DECEMBER 2013 DEVOTIONAL POSTPONED TO JANUARY 2014 DEVOTIONAL ‘HE WILL COME TO SAVE YOU'

The film ‘Gravity’ started showing in cinemas last month and has been very popular, grossing huge ticket sales of £250 million. Ryan Stone played by Sandra Bullock, in a desperate scene, alone in space with little hope of survival, says ‘No-one ever taught me to pray.’ The loneliness of a woman who is lost in space with no hope, not knowing even how to pray to her God, is captured with the help of powerful Hollywood cinematography. With a barely concealed ‘double entendre’ this film which is called Gravity, penetratingly uncovers the gravity of her plight. She is separated from communication with NASA. She is thousands of miles from home and from every other living human being. Is there any hope?

Do we know how lost we are? Do we know how to pray? Has anyone ever taught us how to pray? Jesus’ disciples asked him ‘Lord teach us to pray’. They had seen him pray. He clearly had a relationship with his Father in heaven. He had come down to earth and identified with their people, the Jewish people who were in a desperate place. They knew they were in a desperate place. They were oppressed by the Romans. Jesus’ death and his life was all about restoration of relationship ,communication and communion with God the Father in heaven. It wasn’t about political salvation.. it was about spiritual salvation., but the Jewish people and the disciples themselves were in an extreme place of need and the Lord had their attention. This was the context when the disciples asked Jesus …’Lord, teach us to pray’. How desperate are we to be rescued.. to be saved from oblivion. How desperate are we to learn how to pray?

Following years of oppression, in the 70s and 80s by Idi Amin and then by Obote, Christians in Uganda learnt how to pray in the jungle crying out to God for their very lives. When the AIDS crisis hit Uganda in the 90s worse than any other nation in Africa, they continued to cry out to God but began to ask 'Why?'. God started to show them that if they only prayed about the problems that there would always be problems but if they started to seek to draw His presence into their nation then they would see something tangible. The Ugandans have recently had a Christian president, the AIDS crisis has abated and the Lord has clearly heard their prayers.

Other African nations have been coming to prayer conferences in Uganda to learn how to pray. John Mulinde a Ugandan leader from World Trumpet Mission teaches around the world on how the Lord taught the Ugandan church to pray. One of the keys for the Ugandans has been reading large chucks of scripture, asking the Lord to speak through his word, and inviting the Lord’s presence and from that place of hearing from God and enjoying his presence, then moving into petition and intercession.

Following the thirty day devotional based on the book of Psalms in October this January 2014 blog, learning from the Ugandan church will encourage the daily reading of the New Testament, over thirty days, covering on average about 8 chapters a day depending on the length of the chapter. There will be a daily devotional taken from each day’s bible reading, aimed at stimulating and encouraging our prayer lives, particularly inspired by Andrew Murray’s ‘With Christ in the School of Prayer.’

1. Mathew 1-8
2. Matthew 9-16
3. Matthew 17-24
4. Matthew 25-28, Mark 1-3
5. Mark 4-9
6. Mark 10-16
7. Luke 1-5
8. Luke 6-10
9. Luke 11-17
10. Luke 18-24
11. John 1-6
12. John 7-13
13. John 14-21
14. Acts 1-7
15. Acts 8-17
16. Acts 18-26
17. Acts 27-Romans 5
18. Romans 6-16
19. 1 Cor 1-10
20. 1 Cor 11-2 Cor 5
21 2 Cor 6 - Gal 4
22. Gal 5 - Eph 6
23. Phil 1- 1 Thess 5
24. 2 Thess 1- 1 Tim 6
25. 2 Tim 1 - Heb 3
26. Heb 4- Heb 13
27. James 1 - 1 Peter 5
28. 2 Peter 1 - Jude
29. Rev 1- Rev 10
30. Rev 11- Rev 22

As we seek the Lord for an awakening in our nation and as we devote ourselves to prayer and to the reading of the Psalms and New Testament, let’s be praying that the Lord would restore the Gospel in us and in our nation ONCE AGAIN and that he would teach us how to pray!! If you would like to continue to subscribe to this devotional, the first daily devotional will be delivered to your inbox on 1st January 2014.