“Praising God in all circumstances?”

​​Praising God in all circumstances? It’s easy to give praise and thanks to God when things are going well in our lives – not so easy when we’re going through tough times. Perhaps most of us are just too cushioned by our relatively safe and comfortable lives in the western world.

StF 156 From the breaking of the dawn (I will stand on every promise of your word)

Prayers of Thanksgiving and Confession
​Loving God, your family spans the whole world and embraces all humanity – each one of us just a tiny part of it – yet you know each one of us intimately, our hopes and our dreams, our doubts and our sorrows. May we all be joined together, one in spirit, giving you our praise and thanks. In that act of praise, help us to celebrate our differences and diversity so that discord and division can be healed because of your love for us. We thank and praise you for that love and the love you showed in giving us your dear son Jesus who gave his life for our sin so that we could come close to you and know you.
Forgive us for the times we ignore you and go our own way. Forgive us when we doubt you. Forgive us when our actions and behaviour cause damage to your world and suffering and disease to others in countries far away. Forgive us when we see injustice and fail to take action. Open our eyes to the actions we can take to bring about change in your name.
Loving God, God of mercy, compassion and justice, God of the New Covenant, draw each one of us into a right relationship with you. God of love, we thank and praise you today and always. Amen

​Reading. 2 Kings 5 v 1 – 3, 7 – 15b

StF 629 God of my faith, I offer you my doubt

Message Part 1
​Praising God in all circumstances? It’s easy to give praise and thanks to God when things are going well in our lives – not so easy when we’re going through tough times. Perhaps most of us are just too cushioned by our relatively safe and comfortable lives in the western world. The inconveniences we suffer occasionally are modest compared to the suffering of large numbers of people in many parts of the world. But have you noticed that it’s often the poorest people, those who have the least and often the least to be grateful for who seem to be the most joyful and contented. It’s in countries where there are troubles and poverty that people are turning to God and Christ in huge numbers. The Bible society informs us that persecuted people in China are crying out for Bibles. There is a huge demand for Bibles in the Ukraine as a result of the war there. It sometimes seems to be that in times of adversity we are offered 2 choices. We can turn to God for strength and love and support or we can try to blame God for all that’s wrong in our lives and turn away from him.
Our reading from Kings tells us about Naaman, a commander in the King’s Army, so a self-sufficient man of authority who had slaves taken from Israel working for him and his wife. Naaman had leprosy (perhaps in the early stages) but doesn’t seem to have been excluded from his community in the same way as those in Jewish society were – presumably because he was a gentile. His young Jewish female slave to his wife was obviously a young lady of considerable influence because he took her advice and found a way to get to Israel via his King and the King of Israel taking just about everything but the kitchen sink with him in the process and causing a certain amount of animosity from the King of Israel until the prophet Elisha intervened.
Naaman considered himself to be a man of importance and expected to be seen personally and healed immediately by Elisha. He was deeply offended and angry and reluctant to take advice from Elisha’s servants initially walking away in anger and refusing to take their instructions seriously. He doubted their authority and only finally gave in when they followed and encouraged him to do exactly what he had been asked to do. We know from our reading that he was healed and that he and his entourage went back to see Elisha giving thanks and praising the God of Israel.
I guess we can all be a bit like Naaman at times. We hear that still small voice of God. We doubt him and we think we know better so we go our own way and try to ignore it. Eventually something happens in our life that makes us realise that we should have listened, that still small voice keeps calling us louder and louder until we finally listen to it and come back to the safety and protection of God’s loving arms and to being obedient to his call. If you’re hearing the voice of God today and doubting it then I urge you to remember all that God and his son Jesus did for you and me – for all humankind. Jesus died that cruel death on the cross for each one of us in our place for our sin and our wrongdoings. He is alive with God today and just waiting to live in our hearts through the gift of his Holy Spirit given to his disciples and followers for all time at Pentecost. Our next hymn reminds us of Jesus’ love for us and all that he has done and will continue to do for us.​

StF 639 Through the love of God our Saviour all will be well.

