It turned out that my weakness was ENVY.
I wish it wasn’t true.
I wish I could say that I don’t envy anyone. It wouldn’t be true.
Take Monday night for instance or rather events over the
previous two weeks leading up to Monday night.
Many of the ladies at the Women Aglow meeting are members of the same
church. In inverness there are a half a
dozen or more non-traditional, independent, charismatic churches. They are all the result of a church plant,
some decades ago, from mother churches in other parts of the country or the
world. Vineyard, Destiny – I don’t know how
much they differ in doctrine and practice.
More recently there are a number of inter-church ministries and
activities of which Women Aglow is one.
Anyway, this particular church has organised a month of
prayer, meeting in people’s homes throughout the week. There are so many times and so many places
open for people to meet that no one had the excuse they couldn’t make it. Every day, mornings, afternoons and evenings
are covered and the homes opened up are so varied that many are within walking
distance of wherever a person happens to live.
That’s a lot of praying.
It’s not a matter of how often they pray, but also the
quality of prayer. I have known prayer meetings that are quiet affairs. There
is a comfortable quietness, but then there is a too-quiet quietness. These meetings are not of the too-quiet
variety. Something has been ignited.
There is a pattern that the Women Aglow meetings
follow. There is a meal followed by a
time of worship followed by a visiting speaker and ending with an opportunity
for prayer. There are other bits in
between. The numbers change month to
month. The menu stays the same. The speakers might be from the group rather
than visitors.
There wasn’t a visiting speaker on Monday. The meeting was set aside for bringing
testimonies and saying something to encourage and build one another up. There were no awkward pauses. No one was drumming up witnesses to share
their stories.
One lady spoke about having a right heart before
God. She linked it into sleeping well at
night. If we had the right heart before
God and were not fussing over the day’s challenges or fretting about tomorrow’s
burdens because we had given them over to Him, there should be nothing keeping
us awake at night. I am not a great sleeper at night. I don’t think I am fussing about things. I read somewhere that a lack of sustained
sleep can be something left over from the menopause. It certainly made me think about involving God
into my sleep preparations. I am not an
insomniac, and I am getting sufficient hours – but it is the brokenness of the
night that gets to me.
I digress.
Part of the evening involves worship – an opportunity to
sing together. I love to hear women worshipping together. I don’t always know the songs, or sing a
particular song to a different tune – but I like the worship part. The worship leader is a lovely woman.
On Monday night the worship was wonderful. There was a different spirit about it. Did we sing louder, or were we more in tune?
Perhaps.
I think it was more to do with the prayer meetings. I think that the prayer meetings had allowed
the ladies to really move close to God.
That’s not to say they strangers before that. For many people meeting together as
Christians is a Sunday morning experience, and one or two evenings during the
week. Morning, afternoon and evening
chances to come together to pray – every day – has to change a person. And I think it showed in worship that
evening.
Which brings me to ENVY – I want to be daily encountering
God and changing. I can do it on my own –
yes. And I do. But there is something
special about a communal act, something focussed and sustained. I can see only
blessings for a church community doing that.
There’s nothing to stop me joining in!
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