God Loves To Surprise us!

God Loves to Surprise us!

Prayer 9

For UCB

3 Min. Script

As we think about prayer and hearing from God there are some things that we should do. Firstly, remember.  Remember what God has said to us and done for us.  We see this ‘remembering’ frequently in scripture.  The Israelis continually remembered the good things that God had done for them, as they celebrated God’s actions.  If you have Jewish friends you will know that the many things that God did for them are still remembered and celebrated today.  It’s good to remember.

Secondly, be thankful.  God is with us, speaks to us and loves us and maybe we should say thank you. If you have done something for someone, and they don’t say thank you, it feels as if they are ungrateful.   I notice that people are ready and willing to ask God for lots of things, and I sometimes hear them complaining about what God is doing, or not doing, but thankfulness is in short supply. It’s good to remember what God has done for us and it’s equally important that we say thank you. We have a friend, the king of kings, the God who is there, the God who is willing to be in a friendship relationship with you and me.  That is a very good reason to say thank you.

Thirdly, we need to rehearse what God has done. I like stories don’t you?  My grandchildren pull my leg and tell me that they know all my stories and all my jokes.  The younger ones are not so sophisticated; they like to hear the stories again and again.   These stories rehearse and remind us of what God has done and that does us good.

Can I tell you a story about a prayer that was answered?  Thank you!  My children are now married with children of their own, but when they were about 7 and 9 they brought home a form for me to fill in, asking for permission for them to go on a school trip which would cost £5 each.  It was not a lot of money, but at the time we didn’t have much money.  We signed the form and they duly took it back to school.  A week later, they came home from school and said they needed to take the payment to school the next day.  I looked at my wife and she looked back at me with a shrug.  We didn’t have the money. In the morning as the girls were getting ready for school they kept reminding me that they needed to take the money in for the trip. I have to confess it was hard for me to tell them, ‘Sorry kids, I don’t have the money, but I have an idea, why don’t I come up to the school and ask if we can pay in instalments.’ 

That was just not good enough, they were very unhappy with my suggestion. The eldest looked at me with a stern face, ‘Dad we need to pay today!’  It was 8:40 in the morning, with the kids due to leave for school in five minutes, I only had one answer, PRAY!

I said to them, ‘I’m sorry kids, I don’t have the money, so we need to pray and ask God to sort this out because your Dad doesn’t know what to do and you won’t let him come and use his negotiating skills.’  There faces were defiant; they definitely did not want me speaking to their teacher about lack of money.

We stood in the kitchen, they in their uniforms, my wife looking on in desperation, recognising that this was something so very important to the children, and me trying hard to put a brave face on it as I prayed, ‘Dear God, my girls want to go on this trip, I’ve signed the form and now we can’t pay, we are embarrassed and it’s only £5 each, sorry God, we don’t have the money please can you help us?’  We all said a loud amen and stood looking at each other wondering what now?  ‘Let’s get you to school,’ I said, ‘and I’ll come back later and…’  I didn’t know what to say next. 

It was a very windy autumn day, I opened the front door to leave the house and a gust of wind blew into our hallway bringing with it a swirling heap of leaves, it was blowing them through the door like a mini whirlwind.  I shut the door again thinking I would wait a moment for the gust to die down.  My wife got busy with the dustpan to sweep up the load of leaves and I stood by the door, surrounded by leaves, then I looked down and there in the middle of the mess, was a £10 note.

You can talk all you like about coincidences, and question why, just as we finished praying, that the wind had blown it into our hallway. I don’t know the answers, but let me tell you my kids were very impressed with Gods quick answer, and I still remember that it happened, I am still thankful, and I still rehearse the story with those of my grandchildren who are willing to listen to me.

Prayer 9
UCB 3 min script
Adrian Hawkes
W. 893
Editor: A. Brookes

Getting to Know You

Getting to Know You

Prayer 8 UCB 

Prayer 8

For UCB

3 Min script

My editor tells me that she likes these talks on prayer because I am not giving a 10 point formula for you to follow to get your prayers answered.  As I’ve said before, prayer is a conversation that we have with God, of both light and serious issues, and the ability to have that conversation develops as our relationship with God develops.  The fact is that the gospel of good news is about a broken relationship being repaired.  It’s not about following a religion, it’s about getting to know a person, Jesus, it’s about a restored relationship with God, father, son and Holy Spirit because of what Jesus has done.

