Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:19.20)
When I started this series of e-letters I entitled is Praise and Prayer News but like so much in life, each issue has tended to be more about prayer requests than about praise. In both our personal devotional times and in a worship together with others, there is often no space for thanksgiving. In days gone by, it was the practice in the Salvation Army and Pentecostal denominations to have specific testimony time when items for thanksgiving were regularly shared. I believe that this is much less common today, and rare in many - possibly most - other denominations.
One of my favourite passages on prayer in the Bible is Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". Throughout Paul's letters in the New Testament he often expresses thanks to God for the faith lived out in the churches for which he cared. In the gospels thanksgiving is mentioned several times in relation to food, but little else. One outstanding exception is the healing of ten men who had leprosy (See Luke 17:11-19) where only one man in ten gave thanks for healing.
As a child I was taught to mind my Ps and Qs, meaning to remember good manners and say please and thank you. You may remember my encouragements in previous issue to express thanks to people doing mundane jobs. How often a few words of thanks have brought pleasure to such situations. I sometimes wonder whether God is disappointed in us if we fail to genuinely thank him for answers to prayer and blessings we experience each day. Do we normally give thanks to God for our food (and do you do that publicly in restaurants)? Do we give thanks for safe journeys and convenient parking spaces?
Some charismatic churches place emphasis on 'praise times' which is good but has the risk of becoming a time for self indulgence in joyful singing rather than heartfelt thanksgiving. One of the newer songs (now old) is "Give thanks with a grateful heart", written by Henry Smith in 1978 during a difficult time in his life and facing a degenerative condition that would make him legally blind. I find the words and music very moving. It challenges me to be more faithful in thanksgiving to God. I have so much blessing in my life that he certainly deserved more thanksgiving.
I am sure that you are capable of developing this theme further, so I will leave it here, with the hope that you and I will be better in future at setting aside time to say thank you to God before we start asking again!
Introducing Martin
Thank you for your prayers as we have moved through the process of seeking an Operations Manager who could lift some of the administrative and management work from my shoulders and help us to grow and develop this ministry as we face the challenge of millions of men, women and children in rural UK who have yet to hear clearly the good news about Jesus.
Martin Scheller has now joined the team and hit the ground running. Please pray for Martin as he settles into this role and learns our ways. Pray too for me as I plan and carry out the process of delegation.
Our trustees were unanimous in offering the role to Martin. That was not easy as we had several other good applicant. So, give thanks for the trustees and their care in the process.
We give thanks to God for you, and for your love and prayers.
Barry Osborne- 15th November 2021.
