A prayer for times of uncertainty and difficulty

Sunday 30th October 2022

I pray that out of his glorious riches
[the Father] may strengthen you with power
through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:16-17, NIV

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This week a friend of mine had an appointment with a surgeon to discuss an operation to prevent a bleed on his brain.  It is clearly a risky undertaking, but it is also risky to do nothing.

I don’t know what uncertainties and difficulties you are facing personally.  We are all facing issues to do with the political turmoil in Britain, the rising costs of living and energy, an overburdened health service, an uncertain future for the Church of England, and more.

The morning my friend was due to see the surgeon, I read the following prayer by Jeremy Taylor, an Anglican bishop who served as chaplain to King Charles I in the seventeenth century.  It seemed remarkably apt for his situation, and so I sent it to him.  I pray you may be blessed by it also, whatever it is you are facing at this time.

O Almighty God, Father and Lord of all creatures, you have disposed all things and all chances so as may best glorify your wisdom, and serve the ends of your justice, and magnify your mercy, by secret and indiscernible ways bringing out of evil – I most humbly implore you to give me wisdom from above, that I may adore you, and admire your ways and footsteps, which are in the great deep and not to be searched out; teach me to submit to your providence in all things, to be content in all changes of persons and condition; to be temperate in prosperity, and to read my duty in the lines of your mercy; and in adversity to be meek, patient, and resigned; and to look through the cloud, that I may wait for consolation of the Lord, and the day of redemption; in the meantime doing my duty with an unwearied diligence and an undisturbed resolution, having no fondness for the vanities or possessions of this world, but laying up my hopes in heaven, and being strengthened with the spirit of the inner man, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.                                          [Be Thou My Vision, Jonathan Gibson, Day 26].

There is so much good in this prayer, and so much that is different to the ways we normally pray, that it is difficult to know what to highlight.  Instead, I will leave you to read the prayer for yourselves, to meditate on its phrases (especially the ones that seem most unusual) and – don’t forget to do this! – actually to pray it

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)