There is a meme that features the picture of tin cans and the line ‘success comes in cans, not cannots.’ It’s meant to encourage a change in atittude, from the negative ‘I can’t’ to the positive ‘I can.’

The Bible has a similar verse, but one which is anchored in God and reality rather than in our own ability: ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ (Phl 4:13) The context of the ‘all things’, the ‘all this‘, is contentment in God – learning to trust Him whether we are in plenty or in need, learning to be content whatever the circumstances because God’s presence with us makes all the difference to how we live.

Yesterday I had to go to the dentist’s to have a broken wisdom tooth extracted. I don’t know where my fear of the dentist originated, but anyone who knows me knows that this is an irrational phobia. I have actually been blessed to have had wonderful dentists in my life, and my current one is both kind and understanding. This does not, however, reduce the fear I feel when entering his surgery. I am that patient who is so tense even during routine check-ups that my nail marks remain on the chair arm after I am gone. So you can imagine how I felt at the prospecct of a tooth being extracted, especially since I had had to have an X-ray beforehand and he had warned me that I might need to go to hospital if the X-ray showed potential complications.

He patiently explained all the risks associated with the procedure (the tooth breaking, leaving roots which would necessitate hospital treatment, sinus infections, bleeding problems), something I understood rationally that he had to do but which actually only succeeded in accelerating my heart rate still further. He told me I must give informed consent for the procedure as the child in me yelled, ‘Just do it!’, the war between what I wanted (to be miles away) and what I needed (to have the procedure) raging as hard as any military conflict.

I gripped the chair arm for dear life, closed my eyes and endeavoured to keep my mouth open while he prodded and poked other teeth to test them, anaesthetised me twice (gum and roof of mouth) and then began.

I could feel fear coursing through me, but focussed on repeating Philippians 4:13 silently in my head. ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I can do this. I can bear it.‘ Occasionally I would flinch (‘that’s my finger, please don’t bite it,’ he intoned.) The dentist, well used to my paranoia, kept a running commentary going throughout (‘open a little more,’ ‘now close’, ‘that’s just my finger’, ‘nearly done’), whilst at the same time my own internal dialogue (think Smeagol and Gollum) was running (‘hurry up; I can’t stand this’, ‘yes, you can, I can do all things through Christ; you can do this.’)

It’s taken longer to write this than the procedure did, and in the end the tooth was taken out cleanly (‘I’d give that a 10 out of 10’, the satisfied dentist said as I bit down on gauze to stop the bleeding, nearly gagging as I did so.) Slowly my heart rate returned to normal, and I left a few minutes later, poorer by £70.70 but strangely exhilarated. That which I had feared and dreaded for months was over; still numbed by the anaesthetic, I felt exuberant. It was done! The agony of toothache solved!

Sometimes in life we have to go through experiences we wish we didn’t have to experience. My dental trip was nothing compared to the difficulties some people have to face day after day, year after year. The truth remains that we have to focus on the cans, not the cannots, and most of all on the God who gives us strength. A positive attitude in God’s ability (not ours) will see us through difficult, even desperate, days.

To follow is to be in motion behind a person, to be associated with someone and to be in sequence behind them. Jesus was followed by many people while on earth. He was followed by the curious and the needy (see Matt 4:23-25, Matt 14:13-14), when we see those in need of healing following Jesus and finding in Him the healing and wholeness they needed. He was also followed by people who had been affected by His presence (see Matt 20:29-34, Mark 5:1-20).

The next level of followers were those who were grateful for Jesus’s intervention in their desperate situations, such as those who had been healed (Luke 17:11-19).But others, of course, did not rise to the challenge of following Jesus 9Matt 19:16-22).and Jesus certainly did not want followers who did not understand the cost (see Mark 8:34-38). He made the cost of following Him and being His disciple plain to others (Matt 10:34-39; Matt 16:24), showing us that those who follow wholeheartedly may well lose family support and help.The cost of following Jesus can be great (see Heb 11:36-38), but He still issues the call to follow Him, as He did to those first disciples (see Mark 2:13-14, Luke 5:1-11).

Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador, said, ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’ Jesus wants wholehearted followers. We may start off following Him simply to have our needs met, but we need to progress to be followers who are wholly devoted to Him.

In our series looking at living according to God’s ways, we looked at four verses from Psalm 119 which can guide our prayers in 2024, as the psalmist prayed for God:

1. to preserve his life according to God’s word (Ps 119:25, 28, 107)
2. to strengthen him according to God’s word (Ps 119:28)
3. to do good to him according to God’s word (Ps 119:65)
4. to direct his footsteps according to God’s word (Ps 119:133)

All of us need these things if we are to live under God’s blessing. Ps 67 makes it plain that God is the God who blesses us; Jesus taught us that we are to come to God honestly and ask for all we need in life, promising that all who ask will receive (see Matt 7:7-11).