Reading. Luke 17 v 11 – 19

Message Part 2
Praising God in all circumstances? It’s easy to give praise and thanks to God when things are going well in our lives – not so easy when we’re going through tough times. Perhaps most of us are just too cushioned by our relatively safe and comfortable lives in the western world. The inconveniences we suffer occasionally are modest compared to the suffering of large numbers of people in many parts of the world. But have you noticed that it’s often the poorest people, those who have the least and often the least to be grateful for who seem to be the most joyful and contented. It’s in countries where there are troubles and poverty that people are turning to God and Christ in huge numbers. The Bible society informs us that persecuted people in China are crying out for Bibles. There is a huge demand for Bibles in the Ukraine as a result of the war there. It sometimes seems to be that in times of adversity we are offered 2 choices. We can turn to God for strength and love and support or we can try to blame God for all that’s wrong in our lives and turn away from him.
Our reading from Kings tells us about Naaman, a commander in the King’s Army, so a self-sufficient man of authority who had slaves taken from Israel working for him and his wife. Naaman had leprosy (perhaps in the early stages) but doesn’t seem to have been excluded from his community in the same way as those in Jewish society were – presumably because he was a gentile. His young Jewish female slave to his wife was obviously a young lady of considerable influence because he took her advice and found a way to get to Israel via his King and the King of Israel taking just about everything but the kitchen sink with him in the process and causing a certain amount of animosity from the King of Israel until the prophet Elisha intervened.
Naaman considered himself to be a man of importance and expected to be seen personally and healed immediately by Elisha. He was deeply offended and angry and reluctant to take advice from Elisha’s servants initially walking away in anger and refusing to take their instructions seriously. He doubted their authority and only finally gave in when they followed and encouraged him to do exactly what he had been asked to do. We know from our reading that he was healed and that he and his entourage went back to see Elisha giving thanks and praising the God of Israel.
I guess we can all be a bit like Naaman at times. We hear that still small voice of God. We doubt him and we think we know better so we go our own way and try to ignore it. Eventually something happens in our life that makes us realise that we should have listened, that still small voice keeps calling us louder and louder until we finally listen to it and come back to the safety and protection of God’s loving arms and to being obedient to his call. If you’re hearing the voice of God today and doubting it then I urge you to remember all that God and his son Jesus did for you and me – for all humankind. Jesus died that cruel death on the cross for each one of us in our place for our sin and our wrongdoings. He is alive with God today and just waiting to live in our hearts through the gift of his Holy Spirit given to his disciples and followers for all time at Pentecost. Our next hymn reminds us of Jesus’ love for us and all that he has done and will continue to do for us.​

StF 689 Summoned by the God who made us

Prayers of IntercessionGod of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
We cannot live in isolation, all around us is evidence of a spoiled world, soured relationships, inhumanity. We pray for all countries affected by warmongering, especially the Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine and Israel and the people of all nationalities and races in those countries, that peace, justice and tolerance will prevail. We cannot close our eyes and ears and shut everything out.
God of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
When we look around us we see human need – homeless people on our streets, deprived children, women and men abused and driven from their homes, those who have ruined lives of both themselves and others due to addictions, those who become wealthy by distributing those substances causing addictions with no thought for the lives they destroy. We cannot close our hearts to such misery.
God of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
You see our twisted relationships between ourselves and nature – environmental pollution, destruction of animal life even to the point of extinction. Climate change and the suffering of the poorest and least destructive nations and people as a result of the greed of the most powerful and wealthiest nations. We can no longer ignore it and hope it will go away.
God of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
Even in the Churches there is discord – those of differing theological persuasions or social stance show intolerance to others, we ignore Jesus' moral precedent and scriptural teachings at our peril. Loving God, we cannot claim to be vehicles of your love if we cannot follow your teaching to “love one another as you have loved us”.
God of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
In our families, far and near, in our communities, in your church and throughout your world, loving God, there are people who are ill, lonely, bereaved, depressed, some knowing that they or their loved ones will never recover. We cannot close our hearts and minds to their deep pain.
God of truth and justice, bring peace to Your world.
In the name of Jesus we bring all our prayers to you, Loving God, both those spoken aloud and those unspoken prayers in the depths of our hearts and minds. As your hands and feet in this world we ask that in some small measure each one of us may be called and used by you to be part of the solution. Amen​

Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.

StF 94 To God be the Glory

Blessing
May we each continue our worship in our daily lives by doing justice, showing mercy and kindness and walking humbly with you, our God, who is always loving, always offering a new beginning. Gracious God, to you be honour and glory, praise and thanksgiving, today and for ever. Amen