Praying for a hungry and thirsting nation

I'm reading New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp at the moment as part of my daily Bible reading. Each day is headlined with a tweet, and today's was this:

"God uses the picture of physical food to point to universal spiritual hunger. Life is all about what we look to to fill us."

He then quoted Isaiah 51:1-7 and encouraged us to read John 6.

For years, perhaps decades now really, the UK has been a starving and thirsting nation. People have been looking to satisfy that hunger in anything but Jesus and his gospel. It's been painful for Christians and the church to watch, but we know it's true.

In these most unusual of times, this was really brought home to me by a BBC news report I saw. The report was about the Thursday night applause for the NHS and the reporter spoke of the NHS as the new national religion and the applause as the act of praise. Apparently, this has it's roots in something Nigel Lawson wrote in his memoirs.

Of course, the NHS is just one of many replacement gods. We've seen the people of the UK replace God with money, relationships, possessions, identity, power and so on, which is of course the story of human history and our relationship with God. Paul could write about it in Romans 1:22-25 and Isaiah in Isaiah 40:9-20. We exchange the real God for foolish idols.

But my prayer in this time is that these idols are exposed and that the spiritual hunger of people's hearts, which has never been satisfied by these other foods, becomes gnawingly obvious to them. On the one hand there is an imminent danger of death - something that possessions, power or even the NHS cannot immunise us against. In many ways death exposes the impotence of our idols most powerfully. It becomes uncomfortably obvious that or idols have no power to deal with the thing that scares us the most! On the other hand, many people have more time than they will have had in years. And time is an uncomfortable thing. If you have to slow down, there is space to think and reflect - on what you've done, who you are and where you're going for example.

So my prayer is that people will be looking for real food to satisfy their spiritual hunger. That they will be looking for real answers to the most meaningful questions of life, the universe and everything.

But with that prayer, comes a concern and another prayer: "Lord would you make churches and Christians ready and able to share the good news."

This has also been an ongoing concern for decades. If we've got to the point where people worship the NHS, we've hardly been very effective in proclaiming Jesus have we?

Broadly speaking the church in the UK has spent significant time and effort collapsing in recent decades. On the one had we have been walking away from God and his word and pursuing our idols, aided and abetted all too effectively by many church leaders. On the other, our collapsing numbers have paradoxically led to an introversion focused on keeping the show on the road. In recent times, even those of us who are part of orthodox, outreach focused evangelical ministries have been rocked by various scandals, which suggest that some of our foundations aren't as secure as we had thought!

So amongst many other things my prayers at the moment are that, by God's grace, many in our country would be looking for true spiritual food. And that by God's grace he would be using this time to equip his people to faithfully point them to that food - Jesus Christ.

Pastors and churchleaders, I know there is a great temptation at the moment to keep the show on the road in some technologically adept way. Let's be honest, you can't really do that, but you might be risking spending lots of time spinning plates and being busy. It's good that you are providing something for us and we appreciate it. But even more can I encourage you to be on your knees in prayer and thinking about how best to equip your people over the next few weeks so that we are praying and are able to faithfully explain the reason for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15), even in the face of Covid-19.

Tripp finishes his reflection like this:

"The important thing to know is that there are only two banquet tables from which you can eat: the costly, unsatisfying table of the physical world or the soul-satisfying table of the Lord of abundant mercy and grace. God's question for you today is this: "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and labor for that which does not satisfy?[Isaiah 55:2 ESV] It is a question worth considering"

 Or as Jesus says in John 6:35:

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." (ESV)