18th Feb

‘Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord’ is a popular song based upon Isaiah 40v31, sung in many churches over the past few years, which has me thinking again about a question probably asked by every believer in every generation. Why does an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-compassionate God delay or even apparently fail to answer prayer for the needy and those who are suffering? There’s something about genuinely seeking the Lord with our whole heart, in prayer, that undoubtedly reaches the throne room of heaven and I am quite sure is always answered by the Lord even before we make our requests. However I suppose that because we do not see, or know as God knows, the answers to our prayers are not always as we in our imperfect position would want them to be. Maybe it is not so much that we have to wait upon the Lord, although we do, but rather more often that the Lord is waiting upon us for a particular response or situation or whatever to change? His timing and judgement is always perfect. God is love!

Jane had a quite good night’s sleep with very little coughing but today remains totally exhausted feeling quite ill and very weak. It’s very draining fighting such a long battle with illness. She just fed the cat, walking only a few yards, and ended up totally out of breath and asking me to pray. Earlier though it was nice for Jane having a friend come visit and our eldest daughter and her children came and cooked us a superb risotto for tea! I was also encouraged when Jane expressed disappointment at not being able to attend a visiting preacher’s teaching seminars at church on Saturday. But he’s holding meetings every night until Thursday this week and we really must have him pray for Jane. He has an outstanding gift of healing with a proven track record.

Just now we took communion sharing with the folk watching Thank God For Fridays on Revelation TV. For two weeks now they’ve responded to our e-mail prayer requests, so I reckon there could be thousands of believers across the UK, Europe and the world via the internet who joined in at least with an amen praying for Jane.

Psalm 91vs5-6 ‘Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness’ (NLT)