Waiting is a topic which has long fascinated me, probably because I am so bad at it. A few years ago I wrote that ‘waiting isn’t a waste of time’, but so often, it feels like it. I first encountered Ps 130 over thirty years ago, but I have found I am drawn back to it time and time again as it links hope and waiting so strongly.

³ If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
⁴ But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Today, I read a blog which talked about waiting (based on the account of the healing of the man by the pool who had waited helplessly for 38 years – see John 5.) The writer (Sam Miller) admitted ‘”here is no comprehensive or fully satisfying answer to” the questions we have about waiting, but added,“we can take some heart from the Biblical examples around waiting.  Sometimes the waiting is longer, because the preparation for what is to come needs to go deeper.  As Guinness famously advertised, ‘Good things come to those who wait.’”

He went on to say, “In this current moment of inhibited activity, there is maybe an invitation and an opportunity to wait.  This waiting may involve purification and separation from things that inhibit God giving us what we are asking for and we may find ourselves provoked to greater desperation.  These are both signs of preparation.In his journal writings, David, a colourful character of the Old Testament, expresses his frustration with the waiting. ‘How long?’ (Psalm 13) he moans on one occasion. David’s story and experience are very different to our friend in John 5 and yet, he finds himself in the same place of longing, waiting has stripped back and refined his desires: ‘One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after’ (Psalm 27). That one thing is to encounter God.  Despite having tasted most of the good things that the world had to offer him, David finds himself hungry for more of what can only be encountered and experienced in God.  Therefore, he sets himself to wait.”

Paul says, “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Rom 8:24-25) This is a life lesson for us. Waiting for the Lord is part of our Christian journey, and will always be part of that journey, until we are with the Lord face to face. Waiting is never easy; Michael Card says, “it’s the most painful lesson a believing heart has to learn” (‘Maranatha’). Sometimes the painful lessons have to be faced. Sometimes all we can do is wait. But that’s not inaction. That’s not doing nothing. As Eugene Peterson says, “waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts.” As we wait patiently, we are stripped from our need for action and learn to hope in God.

In Genesis 32:24-25 we read about Jacob and the angel of God wrestling: ‘So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.’  (Gen 32:24-25) After this incident, Jacob was known as ‘Israel’, meaning ‘he struggles with God’. There’s a sense in which prayer is often hard work; it’s like wrestling. Maybe you feel that that’s what you’re doing as you pray, that there is a struggle, a battle, that you’re not necessarily winning. I certainly feel like that right now.

Paul says to the Colossians, ‘Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.’ (Col 4:12) We are indeed in a spiritual battle and it’s not always easy, but we do need to be praying for each other that we may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. Grown up. Confident in God, not in ourselves. The Message version says that Epaphras was ‘tireless’ in prayer. We too need to persevere in prayer – for ourselves, for our families, for our friends, for each other, for our colleagues, for our neighbours, for our government, for our world. We need to wrestle. We mustn’t be complacent or give up now.

But we also need to rest. Prayer is not all about us. It’s not about how strong we are or how faithful we are or how good we are. It’s simply about that connection to God: bringing our petitions and our prayers to Him with thanksgiving and leaving them then with Him in simple trust. I often get so very frustrated as I pray, ‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt 6:10) because I don’t always know what God’s will is in specific situations and I don’t always recognise His answers to that prayer. And so I feel that I’m not very good at prayer and I want to give up. But whilst I believe we need to persevere and wrestle, I also believe there’s a part of prayer that is simply about coming to God and resting in His presence. Not asking. Not demanding. Just being there, with Him. I believe this connection to God, which looks so unimpressive perhaps to us is just as important as any of our eloquent prayers or fancy words.

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30)

As we pray now, let’s be aware of these different aspects of prayer. Sometimes we need to wrestle, like Jacob: ‘I will not let You go unless You bless me!’ (Gen 32:26) But sometimes we just need to rest: ‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.’ (Ps 37:7) Sometimes we just have to be still and know that He is God. (Ps 46:10) Sometimes, doing nothing except sitting in God’s presence is just the prayer we need. (‘Rest‘, Aaron Shust)

Stephen spoke tonight on the subject of wisdom. Ps 111:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. For most of us, we associate wisdom with age, experience and understanding, but there is a huge difference between natural wisdom (often based on philosophical, cultural, scientific and architectural achievements) and spiritual wisdom. God’s wisdom can be hidden from the naturally wise and learned and revealed to little children (Luke 10:21); Paul makes it clear that man’s way of doing things is vastly different to God’s, most clearly seen at the cross (1 Cor 1:17-25, 1 Cor 2:6-7).