As with any relationship, you can’t treat your relationship with God like a slot machine, you put in a coin and out pops a chocolate bar, you put in a prayer in the right way and hey presto, the answer appears.  It isn’t like that; there isn’t a set of rules or a formula.  Can you imagine a married couple working out their relationship like that – the formula is I have to tell you I love you three times a day because that’s what the manual says.  That would be a terrible relationship on the way to a rapid breakdown.  Relationships don’t work like that, and deep down, you already know that.  Relationships are fluid, they develop and they grow, especially where love is involved and the God we want to have a relationship with is a God of love, and loves us passionately, so that’s a great foundation for building a good relationship, and as we get to know God, our love for him will grow.

I have been married for forty years, and yet my wife Pauline still says she is getting to know me and that I still have to ability to surprise her both by my actions and my words.   That’s what’s so special about relationships; they can go on developing and developing.

In a strong loving relationship, sharing with each other is ongoing and on many levels. Gradually, you understand each other, it takes time but it doesn’t feel like a chore because you are developing a relationship with someone you love.  Over time you even know how each other thinks.  It’s just like that with God, as you talk to him, learn about him and get to know him better, you find that you want to share even more with him, to talk to him more, to hear from him more.  A formula is the last thing on your mind; you just want to talk to your friend.

And have you noticed that in loving relationships people have lovers’ names for each other, names that only they understand.  From my reading of Revelation 2:17, it seems that one day God will give you a name that is only known to you and him. I like to think this name is his deeply intimate lovers name for you, one of those names that only work between two people who are very close.

Yes I know these talks are about prayer, but my goal is to switch on the light of understanding to help you realise that prayer is simply on ongoing conversation with God, it’s all about developing your relationship with him, sharing every detail of your life with him. Asking him ‘What shall I do?’ ‘What do you want me to do?’  Gradually as you get to know him better, you will find that you are thinking like him, you are doing the things that please him willingly because you want to please him.  Eventually what you want to do will be what he wants you to do because you have spent so much time with him and that he has affected your thinking and your actions and your desires. You will find that the communication flows, you are in unity, you want the same things, you think the same things, and he really does know your name and you know him and it’s personal and intimate.

Getting to know a friend is not chore, and having conversations with God will not feel like that either.  Here’s something to think about as I leave you, what is your name? And what does God call you?

Adrian Hawkes

3 min Script on prayer for UCB

Editor : A Brookes

Prayer Can Be Dangerouse!

Prayer Can Be Dangerous!

 Prayer 6
for UCB
3 min script

I have a friend that I worked with, who, when I was with him saw many answered prayers, particularly for sick people. But not everyone was healed.  I asked him one day, ‘why is it some are not healed and some are?’  I have never forgotten the answer, he said, ‘lots of people ask me why some are not healed, and do you know what my problem is?  Why is it that some are healed, why does God answer prayer?’  In other words he was saying he was as puzzled by the answers as much by the non-answers if you like.

Sometimes prayer can be dangerous, particularly answered prayer, because that puts us on the spot.  If you think about it, there are lots of times when God answered prayer in scripture that actually God didn’t want to answer. There isn’t time in such a brief chat to go into them in detail, but if you know a bit about scripture you can see them there.  For example, God did not want Israel to have a King, but they kept asking and in the end he answered their prayer, and then the problems came!  Then there was another King who God told, ‘put your house in order you are going to die.’  He begged God in prayer for more time, God answered his prayer but oh what problems his lengthened life gave to everybody else!  There are lots of other stories I could tell you from scripture that are like that, so be careful of nagging God for an answer, especially if God has said it’s not a good idea.

I have a little phrase that fits well with prayer, it goes like this, ‘God will not do what you can do, and if you want God to do what he can do then do what you can do and you will find that he will then do what only he can do.’  Now please don’t make that into some kind of doctrine as God might just do something that you haven’t even thought of.  I do often find people are praying for things that they could do themselves. For example, ‘Dear God please send my friend that small amount of money that he needs,’ when actually they have that money and maybe they should just give it them anyway and say ‘thank you God that you have given me money that I can now pass on to my friend.’

One of the stories from scripture that I think illustrates this well is the story of Nehemiah, he prays ‘oh God the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, it is such a shame, do something.’  He then goes in to see the King because he was the King’s cup-bearer, and the king gives him God’s answer, ‘why are you so miserable?’ he says to Nehemiah, a very bad thing for a cup-bearer to be, maybe the King’s wine was poisoned and he was not saying.  But obviously the King trusted Nehemiah, its good when people of the living God can be trusted.  Nehemiah told the king what he had been praying about and the King says, ‘okay, off you go and build the walls up, and I will supply the money and the materials.’  I bet that was not the answer that Nehemiah expected when he said the prayer.  I do find though that often God will say, ‘okay, heard your prayer, now get on with the answer and I am with you!’  Scary stuff praying isn’t it?

