TATTERED BIBLE
Recently I picked up an old Bible of mine that I used to use many years ago. Maybe like me you’ve gone through a few Bibles in your Christian life, that became, over time and use, a bit threadbaer and worn, and so you’ve stored them somewhere (because there’s a strange guilt associated with disposing of a Bible!) On flicking through the pages of this once familiar friend, out dropped a note I had written twenty years ago. It was a list of prayers compiled during a national youth gathering: a list of hopes and dreams and aspirations and desires. I’m so glad I kept the list in this old Bible.
I wrote it when I was in my final year at University. And of the eleven listed sentences written in prayerful aspiration, I’ve counted nine that have been, or are being, answered. How incredible is that?! My twenty-year-old self would be thrilled to know that as he wrote about marriage and family and service of Christ, of ambition and desire, that two decades later, so much of what was prayerfully written then, is happening now.
So often, our lives as pastors and church leaders are full of so much stuff: big cultural thoughts of war or economy or gender arguments; the day-to-day reality of relationships or family or finance; and the things we have to deal with, like births and marriages and deaths, and that unexpected (sometimes unwanted) phone call that changes the course of your day. And then there’s all the admin and all the planning and all the prepping! Our lives are so very full. So full, we often forget, that we’re living in a world of answered prayers.
So much of what makes me, me, is the answers of prayers prayed years ago. So much of my living is the result of my praying. So much of my today was asked for yesterday.
Jesus encouraged His friends to pray, ‘Give us, this day, our daily bread…’ I’ve been meditating on that line for a while now and have been encouraged again and again that what He fills me with today, isn’t just for today: it provides me with what I need for tomorrow (where I’ll ask Him for more bread again!)
Dear friends and colleagues, our lives are full of new mercies, great faithfulness, and steadfast love, even sometimes in the context of lament, as Jeremiah declared (Lamentations 3). What we prayed for, has been answered. Maybe not everything, maybe not much, but as we’ve delighted ourselves in the One whose beauty and majesty are worthy of eternal praise and wonder, somehow, through many dangers, toils and snares, He has navigated us to right now.
And so, if you’ve ever prayed for patience, don’t be surprised that sufferings are yours (Romans 5); if you’ve ever prayed to become Christ-like, don’t be surprised that you’ve had to pick up your cross. If you’ve ever prayed for joy, don’t be surprised that distractions have been stripped away so that you can know His presence, in which we find joy’s fullest expression. What we pray for, He often answers.
Some of these Connect articles brilliantly inspire us towards mission and transformation, but in this one, I’d like to inspire us to a brief pause - a silent moment of breath - Where we breathe in the memory of answered prayer over the course of a lifetime. And we breathe out the prayerful, thankful, acknowledgement of Him!
Would you do that with me? Stop… just for a moment. And breathe in the memories – all that He’s done in you, to you and through you. And breathe out – all the acknowledgement that He’s been there in it all.
Sometimes picking up an old, tattered Bible helps. Sometimes a note written twenty years ago provides a much-needed reminder of wonderful love. And sometimes we just need to stop and acknowledge, that within the busy-ness of all the stuff, much of it, we prayed for!
Craig Hopkins