When we launched our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer initiative in March, we never imagined that just weeks later the whole country would be in lockdown and our hour of exercise a day would be such a precious gift. We never imagined that we wouldn’t be able to gather in the church building to pray. But as the world has changed beyond our recognition, we are aware that some things haven’t changed. God is still the same and we can still pray. Prayer has never really depended on location or time; it is a spiritual weapon and the means of connecting invisible, spiritual truths.

So today is a call to prayer, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. (We’ll be decorating our kitchen, among other things!) Pray wherever you are. For those of you who will be out walking at some point in the day, please pray for the streets that you walk and for the people you know and don’t know. Pray with your eyes wide open, taking in the rainbow pictures on windows, noticing the people you can wave to but not come close to. Pray.

Pray for healing and wholeness, for economic regeneration, for the many families who are struggling to cope with all the implications of lockdown.

Pray for peace and love to reign, for harmony to rule in homes. Many people will be struggling with the 24/7 aspect of life in the same house with the same people at the moment. Pray that domestic abuse and violence will not have the last word, but that God will reveal Himself to people.

Pray for those who are fearful and anxious to find hope and peace in Christ. Pray for those who have lost loved ones (to whatever illness) and who are struggling with the loss this brings and also with the difficulties of arranging funerals at this time. Pray for ministers who are still conducting funerals to have compassion and empathy and to be Christ’s ambassadors. Pray for Alison, Jackie and Luke at the Salvation Army as they seek to minister to people through food parcels – pray for creativity and skill in helping others.

Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to move in our area and to bring revival. We don’t just want to ‘cope’ or ‘survive’. We want the abundant life Christ promised us to be evident in our towns and villages. Pray for the streets by name. Get hold of a map and pray. You might not be able to use Google Maps to find a holiday destination right now, but you can use it to explore the streets of Goldthorpe and pray. Yesterday I delivered an Easter parcel to a house on Railway Terrace, a street I had never, ever been to before in Goldthorpe. I will be praying for that street today and the people from the Parent & Toddler group who live there.

Let’s pray!

Compassion comes from two words, meaning ‘suffering with’. Compassionate people have a concern for others which is both sensitive and caring. God describes himself as compassionate on many occasions (see Ex 34:6, 2 Kings 13:23, Neh 9:17, Ps 86:5) and because of this, we too can show compassion to others. Paul urges the Ephesians, ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ (Eph 4:32) To the Romans, he says, ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.’ (Rom 12:15)

We live in a world of selfishness and scorn, but the way of compassion goes beyond our natural responses to the very heart of God. We have to leave behind our preoccupation with self in order to see the needs of others. Compassion means we do more than see, however. We enter into their needs and come alongside them, even as Simon of Cyrene carried the cross when Jesus was unable to do so. As we come alongside those in need (virtually, at the moment, but it’s still possible) and sit in silence with them in times of suffering and grief, we can bring comfort and hope to all.

This is a poem written by one of our church members, Gemma (and shared with her permission):

Life seems somewhat different behind my closed house doors.

With fear at the heart of everyone, not knowing what’s to come.

Life can be dark and lonely, but I know my Saviour’s love.

Though the battle is in full swing,

And we fight what we can’t see,

We know our God is faithful

And He will never flee.

With faith as small as mustard seeds,

We (digitally) come together to pray,

With words of encouragement that in our hearts will stay.

With people at a distance, we’ve never been so close.

It makes our hearts grow stronger while we are fighting away this ghost.

Our world may seem in pieces,

But our God’s forever strong,

Guiding us through these dark days,

Filling our hearts with song.

Sorrow may try to hold us, but will never keep us down

As night will turn back to day,

We know God has gifted us a crown.

Be blessed with joy and faith,

Knowing God is all in all,

Keeping tight hold of you,

He will never let you fall.

God’s loving kindness, compassion and mercy are all wrapped up in His grace – not just not giving us what we do deserve (judgment and punishment) but pouring out blessings which we don’t deserve. Grace is one of those delightful words which take a lifetime to unpack. Grace turns all our understanding of equations upside down; the quid pro quo which rules the world is banished in favour of blessing and love.