The thing is that God is with us, and I recon that he knows us better than we know ourselves and so when he tells us to be the answer or part of the answer then also we should know that he is not leaving us alone.  I remember when I left college to take charge of a church community, I said, ‘God I don’t mind where you would like me to go, but please, if you don’t mind, I don’t want to go to Ireland or London.’

After five years in the North of England the opportunity came for me to move to London, I wondered if God had forgotten my prayer, but I decided to go and have a look anyway, and then I decided to give it a try and so we moved to London.  I’ve been in London now for 36 years and can’t really imagine being anywhere else.  I just have this feeling that God knows me better than I know myself.  I am sure he was not forcing anything on me, but actually saying, ‘I know Adrian, if he just tries to do this with me he is going to enjoy it, I know he thinks he won’t but let’s just see shall we.’  And of course God is right.  Sure, praying can have that dangerous edge to it, when God says, ‘okay you have prayed,  now I want you to be the answer to that prayer, but I am with you and because I am with you nothing will be impossible to you, and you are going to really feel actual enjoyment doing it for me and with me.’

6 for UCB

Adrian Hawkes

W. 883

Editor A Brookes.

Why are some Prayers Answered and Some not?

Why are some Prayers Answered and Some not?

 Prayer 6
for UCB
3 min script

I have a friend that I worked with, who, when I was with him saw many answered prayers, particularly for sick people. But not everyone was healed.  I asked him one day, ‘why is it some are not healed and some are?’  I have never forgotten the answer, he said, ‘lots of people ask me why some are not healed, and do you know what my problem is?  Why is it that some are healed, why does God answer prayer?’  In other words he was saying he was as puzzled by the answers as much by the non-answers if you like.

Sometimes prayer can be dangerous, particularly answered prayer, because that puts us on the spot.  If you think about it, there are lots of times when God answered prayer in scripture that actually God didn’t want to answer. There isn’t time in such a brief chat to go into them in detail, but if you know a bit about scripture you can see them there.  For example, God did not want Israel to have a King, but they kept asking and in the end he answered their prayer, and then the problems came!  Then there was another King who God told, ‘put your house in order you are going to die.’  He begged God in prayer for more time, God answered his prayer but oh what problems his lengthened life gave to everybody else!  There are lots of other stories I could tell you from scripture that are like that, so be careful of nagging God for an answer, especially if God has said it’s not a good idea.

I have a little phrase that fits well with prayer, it goes like this, ‘God will not do what you can do, and if you want God to do what he can do then do what you can do and you will find that he will then do what only he can do.’  Now please don’t make that into some kind of doctrine as God might just do something that you haven’t even thought of.  I do often find people are praying for things that they could do themselves. For example, ‘Dear God please send my friend that small amount of money that he needs,’ when actually they have that money and maybe they should just give it them anyway and say ‘thank you God that you have given me money that I can now pass on to my friend.’

One of the stories from scripture that I think illustrates this well is the story of Nehemiah, he prays ‘oh God the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, it is such a shame, do something.’  He then goes in to see the King because he was the King’s cup-bearer, and the king gives him God’s answer, ‘why are you so miserable?’ he says to Nehemiah, a very bad thing for a cup-bearer to be, maybe the King’s wine was poisoned and he was not saying.  But obviously the King trusted Nehemiah, its good when people of the living God can be trusted.  Nehemiah told the king what he had been praying about and the King says, ‘okay, off you go and build the walls up, and I will supply the money and the materials.’  I bet that was not the answer that Nehemiah expected when he said the prayer.  I do find though that often God will say, ‘okay, heard your prayer, now get on with the answer and I am with you!’  Scary stuff praying isn’t it?

The thing is that God is with us, and I recon that he knows us better than we know ourselves and so when he tells us to be the answer or part of the answer then also we should know that he is not leaving us alone.  I remember when I left college to take charge of a church community, I said, ‘God I don’t mind where you would like me to go, but please, if you don’t mind, I don’t want to go to Ireland or London.’

After five years in the North of England the opportunity came for me to move to London, I wondered if God had forgotten my prayer, but I decided to go and have a look anyway, and then I decided to give it a try and so we moved to London.  I’ve been in London now for 36 years and can’t really imagine being anywhere else.  I just have this feeling that God knows me better than I know myself.  I am sure he was not forcing anything on me, but actually saying, ‘I know Adrian, if he just tries to do this with me he is going to enjoy it, I know he thinks he won’t but let’s just see shall we.’  And of course God is right.  Sure, praying can have that dangerous edge to it, when God says, ‘okay you have prayed,  now I want you to be the answer to that prayer, but I am with you and because I am with you nothing will be impossible to you, and you are going to really feel actual enjoyment doing it for me and with me.’