To be preserved is not to be kept like a jam or pickled like onions to keep us going! To preserve means to keep alive; in some versions of the Bible, these verses are translated ‘quicken’ to convey the idea of the word, ‘to revive, keep alive, nourish, preserve, save, be whole.’ The psalmist recognises that God is the source of life. Life comes from Him; He gives us the breath to breathe, and we are sustained by His powerful word. (Heb 1:3) The psalmist has known adversity (‘I have suffered much’) and what it is to feel desperate (‘I am laid low in the dust’), but he also knows that God is breathing life into him and therefore he has hope. He knows that there is more to life than ‘worthless things’, than material things which don’t last. He longs for eternal truths and comfort, something which will last or endure. All of us need purpose and eternal truth in our lives.

All of us need strength too! To be strengthened according to God’s word means we receive strength from God. Joel says, ‘Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”’ (Joel 3:10) This is not simply wishful thinking or positive speaking, but it is a case of aligning ourselves with God’s word rather than our own feelings. We have to speak out His word over and above how we feel. The psalmist admits to the sorrow he feels, but looks to God for strength. The weakling says ‘I am strong’ not because of his own strength, but because of God’s, and this is what we too must learn to do. God will never ask us to do more than He will give us the strength to do, and so we can be confident that He will strengthen us according to His word. (Phil 4:13, Isaiah 35:3-4)

God’s goodness is at the heart of our faith (see Ps 119:68), therefore we pray, ‘Do good to me according to Your word.’ (Ps 119:65) We may not always understand God’s goodness when difficulties and trials come our way, but the life of Joseph reminds us that God is always working for good even in those times (see Gen 50:20, Rom 8:28). We have a good God who does not withhold good things from His children: ‘Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ (Ps 37:4)

The final blessing the psalmist asks for is direction: ‘Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.’ (Ps 119:133) Life is so much better when we are going God’s way! Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6), and we need God’s direction and guidance in our lives. It’s the only way to avoid pitfalls, snares and keep going in the right direction. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13); Ps 23:3 says, ‘He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.’

Learning to be led by the Spirit is not always easy (see Rom 8:14, John 10), but just as we have to trust a map or a SatNav to lead us to our destinations, so we must trust God to lead and direct us, opening the right doors for us and closing those which would not be good for us. (Rev 3:7) Our destination is to be conformed into the image of Christ, to be shaped into His image. (Rom 8:29) Everything which happens to us in life is designed to help us reach this goal.

Just occasionally God lifts a curtain and we see things from His perspective; we see how He is working behind the scenes in our lives and in history.

For years now we as a church have been praying for Goldthorpe and the Dearne area, praying that God would bless and renew our whole community. Encouraged by God’s word through Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon that they were to pray for the peace and  prosperity of that place (Jer 29:7), we have been praying for the peace and prosperity of Goldthorpe and have been seeking to do what we can to bless and help our area.

In March 2021 the Government gave £23.1 million to Goldthorpe as one of Barnsley’s Principal Towns. We believe that in itself was an answer to our prayers! Their slogan is ‘Regenerate… Renew… Revitalise.’ Those seem like very spiritual words to me! Regeneration is often used in economic terms (it means ‘rebirth’), and we pray regularly for local businesses to flourish and prosper. But regeneration is also a spiritual term, and we are praying for people to be ‘born again’ and to come to know God.

Renewal is at the heart of what BMBC is doing in Goldthorpe (hence the new Town Square, new play area by the doctor’s surgery and refurbishment of old buildings such as the Dearne Playhouse), but again, renewal has that spiritual application, where we ask God to renew our hearts and refresh us. Spiritual renewal is necessary; there is a need for us to be renewed inwardly if outward renewal is to last.

Revitalise implies not only new life, but new vitality. Some time ago God reminded me of the verse from Isaiah 61:3 that He would bestow ‘a crown of beauty instead of ashes‘, and this is something we have been seeking to see locally – beauty, colour, vibrancy and vitality instead of dreariness, drabness and greyness. The Dearne Community Arts’ Festival’s community art projects are all very colourful, and the 2023 project (‘Picture Perfect?: The Dearne Community Story Trail’) was the most ambitious yet. Using part of the £23.1 million given to Goldthorpe (itself a miracle of God’s provision), the arts’ festival worked with artist Lydia Caprani, storyteller Beccy Dye and local community groups to capture something of the vitality that is part of our area every single day!

Last week I had the privilege of meeting with Michael Upton (former journalist at the Rotherham Advertiser and now working for BMBC) and Matt Stephens (Chair of Goldthorpe Towns Fund) to publicise the launch of the Dearne Community Story Trail. To hear Matt Stephens encourage people to come to see the selfie boards (see here) was that lifting of heaven’s curtain for me. In July 2021 at the first Phoenix Park Fun Day, Matt Stephens attended to promote the Towns Fund and talk about all that was being planned; I spoke to him and told him that there were lots of things we in the community wanted to see and do. To stand with him less than three years later and reflect on being a part of these projects was special indeed. God hears and answers our prayers. He is always working behind the scenes, even when we do not see Him. What is happening now in Goldthorpe and the wider Barnsley borough is, I believe, partly the result of the prayers of God’s people. Let’s keep praying and believing for regeneration, renewal and revitalisation – in every possible realm!