The World is Mine, and all its Fullness – Psalm 50:12

Read: James 4: 1-10

Dear Friends,

Before they were a week old, the eaglets were fighting over food. Neither was strong enough to hold up his head for more than a few seconds, so the pair looked like fuzz balls with bobble-heads attached. But whenever the parents brought food to the nest, the bigger eaglet was quick to peck down his brother to keep him from getting a single bite. His aggression would have been understandable if food was scarce, or if the parents couldn’t be trusted to supply what he needed. But nothing could be further from the truth. The eaglets were being fed fish many times their size; there was more than enough for both of them.

The greedy eaglet reminds us of our own foolishness when we try to get for ourselves something that belongs to someone else (James 4: 1-5). Conflicts erupt because we want something that God has given to a friend, colleague, relative or neighbour. Instead of asking God for what we need, we try to get what He’s given to someone else (v.2). But God has something good for each of us. We don’t need what belongs to anyone else and we certainly never need to harm anyone to get what we need.

Our loving heavenly Father has more than enough for everyone.

With love in Christ Jesus from your Elders

The secret of contentment is

To let the Lord supply;

Just do your part and put God first

And on His Word rely.

Our needs will never exhaust God’s supply

Prayer

Jesus said, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’ (Matthew 7:7). At Lillington Free Church we are committed to praying for our church, our community and our world. If you require personal prayer or prayer for someone you love then please text ‘Prayer’ and your concern to 07510218123.

If you have questions about life and death, or want to learn about Christian faith and spirituality, or are looking to discover a deeper purpose and meaning in life, then this may be the course for you. To ask further questions or to discover how you can join this course, please contact Lillington Free Church you can either call or text ‘Alpha’ and your question to 07510218123.

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” – Luke 5 v16

Dear Friends,

Have you read the Mr Men and Little Miss Books to your children or grandchildren? Little Miss Busy would get up at three o’clock in the morning to read her favourite book called ‘Work is Good for You.’ Then she refused to stop for a second until her bedtime at midnight. She was one of those people who didn’t know what to do with herself if she stopped working.

Are we like this? Do we get so caught up in our full diaries that we have little time to come to a place of inner quietness in which to spend time with God?

Jesus had regular times when He withdrew from the immediate and insistent claims on Him in order to be totally available to God. He welcomed a place of solitude so that He could spend time with God.

Both in our personal prayers and when we come together as a community we regularly say “Thy will be done.” But do we really mean this? In our own tradition, the Church meeting is the place where we come together to take time out to discern collectively the will of the Spirit. How often do we arrive at a Church meeting prepare to do this, and how often do we come with our desires and plans already sorted out and without real willingness to listen to the voice of God which might possibly be calling us in another direction?

Do you think it is possible for churches as well as individuals to have burn out? Maybe we can become so drained of energy and so starved of personal nourishment that we are tempted to abandon the journey altogether.

It is when we are feeling like this that we need to find a renewed source of energy from God. It is then that we need to turn to God in silence and stillness and prayer.

As we are now at the beginning of Lent, this is a good time to ask ourselves if we actually spend enough time in prayer. As it was so important to Jesus to pray to His Father, shouldn’t it also be as important to us?

With love in Christ from your Elders

During those weeks, some of us sat at home or at best went out very gingerly and then not far, or if we had work or caring duties we tried to carry on as normal, a bit like the person we know who set off home from work one teatime and finally arrived some miles away at 2am in the morning!

Perseverance and determination were the key with a bit of courage mixed in. Those qualities are important in our Christian understanding of life as well. At the end of the wonderful passage on the Christian armour (Ephesians 6) Paul reminds his readers that we have to ‘keep alert and never give up’. In the equally celebrated chapter on the resurrection from the dead (I Corinthians 15), the same writer exhorts the church at Corinth to ‘stand firm and steady,’ (verse 58, both quotes from the Good News Bible).

There is also an appropriate message for our church at this time. To ‘stand firm and keep steady’ is going ti be needed by all of us in the days and months ahead. We need to encourgae each other, support and work with our elders in all they do and as much as anything pray for our work.  Thank God, the God whose thoughts and ways are much higher than ours (as our reading of Isaiah 55 reminded us at a recent service) that He sees the bigger picture and knows the plans He has for us, even if we haven’t a clue or at best a dim idea of them. God bless us as we persevere with faith – He can do ‘exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think.’