6 for UCB
Adrian Hawkes
W. 883
Editor A Brookes.

Prayer - monologue

PRAYER 2

Prayer 2

For UCB

3 Min Script

 Well hello again, and again I am still thinking about prayer and still wondering about lots of things concerning this subject.  Here is one for starters, why is it that for lots of people, it seems to involve lots and lots of talking?  I guess they think it’s a one way conversation, a monologue rather than a dialogue.

I have travelled quite a lot and seen many things concerning prayer; prayers that are written on paper and then pinned to trees to flutter in the wind, lots of religious people seem to have things like beads to pray with, and perhaps these things are helpful, I don’t know, but it still all seems like one way traffic. Once, when I was abroad, travelling in the back of a taxi, the driver suddenly stopped the car, scribbled something on a piece of paper, jumped out  and put the paper and some money  into a box on the wall.  When he got back into the car I was curious and asked him what that was all about, he smiled and told me it was a prayer.

In another country there was a crowd of people around a big glass box with a statue in it.  I sidled up to one of the people on the edge of the crowd and asked ‘Do you speak English?’ I find that’s always a good way for me to start a conversation. ‘Yes’ they said with a smile. So I asked him what the crowd of people were doing. He told me, ‘we are praying to our god.’ I asked him, ‘Why is your god in a big glass box?’  He smiled benignly and explained ‘You see if the god wasn’t in a box everyone would touch the god and the god would get dirty!’

It seems to me that the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, his birth, death and resurrection is all about repairing the broken relationship between us humans and Father God. Now for a relationship to be a real one it does seem to me that there ought to be two-way communication, rather than just one way.  And I know that some people do talk a lot and expect others to just listen, but I really don’t think God is like that.  Jesus said to his followers, ‘I don’t want to call you servants because a servant does not know what the master is going to do, instead,  I call you friends because you do understand, I have told you what the father has told me.’  That’s in John’s gospel, chapter 15 verse 15

Now I don’t think that communications ended with the first followers, those early disciples.  Hey, I am a follower and a disciple of Jesus and maybe you are too.  I want to know what the Father’s business is, don’t you?  Yes I know we have the Bible, but this is a new age and whilst the values don’t change some things do.  For example, I don’t worry too much about falling off a donkey like Paul, but I do worry about crashing my car! So yes, I do want a two way conversation.

So it seems to me that I need not only to talk to God, to pray, but I also need to listen to God to see what he is saying to me.  Let me tell you a little story, I was working with a guy called George Canty and he would sit on a platform in a meeting and often tell me things that were going on in the lives of people sitting in the audience, people he had never met before and neither had I.  I said to him one day, ‘Why does God tell you these things and not me?’ He said, ‘Maybe you’re not listening, maybe you talk too much.’  I remember going home, lying in bed and saying to God (praying that is) ‘God I do want to talk to you, but I also want to hear you, can you talk to me?’

Now I would say God spoke to me, but it wasn’t a voice I heard with my ears, it was more of a perception in my mind, it seemed as though God said to me, ‘Yes I will talk to you, I have always been here and wanted to, but you have been busy talking to me and not listening.’ So I said to God, ‘Okay, if this is you talking to me, and not something I am making up in my head, and it’s not me having a conversation with myself, help me to know that it really is you.’  God said to me, ‘Well now, what does this verse say?’ and he gave me a chapter and verse in a certain book in the bible.

I lay there quite a while thinking and thinking and finally I said to the voice in my head, ‘Actually, I don’t even know how many chapters are in that book, and I certainly don’t know what that verse says even though I have thought and thought.’

The voice in my head said, ‘Well there is that many chapters in that book, and this is what the verse says,’ and the words of a verse ticked through my head, then the voice said, ‘you have a Bible right by your bed on the cabinet, look it up now and see if that really is what the verse says.’  I switched on the light, picked up the Bible and thought, ‘oh dear this is not the version I usually read, so what it says in here will not be in the right language, it won’t in the words that I originally learned, I’ve got this completely wrong, this is just my imagination .’ And then I heard the voice say, ‘Did you think that I didn’t know what version of the Bible was by your bed!’ How embarrassing.  I turned to the verse and it said, word for word, what I had heard in my head.

I know God wants to talk with us, learning to listen is the hard thing and hearing correctly is sometimes even harder, we will talk more about that next time.

Adrian L Hawkes

For UCB 3 min spots

Editor A Brookes
W. 1033