Stephen spoke tonight about the character of the Holy Spirit and how He is the only way we can be successful in our Christian lives. So often, we try to live in our own strength. We may be physically strong or mentally dexterous; we may have many skills and talents, but ultimately, we cannot achieve spiritual goals unless we depend on God’s power through His Spirit.

Often, we hold back from taking on a role in the church or in life because we feel incompetent or inadequate to fulfil this task, but that is to fail to realise how God uses the vulnerable, weak and foolish to achieve His aims. 1 Cor 1:25 reminds us that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness o God is stronger than human strength. We may hold back because we feel exposed or just stupid doing what God has said, but we need to realise that the Holy Spirit is available to help all of us. He makes the immeasurable difference to our lives, inspiring us and changing us.

Paul told the Corinthians that he often felt weak and fearful, but operated in the power of the Holy Spirit, accessing His strength, wisdom and knowledge. (1 Cor 2:1-5). The call is to be like Paul, not necessarily in what we do but in how we live our lives – being dependent on God’s Holy Spirit, who helps us (1 Cor 2:13-16).

God has always used the most unlikely of people to do His work; He specialises in ‘unlikely lads’, so to speak! The challenge is for us to use what God has given us, to do it, to live it… in and through Christ, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit as we live.

Today is Mothers’ Day in the UK and Dave spoke this morning on the question ‘What is a mother?’ As a man, he said this was a thorny question to tackle; the dictionary definition (a woman who has given birth to a child) not encompassing the way a woman can be like a mother to people even if she has not had children herself. A mother is someone who shows unconditional love for her child, who understands all about sacrifice and patience and hard work and who does not necessarily get the recognition or respect she deserves. Motherhood is all-embracing and exhausting, from the long hours of labour to the years of devotion freely offered. In the early years, it’s easy for a mother to lose her sense of identity, but most would say it is worth the helplessness, tiredness and sense of hopelessness that can often punctuate the crises of the job!

In Isaiah 49;15, we see that God describes Himself as a mother. Just as a mother cannot forget the baby at her breast, so God cannot forget us. We can be just as noisy, demanding, rebellious, energetic, curious and frustrating to Him as to our own mothers, but He loves us unconditionally. His love can be measured in the fact that He sacrificed His own Son for us. We often think of God as ‘our Father’, but He is also a mother to us and His tenderness, compassion and understanding can form the bedrock of our lives.

“Daddy fix it!” is the confident assertion of my granddaughter when her pop-up picture book needs sellotape to keep the pictures popping up or when her train engine needs a new battery to help it to run smoothly on the track again. She has confidence that her father will solve the problems which are too great for her.

So often as we grow older, we try to fix life ourselves, finding many situations that are beyond our ability to fix. We like to be competent and confident in our own abilities; we like very much to be in control, but the truth is that life often is beyond our control, competence and skills. We still need someone to rescue us, to fix things. We have a heavenly Father whose love and tenderness towards us are unwavering and whose ability to fix things is far beyond ours. Maybe we need the child-like confidence that Daddy can fix it instead of trying to carry the weight of the world’s burdens on our fragile shoulders.

Matt 11:28-30 reminds us that when we’re worn out from trying to fix life ourselves, we can come to God and learn from Jesus, exchanging our burdens for His. He is able to give us rest, to carry us close to His heart and to ‘fix it.’ May we develop childlike confidence in His goodness and power and let Him do the fixing.

Part of the work of the church is ‘to equip [God’s] people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up‘ (Eph 4:12). In order to facilitate this, we will be holding a ‘Team Building Day’ on Saturday 27th April between 12 noon and 3 p.m.

‘Team building’ can have terrifying connotations for some people, especially if they have been subjected to  physically demanding challenges in a work context which left them exhausted and spent rather than encouraged and built up! However, we hope this day will be accessible to all ages (we have activities for children to do as well as adults and nothing will be so strenuous that even the older people among us can’t join in!)

The session will start with lunch (bring your own lunch, please!- we can provide drinks) and Sarah Davey will be leading different activities that will help us to get to know each other better, understand our differences and work together effectively so that the body of Christ can be built up and we can be equipped to share the gospel more effectively with others.

Please put the date in your diaries and aim to be with us as we seek to learn more about the body of Christ and God’s plan for each one of our lives.

As I wait for my second grandchild’s arrival in our world, I’m learning to pray for the 3Ps – patience, protection and perseverance. These are good things to pray for regardless of our circumstances or individual petitions!

Patience is not something which comes easily to us. Most of us wait impatiently most of the time, whether that’s for the bus to come, the child to be born or God to answer our prayers! We are like the woman who asked for prayer for patience and said ‘Give it to me now, Lord!‘ Patience means trusting and hoping in God’s timing rather than our own and learning contentment in the now instead of always looking ahead and living in the hypothetical future. The present is the only moment we have and is God’s gift to us: ‘this is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’ (Ps 118:24)

I pray for protection for my family and friends daily, for life is a hazardous business. Labour and delivery of a child are hard work, but all of life has its ‘dangers, toils and snares’, as the hymn writer puts it, and God’s protection is needed. Ps 121 is a wonderful prayer to pray, acknowledging God’s protection at all times and His involvement and presence in our daily lives.

Perseverance is also needed in every situation of life. The mother may well feel at times during labour that she can’t carry on, that the pain is too much. She needs encouragement and help to keep going, with the hope of the baby’s arrival the motivation to persevere. We have the Holy Spirit with us as our encourager, reminding us of the words of Jesus when we perhaps feel like giving up and giving in. Paul tells us that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Rom 5:3-4) Just as the suffering of labour is forgotten in the joy of holding a baby in arms, we are reminded that our present suffering is temporary when compared to the glory to be revealed in us. (Rom 8:18) We are urged to persevere in running the race marked out for us. (Heb 12:1)

Patience, protection and perseverance are good things to pray for, no matter what our circumstances!

Speaking in tongues (or other languages, formally known as ‘glossolalia’) is a gift given by the Holy Spirit enabling people to speak in languages not learned academically. It is one of the characteristics of Pentecostal churches. It is not essential to speak in tongues to be a Christian, but this is a gift given by God to enable us to grow spiritually (see 1 Cor 14:4; Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke about this in a recent interview with Justin Brierley.)

Jackie Pullinger is a missionary to Howloon city in Hong Kong who has seen many drug addicts delivered from addiction. She says that praying in tongues is the chief ‘method’ she has used to see this deliverance: ‘heroin users would pray in tongues and find themselves miraculously released from their addiction.’ From a purely practical point of view, she commented that when you need to pray for hours on end for someone, ‘it’s quite hard to keep going [for that long] in your own language’!

Speaking in tongues can be misused (see 1 Cor 14:6-12 when Paul addresses the use of speaking in tongues in a congregational rather than private prayer setting), but Paul encourages this gift to be used and we too should encourage this gift to build up the church and enable us to connect further with a God whose generosity knows no limits.,