Author: Bellshill Central

Day 4 Trust: Do not be afraid, believe

• Acts 27:23-26

“For last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before the emperor; and indeed, God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we will have to run aground on some island.”

• Psalm 56
• Luke 12.22-34

Reflection

Assailed on every side, I long for a more sustaining image of You God. I need You closer than ever, to be with me through these current horrors. Our dialogue has become coarse and aggressive and I find it difficult to listen to any news and current affairs. Bad news seems everywhere, abuse, cruelty of unspeakable proportions, political divisions and a vortex of hate that creeps into so much of what we do. Are You alone in listening?

Where am I to find hope? Where should I look? How can I find a route towards healing when I have no sense of what a hopeful future looks like? And yet You speak into this space from below. I am carried even without knowing it, and I can only just sense Your hold on me. Lifting me, stroking my doubt into a soft glow of warmth that might eventually become something more.

‘Don’t be afraid’ is easily said. So I need to trust You again and again, and hold on to what little I see. For I sense You near me, and I long for Your word from long ago, which is still alive in me in Your Saints and incarnate Son.

Adrift

I am floating and at sea

Without direction and fearful of what lies ahead

I come to You, known and yet unknowing

Unfathomable God

Rising and falling

Without bearings

bring me to a safe haven

a place where I can begin

to hope again

to trust again

in You and others.

Prayer

Almighty God, our personal suffering leads us to cry out in pain and we shrink in fear when we experience sickness, anxiety or the death of loved ones. Teach us to trust You. May the churches we belong to be signs of Your providential care. Make us true disciples of Your Son who taught us to listen to Your word and to serve one another. In confidence we ask this in the name of Your Son,  and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Questions

• What are the images of God that sustain you through times of questioning?
• Where are the places and who are the people who give you hope for      the future?

Go and Do

(see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)

Global: Be inspired by those who show much resilience in the face of the storm.

Local: Set up a local group from your churches and community who commit to a deeper listening to one another.

Personal: Spend time with the people or in the place that give you most hope.

Day 3 Keep up your courage

• Acts 27. 22, 34

“I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship … none of you will lose a hair from your heads …”

• Psalm 27
• Mathew 11:28-30

Reflection

Keep up your courage when the storms of life wash you up on an unexpected shore. Keep up your courage take barricades down welcome the stranger become the guest. Keep up your courage listen to the other seek to understand disagree agreeably. Keep up your courage when the ship runs aground  prepare a new vessel chart another course. Keep up your courage stowaways, castaways whatever our crew it’s all hands on deck creation made new.

Prayer

God of mercy, lost and disheartened, we turn to You. Instil in us Your hope and courage. May our churches strive for the unity for which Your Son prayed on the eve of His passion. We ask this through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Questions

• What are the practices that you can use to keep up your courage?
• What are your hopes and fears for the churches in your area?
• How might you keep up your courage together to chart a course into the future?

Go and Do

(see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)

Global: Read and respond to the stories of perilous journeys by sea.

Local: Provide welcome and hospitality for those recently arrived into the UK and Ireland.

Personal: Reflecting on your own journey, how might you assist others on journeying today?

Day 2 Seek and Show Christ’s Light

• Acts 27:20

“When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest raged, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”

• Psalm 119:105-110
• Mark 4:35-41

Reflection

TRANSFUSION

I believe another

Not Him.

A cup of bitterness taints my being.

My eyes fail me,

I lose the light

and my life disengages

and halts.

Movement, spied in my darkness

frightens then brings relief.

I am not dying alone

But dying we are.

The battering storm of hope denied,

Will abandon us to fate.

A flicker flecks my blindness

I fall prostrate

As flecks materialise into Him,

My true and tender Father.

Held in His unbreakable arms

I still…

The storm may do its worst.

Slathered in His salve of love

Hope’s transfusion

Gently renews my being

Do not fear the pain

It sings the song of life.

Prayer

Father, Your precious word illumines our steps and without You we remain lost and disorientated.

Holy Spirit, teach us through Your word and each other to travel our Father’s path together, walking gently on Creation.

May each gathering of Your people in churches everywhere crave Your guiding, consoling and transforming presence.

Give us the honesty we need to recognise when we lose or obscure Your light for others.

Give us grace to hold onto You, ready and able to share Your light.

We ask this in the name of Your Son Jesus, who calls us His followers, to be light to the world. Amen.

Questions

• In what circumstances do I lose sight of God?
• We prayed that we might walk gently on Creation. What is my responsibility confronted by the storm of climate change?
• What responsibility do we have as a community to address climate change?

Go and Do

(see www.ctbi.org.uk/goanddo)

Global: Take action by adding your voice to the call to address the climate emergency.

Local: Are your churches involved in the eco-church/ eco-congregations award?

Personal: Individual actions on reducing carbon are not enough to make the difference but together they add up.