The way is narrow, the standard: high

Complacency.  Slumber.  Self-satisfaction… They crept up - without us realising.  Even in the midst of pressing in to seek God and follow Him.  How subtle are the ways of the enemy… how gracious the ways of the Lord!  He woke me with a sense of urgency this morning and a call to be ready and to go deeper.  I love that the Lord will not relent and is raising the bar to a higher level – and we are challenged by it!  As we give our lives to Him, He will take us and shape us, but also shake us where we become settled.  Pray that this continues so that we come into the fullness of all that the Lord wants to grow and mature and fulfil in us.

We have been praying that God will truly change us and that we will go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our own strength or efforts.  There is dissatisfaction - because the disciples went out and turned cities upside-down - and this is what we are called to, the standard that the Bible lays out.  There is a grappling with expecting the Lord to move, yet surrendering and laying down our expectations of what the Lord moving will look like – we are realising it is all too easy to put a picture or imagination to something the Lord says, or a sense He gives, only to realise that then we are limiting Him, missing what He is really doing or are trying to make the picture happen rather than trust God to do what we cannot!   The way is narrow, and deep is calling to deep that we will learn His ways.

Yesterday we were reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, and a verse (16:9) leapt out at me – “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries”.  This morning the Holy Spirit brought that verse again in prayer, and though at first I didn’t really understand what the Lord was saying – whether it was to be prayed in, or whether it already has been opened – as we sought the Lord it became clearer that an effective door has been opened here in Cambridge.  Please urgently pray that the Lord makes a way for the fullness of our mission to be completed here: for a time in the next few days to meet with the pastor whom the Lord is sending us to.  There are many adversaries!  And the fact that it is Easter weekend – already an incredibly busy time for this pastor with events in the city – means all the more the need for prayer and for God to make a way where there seems to be no way.  Thank you that we can count on you!

Bless you!

Love to all!

Clare