Man’s wisdom should not be our ultimate destination in the wisdom stakes. We should aspire to God’s wisdom, not earthly wisdom. God’s wisdom will always be for His glory and splendour and those who follow His precepts will have good understanding. Man’s own resourcefulness and self-sufficiency will ultimately lead to failure, but if we apply God’s plans and purposes to our lives, we will grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Garry continued his series on the Sabbath this morning. Last time, he looked at the fact that the Sabbath was a time to change focus, recalibrate and renew our perspective. Today, he commented on the similarity between the Hebrew word for Sabbath ( שַׁבָּת‎ ) and the word for ‘captivate’ or ‘take as bride’ (שׁבה).

The idea of marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with God runs through the Bible (see Is 61:10, Is 62:4-5). Here, we see the idea of adorning ourselves and the notion of delight; God really does delight in us the way that a bridegroom delights in his bride. Marriage is viewed throughout the Bible as a serious covenant (see Ex 20:14, Jer 2:1-2) and adultery therefore is serious –  not only in the human realm but is used to describe the breakdown of Israel’s relationship with God (Ezek 16:8, Hosea 1:2, Jer 3:6-8). Jesus used the idea of marriage and preparation for a Jewish wedding to describe how we must be prepared for His return (Matt 25:1-13). In Jewish culture, the bridegroom’s job was to prepare the marriage home and Jesus refers to this in John 14:1-2.

Paul reminds us that human marriage is meant to reflect the close relationship of Christ and the church (Eph 5:25-33) and talks of the church as the bride of Christ. (2 Cor 11:1-2) The image of the church as the bride of Christ is continued in Rev 21:1-2, 9-10 and from this we can see the intimacy and delight of our relationship with God.

We might ask what is the connection, however, between marriage and Sabbath. Married couples share their everyday lives, but there are times when they need to be alone together without distractions. There is a need in marriage for relaxation, for deep conversations, for the pleasure of each other’s company – for more than the merely functional and mundane! All this is reflected in what God wants the Sabbath to be for us –  a time when we enjoy being together in unhurried fashion, when there is joy and rest in each other’s company, when we can simply enjoy being with Him. This is at the very heart of our relationship with God.

Part of our daily prayers is to ask God to let His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt 6:10) We will be thinking about this in our prayer life throughout May, particularly joining with the Church of England initiative ‘Thy Kingdom Come’  from Ascension (21st May) to Pentecost (31st May) to pray for people to come to know the Lord and for revival in our nation. (We need to be praying for this all the time, though!)

We have many opportunities to pray for people, including work colleagues, neighbours, friends and family. One of the initiatives in the campaign is to ‘Pray4Five’, urging us to pray for five people to come to know the Lord. Why not make a heart-shape like the one below and write on the back the names of five people you want to pray for during this period? As we said recently, sometimes having visual reminders can be helpful in prayer. One woman has said that she spends five minutes praying for five people each time she has a hot drink, and as she does that five times a day, she is praying in manageable ‘chunks’ for her friends and family.

There are many ways to pray (check out the website for ideas, including the Family Digital Prayer Map and Light the World initiatives), but most of all, we need to see that praying for God’s kingdom to come is part of our daily lives. One of the themes of the initiative is ‘prayer and care’ and it’s true that our love has to be seen in action. Here are 5 ideas on how we can care and love those we know, even when we are socially distanced:

1. Keep up contact. Make a phone call, send an email, letter or card saying that you are praying for them at this time.

2. Keep an eye out for the anniversaries of life events. Make that phone call to let people know you care.

3. Send a small gift or book purchased online.

4. Serve where you can in delivering groceries or medications.

5. Make sure the people you pray for know how much you value them by whatever means you can find.

Above all, let’s make the most of every opportunity we have to pray for people to know the love of God, to receive Him into their lives and to follow Him wholeheartedly.

Last Sunday we spoke about the importance of remembering and commemorating, and how God often asks us to take ‘stones’ and make memorials with them which act as a visual reminder to all He has done. Janet has come up with a great idea to do that, and this is for each of us to take photos of the screens which we watch when we are livestreaming services. That can act as a reminder to this time in lockdown and how we met together online when we weren’t allowed to meet together in person.

So this Sunday, it would be great if you could take photos of the screen which you’re watching (and maybe one of you watching as well) while you take part in the service and then send them to us so we can make a montage of these to put up in our building.

Here are some of Janet’s photos from last week and from yesterday’s prayer meeting. I wish I’d thought of this earlier; you could have tracked hair growth, for instance! The second photo is Garry holding my phone to prove Eileen was with us by phone rather than by Zoom.