I’ve just got back from our congregational ‘Focus Day’ (morning, actually, and finishing with a lovely bread and soup lunch), when we spent some time together reflecting on this year’s theme – “We have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4.7).
Our guest speaker was Rev Maggie Lane, who, in the early ‘noughties’ spent six months with us as she explored her own calling to ministry. This was something she eventually and reluctantly accepted, and for a number of years now she has been the leader of one of the churches at Kirkliston.
Maggie talked of her own feelings of inadequacy before taking on the role of minister, and this led us all to reflect on how God uses even us, broken as we are, to help others know that there is hope in Jesus, and that a new life is possible. While we need to acknowledge that there may well be suffering along the way, it is often when we go through hard times that we can look back and see how Jesus has helped us, and we can then support others going through similar struggles.
Maggie also spoke of the need for honesty and humility in our relationship with God, and especially in our prayer life. She centred on the need for God’s transforming presence in the life of our church, quoting the well-known promise he gives us in 2 Chronicles 7.14 –
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Towards the end of the morning we spent some time sharing what we felt God had been saying to us as a church. The main themes that emerged in common were
• the importance of meeting together in prayer
• our need for humility in the presence of God
• our need to accept our brokenness before God’s light can shine through
Much love
John