13:2 tells us, ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.’ (Heb 13:2) Presumably angels can look like ‘ordinary’ people too!

Tonight’s ‘Little Big Church’ continued our journey through questions. We looked at the difficult questions children ask (see below) and also how asking questions is a great ice-breaker, helping us to get to know people better.

Difficult questions children ask:

1. Why do people die?

2. Where did I come from?

3. What is God?

4. How was I made?

5. What does “we can’t afford it” mean?

6. Is Father Christmas real?

7. Why do I have to go to school?

8. When you die who will I live with?

9. Why is the sky blue?

10. Why can’t I stay up as late as you?

Questions we asked to help us ‘get to know’ each other better:

1. Who is your favourite character in a story or film?

2. What’s your favourite colour?

3. Where do you live?

4. When is your favourite time of year? Which season do you like best?

5. Why do you like that time of year?

6. How do you travel to school or work or to the shops?

It’s easy enough to ask questions when we are with people directly, but we have to understand that they may not wish to answer or be truthful in answering. By asking questions, however, we build up our knowledge bank and can also get to know people better. In the same way, when we ask God questions, it’s not simply so that we can learn more facts about Him – though that’s always useful. It’s so that we can get to know Him better and can deepen our relationship with Him.