By the time you read this, the country will have been in ‘lockdown’ for some weeks, an unprecedented situation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. Although this has come as a great surprise to most of us, we know that it is not a surprise to our God. We know too that He cares about us more deeply than we could ever imagine and He knows the full range of fears and anxieties, the frustrations and perplexity that we are all feeling to varying degrees. We know also that Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, and that He experienced the full range of human emotions when He walked this earth – He saw the suffering and pain of ordinary people at first hand and His heart went out to them as He reached out in compassion to help them.
The writer of Hebrews urged believers not to forsake meeting together (Hebrews 10:24–25), something we know to make very sound sense as we come week by week to worship God and build up our fellowship. But now that we can no longer – for the time being – meet together in a church building, in each other’s homes or anywhere else, how do we continue to heed the advice of scripture?
In Issue 6 of this magazine, I wrote about what was then – to me – a new experience, and that was praying with another person over the phone. This wasn’t something I’d ever really contemplated before as I was used only to praying in groups or with one other person face-to-face. But it arose out of a common concern for friends who were going through a very difficult time, and Ugo Ogbonnaya and I started to ring each other daily, exchanging our latest news about the growing number of people for whom we were praying, and then doing just that – bringing them to God over the telephone. And this has continued to today, although we were beginning to find it increasingly hard in our very busy lives to set aside the time to ring each other and pray every single day. Now that has all changed and once again, praying over the phone has become a priority – not only for the two of us, but with a growing number of friends in the church as we become more and more aware of the exceptional circumstances in which we in this country, and indeed across the world, now find ourselves.
What started as two friends sharing concern for a small number of individuals through daily phone calls to each other and to God, has, over the past few weeks, begun to grow and grow. More and more, people have started using the phone and the many platforms offered via the internet, to come to God in prayer at a time when we can no longer, for now, meet up in person.
We have started exploring Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp and various other means of talking and praying together. The leadership team regularly meet and pray, and so do the life groups, and we have also been able to invite the whole church to come together to pray, as happened on the National Day of Prayer on 22 March (Mothers’ Day). We really thank God for all the opportunities He is giving us to come to Him together with other believers and urge everyone reading this article, if you haven’t already started to explore these unexpected avenues, to talk to the Pastor or one of the deacons, or life group leaders, and find out how to make a start on this tremendous adventure. As one friend said – most of us wouldn’t usually expect to see each other from one Sunday to the next, apart from one or two meetings during the week. But now, we surely have never been ‘meeting’ so much and certainly not praying together so often. Exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures – and we have a more than exceptional and all-powerful God who longs for us to come to Him and bring Him our every concern, for ourselves, for our families, our friends, our church, our country and our world. So, don’t hold back – the challenge is great, but our God is greater!
by Jacqui Pearce