Again, we can only embrace grace if we’ve received it. If we don’t understand the lavish love of God and that our whole standing with God is through His unmerited favour rather than from our good deeds or self-righteousness, we will struggle to show grace to others. But if we have received grace, we can dance gleefully and can afford to respond in the same currency.

Two of my favourite verses regarding grace are that God’s grace is sufficient for us: ‘it’s all you need’, as the Message version puts 2 Corinthians 12:9, and that ‘He gives us more grace.’ (James 4:6) When we may feel we’ve run out of grace, God is there to pour more in.

One thing is clear from Acts 12 and that is that God is a God who saves and rescues. The Bible is full of the stories of God’s deliverance, most notably the Exodus from Egypt. Here, we see the story of Peter’s deliverance from jail, a deliverance involving angelic intervention, chains falling from wrists, guards mysteriously asleep and doors unexpectedly opening. It’s a story full of humour (the idea that the church is praying earnestly but is so stunned by Peter’s arrival that they leave him outside for a while is ironic!) but one which demonstrates to us that God can do anything. Nothing is too hard for Him.

We need to be confident in God’s ability and desire to save us, to rescue us, to deliver us and we need to pray for people in that vein. This chapter reminds us that ‘the church was earnestly praying to God for him.’ (Acts 12:5) To be sure, they were as surprised as Peter when God actually did deliver him, but they were praying for him. We must not let what we perceive to be unanswered prayers stop us from continuing to pray for God to intervene in supernatural ways in situations for people. We need to understand that prayer is our greatest weapon and that ‘the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’ (James 5:16) It’s good to keep praying the Lord’s Prayer at these times and especially to pray ‘deliver us from the evil one.’ (Matt 6:13) God is able to deliver us. He’s able to keep us and our loved ones safe. He’s able to intervene in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. Paul says God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20) Let’s keep praying for God’s miraculous intervention in our lives and into the situations which are currently gripping the world.

I was once told by another Christian that he had never had a moment of doubt since giving his life to the Lord. That may well have been true for him, but for the vast majority of people, faith walks daily alongside doubt, uncertainty and bewilderment. Some days, we believe the word of God easily and rejoice in victory; the Lord seems so close to us and life seems easy. Other days, we feel like we’re walking through the darkest tunnel with no sense of God’s presence and no answers to our questions. Most days, I suspect, are a mixture. We pray but still doubt. We believe but still wonder.

I don’t think there is anything abnormal about that, and the reason I say that confidently is because we find so many examples of it in the Bible. Elijah’s faith saw rain held at bay for three years and then he called God’s fire down onto the altar to get rid of the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18); the next time we meet him, he’s on the run from Jezebel, terrified for his life and asking God to let him die. (1 Kings 19) Abraham, our ‘father of faith’, lied about his relationship with his wife and slept with his wife’s servant– hardly great examples of faith! So it’s perfectly human to find life a bit like a yo-yo or a roller-coaster with its up-and-down motions.

In Acts 12, we find the church facing a desperately difficult situation: one of its leaders (James) has been killed by King Herod Agrippa I and its most important leader (Peter) is in prison, awaiting execution. The church is ‘earnestly praying’ for Peter (Acts 12:5) – presumably for his protection and deliverance. Yet when he turns up at the house where they are praying, Rhoda the servant girl is so stunned to hear his voice that she leaves him standing outside and the church members don’t believe her, saying she is out of her mind or it must be his angel! (Acts 12:15) This is hardly the picture we would expect of a faith-filled, victorious, powerful church!

So I find it tremendously reassuring that as we journey through life, often confused, bewildered, doubtful and uncertain as well as confident, faith-filled and rejoicing, we are in the company of so many others who have experienced all these emotions and still remained true to God. John says (the same John who lost his brother in this chapter) in his first letter, ‘If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.’ (1 John 3:20) What more, ultimately, do we need?