Thought for the Day - Wednesday 4 August

Jeremiah 33:2-3 (New Living Translation)   “This is what the Lord says—the Lord who made the earth, who formed and established it, whose name is the Lord: Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.   Whether in the old testament or the new, I have found when preparing these thoughts for the day a message repeatedly comes up from all corners of the bible and that is for each and every one of us to utilise the power of prayer because God wants to hear from us. If we are not sure what direction this life is taking us, God simply says; ‘ask me’.  He also says he will tell us ‘remarkable secrets about things to come’.  Later in this chapter, God inspires Jeremiah to write; ‘The days are coming’, declares the Lord ‘when I will fulfil the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.  In those days and at that time I will make a righteous branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.’  This, of course, prophecies the coming of Jesus.   For today’s thought, we’ll stick with the prayer message and leave the prophetic element for another day.   It was said by a J.C. Philpot way back in 1846 when he was studying this chapter in the book of Jeremiah that; ‘There is no real, no spiritual, no acceptable prayer to the Lord except that which is created by the operation of God the Spirit upon the heart of a believer.‘   I think that a lot of us sometimes find it difficult to put our prayers into words.  In church or when watching religious programmes on tv, we hear men and women saying prayers during formal services of worship and these prayers can vary from the poetic and eloquent to the simple and down to earth.   In the book of Romans ch8:v26, Paul writes “Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” We should never think that our prayers are inadequate or not good enough because we are assured by Paul in the book of Romans that the Holy Spirit will help us by understanding us and presenting our prayers to God on our behalf.  So it doesn’t matter whether our prayers are fancy or simple, the Holy Spirit will present them to God in the most meaningful way. Prayer Heavenly Father, when we come to you in prayer, may it be initially always in a spirit of thankfulness for all that we have, help us always recognise your greatness and holiness and finally may we set out our perceived needs before you confident that you will surely respond in the manner most appropriate to our needs.  Amen.