Prayer is an essential part of the Christian’s life, but sometimes we can come before God with a sense of having no idea how to pray or what to pray for. I always find the Psalms helpful in this respect, since they are the recorded prayers of God’s people and are useful in guiding us as to what and how to pray.

Psalm 20 is a psalm of David that offers us useful pointers for prayer. It gives us suggestions as to what we can pray for as we lift each other and our family and friends in prayer.

1. Protection (‘May the name of the Lord protect you.’ Psalm 20:1) We can pray God will protect people as they travel, as they work and as they are involved in daily life, which is full of hazards and perils!

2. Help (‘May He send you help from the sanctuary.’ Psalm 20:2) So often we face difficult situations and don’t know what to do, but divine help is always available to us. ‘Lord, help!‘ is a vital prayer.

3. Support (‘May He grant you support from Zion.’ Psalm 20:2) Help and support are very similar, but sometimes we need that sense of God carrying us and giving us the lift we need in difficult circumstances.

4. Acceptance (‘May He remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.’ Psalm 20:3) All of us need the assurance of acceptance and the awareness of living under God’s blessing and approval. So many of us struggle with this whole question of acceptance and our works become a way of earning God’s favour. Ultimately, we need to remember that the sacrifice of Jesus means we don’t have to earn God’s favour, nor can we do so… because we already have it! When we live in this awareness, our work and efforts take on a whole new perspective.

5. Success (‘May He give the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.’ Psalm 20:4) We know that God has good plans for our lives and often puts desires and yearnings in our hearts. We need to be people of vision and passion, not just drifting along but striving to do the good works God has designed for us (Eph 2:10). All of us need God’s breath on our plans for them to succeed not just for now but to last into eternity.

6. Victory (‘May we shout for joy over your victory!’ Psalm 20:5) We need to stand with others in their joys and sorrows (Rom 12:15) and pray for victory – especially standing with people in their spiritual struggles and rejoicing when they see God’s salvation, help and deliverance.

We had two more birthdays to celebrate last night (plus an interloper who is a little bit addicted to the birthday box…)

I have always loved writing and find it easy to put pen to paper. When I was still at school, one of the hardest tasks I had to learn was called ‘precis’, learning how to summarise longer passages of writing in relatively few words. I struggled to do this, finding that being succinct and clear was not as easy as I had imagined. At the time, I also found this a pointless exercise, but over the years I have come to see this as possibly the most valuable lesson I ever learned. It taught a verbose child the importance of constraint.

Just recently I accepted the challenge of writing a story in no more than a thousand words. I found that challenging, requiring ruthless editing and a paring skill I did not grasp easily. But I also found it exhilarating to have to construct a story within the contraint of that word count.

Freedom and constraint seem to me to be a double-sided coin. We think of freedom as licence, the go-ahead to do as we please, and in some ways it is. But true freedom means accepting – and even relishing – constraint and limitations. Freedom is not anarchy, but involves consideration of and care for others.

Many of us chafe at constraint, viewing it as a straitjacket of limitations. I prefer to view it as a corset enabling the flow of a beautifully-cut dress to enhance a woman’s figure. Choosing to live in obedience to God does not mean we are not free. Rather, we choose to live within the boundaries and find within these constraints great joy. Just as the story-writer or poet expresses deep thoughts within the constraint of those literary forms, so we too can find great freedom as we live within the boundaries of God’s vast love and care.

Yan’s sermon tonight, when talking about the Parable of the Sower, reminded me of a poem I wrote ‘about the soil.’

Gardeners’ Question Time gathers experts and amateurs,

Asking questions about growth.

It’s all about the soil, we’re told.

Centuries before, a man told a story

All about the soil.

A dusty path,

A rocky, clay-filled patch,

A thorny, weedy field,

Rich, friable, moist, manure-fortified soil.

The different soils produced different returns,

But what’s that got to do with me, living in an urban environment?

Parables about soil don’t reverberate in my soul.

The dusty path represents the hard-hearted:

Folk who simply won’t believe,

Scornful, doubtful, cynical,

Content to live a material life in a material world.

The rocky road represents the faint-hearted:

Rootless, easily knocked off course,

Superficially smiling, but quickly toppled over

By life’s adversity challenges.

The thorny ground represents the half-hearted:

Divided personalities who let worry and anxiety choke life and joy out,

Burdened by ills, myopic about life,

Seeing only the negative and never quite believing in miracles.

Ah, but this rich, fertile soil represents the whole-hearted:

People who persevere,

People who hear God and who keep that word hidden in their hearts,

People who decide to live by faith and not by sight,

People who understand that growth takes time

And who continue to garden long after

The amateurs give up.

People who weed, water and weather the storms.

What kind of soil are you?

What kind of crop are you growing?

When God moves in revival, our lives are changed. Every true encounter with God leaves us changed. Think of Isaiah, who became a compelling prophet after His vision of God or Peter who became a bold and brave witness. Perhaps the most radical change was in Saul who had persecuted the church with great zeal before encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus. Only that divine encounter could have changed him into a mission-minded man!

God changes people ultimately to make them more fruitful (see John 15). His word is powerful and is described as seed in the Parable of the Sower. What affects growth is not the seed or the sower but the soil. The hard ground was compressed soil which came about because of being on a well-walked path. The compacted soil meant no seed could penetrate it and the birds of the air snatched the seed away.

Shallow soil on rocky ground reflects those who make an immeditate, emotional response to Jesus but fall away quickly. Soil that is cluttered with thorns and weeds reflects how easily our hearts can be distracted by worldly concerns and fears. We need our heart soil to be changed into good soil (which bears much fruit) if we are to see revival. What God wants from us is the ready response of a softened heart, not resistance to change.

Guest speaker Yan Hadley spoke tonight on the radical cost of revival. God Himself is eager to bless us abundantly (see Mal 3:10, Luke 6:38), but so often we are not willing to pay the price for revival. Ultimately, the unchanging cost of revival is radical change. If we want to see God move in sovereign power, we need to take to heart the steps outlined for us in 2 Chron 7:14:

1. We are required to humble ourselves, accepting that we are nothing without God.

2. We must seek God’s face whole-heartedly, accepting that seeking God requires time and effort.

3. We must turn from sin (admitting that we are all sinners is not easy; being told we still follow ‘wicked ways’ is offensive, but without repentance from sin there will be no revival).

4. We have to be serious about prayer and turn to God.

The change which God requires from us is internal but radical, requiring us to forsake everything to be His disciple (Luke 14:33).

1. We must change our preconceived ideas. Is 55:8 reminds us that God’s thoughts are not the same as our thoughts; we are urged to trust in Him rather than rely on our own understanding. (Prov 3:5-6) We mustn’t put God in a box and expect to be able to control Him. We cannot ‘make revival happen‘, nor can we dictate how God works, but need to be open to what God wants to do and willing for Him to work in new ways.

2. We must change in our preoccupation with self. John the Baptist realised that Jesus must increase; He had to decrease. (John 3:30) We need to lose our obsession with ourselves (‘me, my, I‘) and be more aware of the holiness of God. Our focus has to be more on God than on ourselves.

3. We must change in our personal motivation. So often, we come to services to receive and be blessed, rather than to give and to bless. 1 Cor 14:26 reminds us of the need for each person to be involved in our gatherings, being prepared to give (‘a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation’). Ps 122:1 talked of the gladness felt by the psalmist in gathering together; Ps 100:4 talks of entering God’s courts with thanksgiving and praise. We have to prepare our hearts to gather together, expecting to meet with God as we do and showing reverence and awe before Him. (Ps 95:6)