Thought for the Day - Monday 23 November

Thought for the Day – Monday 23rd November ‘Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”‘ (1 Samuel 2: 1-2) Well here we are in Lockdown once more, hopefully for only three weeks this time but who knows for there is always that uncertainty around Covid-19 and so we never truly know until we are told it is allowable to go back out into the big wide world again. However, in the meantime, we continue to live in hope just as Hannah did and pray as she did and just look how she rejoiced when the Lord heard her prayer and answered that prayer. Usually, it is when we are troubled or feeling lonely or afraid that we turn more readily to God isn’t it? It seems that facing hard or difficult times somehow draws us towards our God as we seek his help for our lives and then sadly at times when all is going swimmingly for us we somehow forget to turn to him and thank him for his graciousness to us in making our lives go so swimmingly! I remember hearing just recently a Gospel song by Elvis Presley called ‘We call on him’ and in it he was echoing that exact thought. Some of the lyrics say ‘We call on him when storm clouds gather’, ‘We call on him to light our darkest day’, ‘We call on him when no one else will answer’, ‘We ask of him a reason to go on’, ‘Why must it be that only when we are lonely and hopes are dim, we call on him’ with the chorus saying, ‘Why don’t we call on him before we lose our way, to count our blessings and thank him while we may.’ As we move into this new Lockdown it does feel as if the storm clouds are gathering again and our darkest days are returning and I am sure we will all be calling on our God for his help to get us through this time. However, let us also try and remember to look out for the positive things in our lives at this time of Lockdown and take time to thank God for those blessings to us. For example, it is a blessing that vaccines are being developed and perhaps that people, us included, might actually take time to focus on what the coming season of Advent and Christmas truly means because they and we can do nothing else. Prayer Loving Lord, Whatever each day may hold, whatever this time of Lockdown may hold, help us to remember that with your help we will be able to handle this time and we will get through this time. Cause us to bring to our minds all your many blessings to us and like Hannah, gratefully thank you for those blessings for there is none like you. In Jesus, name we pray. Amen.