Highway Prayer Room

Highway Prayer room is open each Thursday from 11:30 until 4:30. Please make bookings at reception.

The weekly prayer focus for 23rd June is:

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68b

In context, Jesus had just given the teaching that He was the bread of life: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 5:56) and many of His followers left, finding these words too hard. Peter gives this answer after Jesus challenges His disciples and asks if they also want to leave Him.

I love Peter’s answer because it is just as relevant to us today as it was 2,000 years ago. That same teaching of Jesus’ “to eat My flesh and drink My blood” is still offensive to many but it goes to the heart of Christianity. Without the revelation and reality of the Cross and the Resurrection, what do we have?

Sometimes on our Christian journey, there are things our natural minds don’t comprehend or things just get too hard and we want to quit. It’s a normal human reaction that everyone has at one time or another. But quit to do what? Join Satan’s team? Most of us would not consider that a choice but the reality is that there are only two sides to choose from. There is no halfway house or holding pattern to go to when we are battle weary.

When things get tough, as they do from time to time, we need to turn to Him rather than away from him. Sometimes there will be circumstances that we can’t understand with our finite human minds and we need to simply trust and cling to Him. Where else can we go? There is no-one else like Him, He stands alone. He truly has “the words of life” we need if we seek Him with all our heart.

Love and blessings, Sue

The weekly prayer focus from 16th June is:

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…

Hebrews 12: 1- 2

I love this... so much in just a few words “let us run,” “with perseverance,” “the race marked out for us,” “fixing our eyes upon Jesus.” Such a short sentence but it contains so much truth – the question is DO YOU DARE? Are you ready? Are you game? It won’t always be easy – we are told in Hebrews 12:1 to throw off everything that hinders and the sin which so easily entangles. That is not always easy. Who knows how hard it can be to do to the Father’s will and not our own. Or follow our friends, colleagues or families. But the freedom, the power and love that comes when we let go of everything else except the desire to do His will! This is what we need, this is what sets us free and allows His name alone to be glorified. This is what we want.

I also love that “the race is marked out for us” We aren’t going blindly along hoping to hit the mark/ find the finish line – no it is marked out for us. All we need to do is fix our eyes on Jesus. Now I am talking to myself, but how easy is it to take our eyes off Jesus and put them on something or someone else. Sometimes it can be a “good” thing or other times a “bad” thing. It doesn’t really matter – what matters is our eyes have moved even slightly off course and are no longer on HIM! We have all seen the illustrations of how even being one degree off course can takes us miles away from our destination – we know it – so what do we need to do? Make it a habit to regularly check where our focus is? What are we talking about, thinking about and doing? This week take time to stop to and to hear His voice, to see Him in others, to pray, to read His Word, to praise Him. As we learn to fix our eyes on Him - we will find that we are distracted by less. Let us spend more time listening to Him!

I am reminded of Paul’s words in Ephesians “we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Let that be us, let our hearts beat with our pastors’ hearts to build something of worth for Him.

I pray His every blessing upon you this week and that His strength will be yours. Love Bella