Sunday 11th May Easter 4

I do not doubt the power of prayer. I’ve seen prayer answered in small, and in dramatic, ways. Prayer, the on-going daily conversation with God, is extremely important to me. But, prayer can be difficult. Sometimes we feel that our request is too small, too insignificant, for God to be interested in. Other times, like paying for world peace, it feels that we are just throwing words into the air. I felt that with prayers for VE Day.

Almighty God,
from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed:
kindle in the hearts of all people the true love of peace;
and guide with Your pure and peaceable wisdom
those who take counsel for the nations of the earth;

How can we pray this, knowing that there are leaders of groups and nations who seem to turn to violence and war before ever thinking of peace? Why are we still having to pray for Ukraine, Gazza, Yemen, Sudan, when there seems no end to the violence , and peace is just a pipe-dream? (It’s a question that non-Christians ask – if the God you believe in is all-powerful, all-loving, the Prince of Peace, why doesn’t He step in and stop the violence? Where is your God?)

Being a people of prayer means rejecting the notions of ‘Que sera, sera’, or ‘Manyana, Manyana’, or fatalism. We believe in a God who became incarnate in the world, who answers prayer, who so loves the world. We proclaim a sovereign Lord, the King of the Nations. I know that during World War 2, prayer was a real and active force – my Mum was convinced that it was prayer that stopped the Nazi’s from invading after Dunkirk. May we know and believe that prayer is a real and active force in our lives, in the life of our churches, and in the life of our world.

O Lord, hear my prayer, O Lord, hear my prayer
When I call, answer me.
O Lord, hear my prayer , O Lord, hear my prayer,
Come and listen to me.

Rev Phil