Christ Church Moreton Hall

By now almost all of us will have felt the full effects of the prices going up at the pumps, at the food store, on our electrical bills and on our mortgage and credit card repayments. Almost everyone on the estate will be dreading each morning's post and the brown envelopes that come with it. Even though we are planning to go on holiday and probably will do, nonetheless nagging in the back of our minds will be the question of can I really afford this.

Despite what the politicians say and don't say we should all know that there is actually very little they can do to change things. The rises in fuel prices have been decided in other countries. The growing affluence of China and India means they are buying up more of their share of the world's food supply causing prices to rise. Perhaps saddest of all the growing of specialist crops to produce alternatives to oil has reduced the amount of land available for ordinary foodstuffs and that too is making prices rise.

But in the midst of all our concerns and anxieties just stop and consider this for a moment. While we may be struggling to pay our bills, for many across the world they will be struggling to fill their bellies. While we find our politicians remote and ineffectual, many will find their politicians despotic and cruel and completely unaccountable. And while we may struggle to hang on to our homes with or without negative equity, there will be so many this year who will be struggling to rebuild their homes out of corrugated iron and whatever pieces of wood they can find following monsoon, earthquake, land clearance, political violence, as well as tsunamis and cyclones. Yes, things are bad. But they are not as bad as the media would have us believe with the scaremongering headlines. I am old enough to have lived through not just 12% inflation but 25% inflation and we are nowhere near that yet.

But perhaps the bigger question is, "Where is God in all this?". The Bible teaches He will be with the poor, the suffering, the lonely, the bereaved, and the injured. This is borne out by the fact that when you go to these countries the churches are full and despite hardships that we think impossible to cope with, there is a joy, a spontaneity and a love and, believe it or not, a spirit of generosity amongst the people that it would be heard to find on the Moreton Hall estate or anywhere in Britain.

But the good news is that God is generous and He does not wish to limit His joy and His generosity to just those people. We have found at Christ Church Moreton Hall that God visits us too. There has been a real movement of His Holy Spirit and there have been some miraculous healings. We find that when we take our eyes off the world and our troubles and refocus on Him and bring our cares to Him, things change. We have found we become less demanding, live simpler lives, try to spend more time with others and are not so concerned to keep up with the Joneses, we find peace of mind.

So this week, why not stop what you are doing and think about all the good things God has given you, say thank you to Him and ask Him to guide you and help you as you face the challenges that come your way. And in the days and weeks that lie ahead you will find a peace that passes all understanding, a joy that goes beyond all believing and, as you walk with God, many of these problems with resolve themselves.