Prayer isn’t something we have to do It’s what we were made to do.We may not see Him face to face yet, but one day we will. On that day, temptation will be gone, the curse will be broken, and communication will be fully restored.Until then, we pray—not out of duty, but out of love. Because prayer isn’t just about requests—it’s about relationship.

Sometimes, what’s clogging your connection to God isn’t that you’re not serving enough, it’s that you haven’t stopped long enough to let Him clean you. Maybe it’s time to pause the motion and open the compartment. Let God clean out the things that have built up , the criticism, the comparison, the resentment, the hurt.

In this podcast, I will be talking about the storms in our lives, the difficult patches, the rough stuff. Why do these things happen, why should we still worship and how do we practically do that?

The word “surrender” makes most of us uneasy. Even hearing it can trigger an instinctive resistance. In our culture, surrender is rarely spoken of positively. It is wrapped in the language of weakness, failure, and loss.

We started out by looking at the greatest commandment, which is to love God. We also saw that we love God, because he first loved us. God’s love for us gives us the strength to let go of sin, come to him when we have failed, and to want to get to know him more and more. So let’s come to God and experience it.

Last week we were shown the reality that we were created to worship - the fundamental and foundational posture, as created beings to worship our creator. Our worship is our obedience, our acknowledgement, that God is our sovereign ruler, King and authority. Why is this important?

A compass points north because that’s how it’s made. Your soul points God-ward because that’s how you’re made. But magnets near a compass can throw it off. So remove the magnets—habits, inputs, compromises—that distort your reading. Bring the needle back to true north.

When you hear the word surrender, what comes to mind? Maybe you think of waving a white flag, admitting defeat, or giving up control. For most of us, surrender doesn’t sound appealing. We’ve worked hard to build careers, relationships, families, and identities. We want to be in charge of our lives. We’re told, “Take control of your destiny. Be the author of your story. Hustle harder, dream bigger.”

True understanding of our standing before God, reveals that we can gain favour and merit even in our failures, because of who God is. Even in our disobedience, a correct heart condition which is brought back to God through confession and repentance can still encounter blessing. If only we could completely submit to God and his commands, acknowledging His care and provision for our obedience without resorting to raising our Buts!

God did not set every Israelite at Jericho his own individual challenge which was divorced from the group as a whole. They acted as one people, one united group to act in a particular way. Some within that group might have been deeply suspicious of whether it was going to work. Others might have been extremely confident. But, in the end, they acted together to exercise faith in God’s plans for them ALL.

The people of Israel got up in the morning and approached the Jordan River without any strategy for crossing, except to obey Joshua and remember what God had done for their parents at the Red Sea. For three days they camped with the sound of floodwaters in their ears, the sight of the opposite shore reminding them of the mission ahead.

In the same way we also cannot be saved by simply knowing who God is, or even by knowing a lot about God, or even by doing stuff for God, or by thinking that just because God is merciful that He will save me anyway. No, we must display - for all to see, both our faith and our works, because on judgement day God is only looking for those people who are displaying the scarlet cord.

As we start the book of Joshua, we encounter a baton change, a passing of Gods promise from one runner to another, in our case, from Moses to Joshua. The goal remains the same - finish what has been started.

Have you ever put something off time and time again, knowing it is what you should do, but not wanting to for whatever reason - procrastinating is the posh term! What I find is that when I finally do put my mind to the task in hand, it is often far easier and demands less effort than I imagined, and the results are far greater than I hoped. When I read my bible, I do wonder how the Israelites who escaped slavery in Egypt managed to spend 40 years wandering around a desert land moaning and groaning, rather than pursuing Gods promises?

So, in summary we must be the light of the world, we must demonstrate the light of the world, and we must remain in the light of the world.“You are the light of the World” We are not Jesus, but if Jesus lives in us, and if we remain in Him, we will be totally unable to hide that fact. Then we will shine like Jesus and we will be “The light of the world” that Jesus asked us to be.

Gods first act to bring into existence ‘goodness’. Light is therefore Good, and it signifies where God is - His Glory. This is the overarching theme of scripture, that repeats - that the purity, the holiness, the unfailing, unchanging characteristics of God are represented by light so brilliant that no human eye can gaze upon it and live. I think to move towards this understanding helps us to picture the ‘awe’ of God.

When we read ‘light’ in scripture what do we associate it with? It is an unusual question - ‘what is light?’ because however we choose to answer this question we will always seat it in what we perceive and call light today - whether that be daylight - the light of the sun - the light from a bulb that we switch on so we can see, a torch light to show the way across a dark field on a camp site on the way to the toilet!

If we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved. The seven miracles in John give us all the evidence we need to be certain that Jesus is who He says He is. Make sure your story ends in life. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord WILL be saved”

The blind man can see and receives the goodness and compassion of God (Jahweh is His name and this is half of what His name means) but remember last week as we looked at god’s name and the importance of Jesus stating that He is ‘I AM’, that the ability to act in true compassion and righteousness gives the authority to also judge…and the pharisees walk right into the trap!

Same story, three different views. Matthew and Marks are very similar apart from the fact that Matthew has Peter walking on the water and having to get back into the boat with Jesus! The result is the same though - as soon as Jesus entered in - the winds stopped - the storm subsided. There was peace and purpose.