SPEAKING TO POWER

Occasionally I’m asked what has been the most challenging preaching assignment of my life. I have no doubts about my response. Invited to address the UK Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, held annually in Westminster Hall, I felt totally out of my depth. The night before the event, I accompanied one of the Queen's Chaplains to St Margaret’s Chapel, and then addressed a small gathering in the elaborate home that is the Speaker’s House. Then came the event itself, held in the place where King Charles I was sentenced to death. Everything about the occasion spoke of raw power. As an Essex boy, I felt quite out of place among so many plummy accents. A question niggled at my nervous brain: how could anything be changed in this place, in this nation?

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1 Samuel 17:1-54

Jonah 3:3

Focus

‘The Lord saved me from the paw of the lion. He saved me from the paw of the bear. And he’ll save me from... this Philistine.’

1 Samuel 17:37

As Jonah heads to Nineveh, we’re told it was ‘a very important city’. In fact, it took about three days to see all of it (Jonah 3:3). Other translations call it great – remember how the writer of Jonah loves that word? We already know that it was not important or great because of its morality – on the contrary. Nineveh was described like this because of the crushing power sway that it held in the world. But for all that, it would be changed by the visit of a fugitive prophet. As we saw earlier when we talked about the greatness of God, let’s remember that even the mightiest can fall – be it Goliath or Nineveh – when God is at work. What is our Nineveh/Goliath situation? Are we still asking God to topple it?

Prayer: When I find myself intimidated by the power of a seemingly impossible situation, help me to remember who You are, Mighty God. Amen.