Prayer opens windows

I was standing on the train to London packed with commuters when a signal problem stopped us in our tracks. The carriage steamed up and we opened the windows. Things got that bit more bearable.

It got me to thought and to prayer. I got thinking about what it is like to make a daily commute from Horsted Keynes by rail. It got me praying for my stressed companions that God might alleviate the effects of the half-hour delay. One or two of these a week adds up to a day every year stuck immobile in a steamy carriage.

Opening the windows cooled our physical situation. Opening up in prayer to God cooled my spirit, and hopefully those of the unfortunate companions I interceded for. Prayer opens heaven’s windows. It brings a freeing perspective into time from eternity. It is a reminder that, however hapless the journey of earthly life may be, it is set within a commuting to the eternal destiny set for mortals.

God is never more than a prayer away, but it takes his challenging of comfortable self-sufficiency to wake us up again and again to his big picture. In that picture, as Paul reminds the Romans, we know that all things work together for those who love God’ (Romans 8.2S).

Whatever journey you make today, may God be your companion and love of him steer the best way forward. May you love him in your prayer and make him loved through your intercession so that the cooling breath of the Holy Spirit flows into any heated circumstances you have to endure.

John Twisleton

Broadcast by The Revd Canon Dr John Twisleton (Rector of St Giles, Horsted Keynes) on Premier Christian Radio DAB Digital Radio Freeview 725/ Sky digital 0123 1. London on 1305 1332 1413 MW