Reliance on God’s Presence - Our Great Strength and Hope
I’m sitting here typing these words overlooking Valletta’s ancient harbour: where naval nations have come and gone fighting over the island of Malta for strategic reasons, for centuries. There’s less fighting today, apart from cruisers elbowing each other to get the best spot in a queue, or Instagrammers jostling for the best photo opportunity.
I’m writing at the end of a holiday where my reading has included C.S. Lewis’s collection ‘Weight of Glory,’ Arthur Wallis’s ‘In the day of Thy power’ and John Lennox’s ‘2084.’ Each book has dealt with some fantastic themes - the deep ache in the human heart for God’s presence, the immediate, extraordinary presence of God in revival and how we can react, as Christ-followers, in a world of AI, particularly through the hope that Christ is coming back.
My New Testament reading has taken me through Acts, where, to Corinth, Paul would later declare that that fledgling church we read of in Acts, both individually and corporately, are the ‘temple’ of the Holy Spirit, of God.
In a world of extraordinary challenges, which is about to become ever more complex through A.I.’s inevitable impact on the lives of us all, our deep awareness of, trust in, and reliance on the beautiful, real, immediate and deliberate presence of God with His people is our great strength and hope.
As leaders there’s always a jostling taking place as we try and wrestle our people’s attention away from worthless things to focus on Christ and His mission; there’s always things to do that make our relatively simple mission of ‘prayer and the ministry of the word’ seem so far away from our lived reality, and there’s always an awareness of our own battered fallenness in light of His amazing grace. There is always something to do, someone to visit, some sermon to prepare, some need to respond to. In this week of holiday, Lewis, Wallis and Lennox (as well as my wife!), have helped me ponder again that as His temple, we the church, can know the greatest of all powers in light of the complexities and challenges and relentlessness of our ‘normal’ life: the very presence of a Father whose attention is set on us, the Son who has redeemed us, and the blessed Holy Spirit who is here with us, right now.
My dear friends, the Father loves you, the Spirit is with you and Christ is coming back for you!!! You may not be in Malta, but may that knowledge, again, simply, refresh your soul.
Craig Hopkins