Christmas seems so long ago now as we look forward towards Spring and Summer once more when new life begins to shoot and then matures through the summer months.  During the winter there has been rest and energy generated for the new season.  But the season has been marred by the deaths in Pakistan and elsewhere, and now this week in France because of hatred based on religious difference and intolerance.

Part of a new beginning is of course the Lenten season which is followed by the Easter celebrations of the hope and promise of new life.  Lent is a time of personal and corporate repentance, during which we try and work together to make a difference in God’s world for good.  To renew hope in the world for the future.

This is because Christians are a people of faith, hope and love and to these three we must hold fast in the months and years ahead and ask for God’s will to be done through his people to bring peace, tolerance and respect for difference among faiths.

We begin Lent on the 18th February with Ash Wednesday.  This Lent I hope you will join me in praying for the Spirit of God to bring peace and unity to the peoples of the world;  to pray for God’s will to be done through all who confess faith in him.  It is God’s will that there should be peace and unity between nations, and across all creation.

Wherever we are, if we pray, then God will hear our prayers in unison and will answer them.  God always hears our prayers.  We may not know when or how they are answered but he will answer them.  We should trust him to do so.  Prayer is transformative.

Please pray for an end to religious oppression and for patience to listen to each other and find a way forward together in the love of God.

Persist in prayer as the widow did in the account from Luke Chapter 18 verses 1-8!

With love.
Ann