Does this poem remind you of yourself, it certainly does remind me of myself? How many times have I jumped out of bed, dashed into the bathroom, grabbed a piece of toast and rushed out of the door, without really giving a thought that it is God’s work I am about and not my own? And then as the poem so rightly says, everything just seems to tumble about me.

Prayer, the very bedrock of our faith, is spoken about many times in the bible but I think that the passage from Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 - 14 tells us a great deal we need to know about prayer on a daily basis. Many years ago whilst growing up in a rural village in the Cotswolds I was very fortunate to have a parish priest at that time who had come into the ministry from teaching and was one of those wonderful people who always had time for everyone, (he did only have one small rural parish to worry about). His name was A. B Allen and he was always known as AB. He took me for confirmation classes and instilled the Christian faith into me from an early age and it was through him that I began to understand that daily prayer was essential to my life. He taught me to leave all that I could not cope with at the foot of the cross, “leave it with Jesus”, he used to say, “and it will be dealt with”. Perhaps not as you would like, initially, but the love of Jesus will come into that situation and you will feel his love and peace. I have tried to remember to do this but all too often I fail and rush straight on relying on my own strength and not God’s and then when I do find God in Jesus Christ in prayer the situation eases and I say to myself how many times does God have to show me the way!!

Sometime later after moving to Devon, another very wise parish priest knowing I was rushing around and getting nowhere sat me down and we looked at the passage from Matthew chapter 6 together. Go into a room says Jesus and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. Better still, said my wise priest, sit down somewhere on your own, find a comfy seat, maybe with a cup of coffee and an open bible, read a short passage, think on the passage and prayer will come. Or maybe in the summer take yourself into the garden or countryside and look at the abundance of God’s creation around you and take the time to savour all you can see and hear and smell and pray for all the situations that are close to your heart.

Prayer is such an integral part of us , it is just like breathing, which we take for granted every day, and whether we confess to be Christians or not, at times of real trouble and distress, we just start to pray. We cannot help ourselves, so closely are we interwoven with our creator. At times of deep distress, when prayers are not answered, as we would have hoped for, when Jesus often seems so far away and we cannot find Him however hard we pray remember the words from Hebrews chapter 13:5 “I will never fail you or forsake you”.

Jesus, like you and me, often found himself tired and weary as he travelled around the countryside teaching and healing people and it was at these times that Jesus withdrew and went to a quiet place and prayed to His Father, to find the strength that he would need to carry on the task set before Him. For us it is holiday time, we need rest and refreshment. We to can find a quiet place to pray and to rekindle our relationship with God to bring us back renewed and refreshed for the work He has set us to do. My prayer is for all of us, that in the month of August we will find that peace and love which only Jesus can give, and that we can, in the beauty of our lives, thank God with all our hearts for the many blessings he bestows upon us.

love and best wishes

Sue