Words from Bede Circuit
Dear Friends,
Hoping you are keeping well and safe.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God
When bad things happen to us, when they are not of our own making or even when they are of our own doing, we feel that God no longer loves us, or has even abandoned us.
But St. Paul tells us that there is no need to feel like that. In one of the most memorable passages in the Bible, he assures us that nothing in the whole of creation can separate us from the love of God. (Romans Ch8 v37-39) On the contrary our trials and tribulations can actually bring us closer to God. In and through them we experience his love and care for us.
Paul himself experienced lots of troubles. In his second letter to the Corinthians he enumerates some of these troubles. He was imprisoned. He was whipped, almost to the point of death. Three times he was beaten with sticks. Once he was stoned by a mob and left for dead. Three times he was shipwrecked and spent a day and night adrift on the open sea. He travelled thousands of miles on foot, often narrowly escaping death at the hands of robbers or enemies. He knew hunger, thirst, cold and nakedness. To say nothing about the burden of worry and concern he carried because of his love for all the churches.
Yet he says that he was able to overcome all of these things through the power of God who loved him. When he says that nothing can come between us and the love of God, he is talking out of experience.
Life is unpredictable. We can`t depend on human things. We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, successful one day and a failure the next. So who is there to hold on to? Who is there to trust at all times? Only God. Only God can give us what we are looking for – the sense of having a love that is trustworthy, something that never changes, something that no one can take from us.
Prayer
Dear Lord, give us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; the courage to change the things we can; and the wisdom to know the difference. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sunday worship continues on Zoom at 10.30am and Wednesday Morning Prayer There are other services on Why-pay Telephone Conference. Please contact the Senior Church Steward (Brenda Wallace) for more details: wesleymemchurch.pr@gmail.com and please use the Sunday service sheet as we continue to worship at home.
If you need any help at all, then please make contact with your pastoral visitor or Minister.
With good wishes and prayers
Revd Huw Sperring on behalf of the Bede Circuit staff team