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Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
  Uttered, or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
  That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
  The falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye
  When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
  That infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
  The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
  The Christian’s native air;
His watchword at the gates of death;
  He enters rest with prayer.

The saints in prayer appear as one,
  In word, and deed, and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
  Sweet fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made by man alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads.
And Jesus at the Father's throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O Thou, by whom we come to God,
  The Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod—
  Lord, teach us how to pray.

This hymn was written by a journalist who amongst other things campaigned for the abolition of slavery and against the exploitation of children chimney sweeps. Born in Scotland in 1771 in Irvine, James Montgomery was a member of the Moravian Church, became editor of The Sheffield Iris, a poet of mixed success, but also writer of some of the best-loved English hymns.

This hymn on prayer is one of the finest English hymns on prayer. Almost every line has its biblical echo; he touches on a wide range of human experiences, showing a deep understanding of the human heart; and lines of theological beauty take us deep into the places where God and the human heart meet in trust and love.

Monday

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, uttered, or unexpressed;
The motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast.

Prayer engages our whole self – body, mind, heart and soul. Indeed when Jesus spoke of the first commandment as loving the Lord our God, it was a call to such complete self-giving of all that we are. To pray is to speak our longing, to put our heart into words; but it is also to know that our deepest desires are already known by God, spoken or not. Whatever goes on deep within us, God already knows. Prayer is the movement of the heart towards God who first comes to us in grace, a flame of answering love kindled by the Holy Spirit – “we love because He first loved us.”

Tuesday

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear;
The upward glancing of an eye when none but God is near.

Another hymn puts this as a question: “Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?” The answer is yes, sometimes. Not all prayers need words, and there are experiences in life that make words hard to find and prayer all but impossible. But then, prayer has never depended on us finding the right words, or even any words. God is nearer to our heart than we know, and his love is deeper than whatever happens to us. It’s just hard to know that at the time. At such times, “The Spirit makes intercession for us with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans.8.26)

Wednesday

Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high.

When Jesus was overheard in prayer saying “Abba, Father”, the disciples heard Jesus using the language of intimate trust and family belonging. Christian prayer is like the conversations, requests, laughter, fears, and imaginings of a child chattering with the One who loves her most! And yet. Prayer is also music to the ears of God, whether symphonies of praise, concertos of gladness, or the virtuoso playing of the heart expressing the whole range of human emotion and experience, and all of it gathered up into the music of heaven. Prayer can be simple or sophisticated, the language of the trusting child or the full tonal range of needs played by mature human hearts.

Thursday

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air;
His watchword at the gates of death; he enters heaven with prayer.

When God created humanity he breathed life into those creatures made in God’s image, those created for loving obedience and trusting fellowship with the Creator. Prayer is the oxygen that sustains the Christian life. Another poet speaks the same thought: “God’s breath in man returning to his birth…” Prayer is the natural, native air of home. Prayer, like breathing is the vital, essential and energising source of life. And as each life comes to completion, the breath God first gave, becomes for all of us, the trustful yielding of the Christian heart to the One who first gave breath, the one who holds us within the eternal purposes of a loving Creator Redeemer: “God’s breath in man returning to his birth…”

Friday

The saints in prayer appear as one, in word, and deed, and mind;
While with the Father and the Son, sweet fellowship they find.

The phrase ‘corporate prayer’ makes shared prayer sound like a business! Even ‘prayer meeting’ sounds a bit functional. When people pray together there is an orchestration of the Spirit, what Charles Wesley called a harmony of hearts. Or as Paul wrote to a dysfunctional church; “be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” (Phil. 2.2) To share in prayer is to enter communion with each other and with the Triune God of love. It is in praying together that a true deepening of fellowship takes place, and loving care for each other grows, displacing all those other responses which get in the way of ‘the fellowship of believers’.

Saturday

Nor prayer is made by man alone; the Holy Spirit pleads.
And Jesus at the Father's throne, for sinners intercedes.

Romans 8.26 again. “The Spirit makes intercession for us with sighs too deep for words.” God’s Spirit is the best interpreter of our heart, and our words. But then there’s Hebrews 7.25: “He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Every time we pray, we are accompanied by the Comforter, AND our prayers are underwritten by the Ascended Saviour. Few hymns condense so much Gospel truth into the theology of our praying. By grace God is in our praying, present to us even as we pray.

Sunday

O Thou, by whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the Way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod—Lord, teach us how to pray.

Perhaps the most important prayer we can pray: “Lord teach us how to pray.” This is not about technique, or set rules – prayer is learned as we come to God the Father, through Jesus the Son, in the power of the Spirit. The first motion of our minds and hearts towards God, and we come under the tutelage and support of the Holy Spirit. When we pray, we come to God through Christ in whom we have experienced new life. By prayer we come to know the truth of God as the Holy Spirit teaches us. Through prayer we come to know the sustaining grace of God, and grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God, and so are able to walk in the ways of God.

Monday

Matthew 5.5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The mental picture of Jesus the passive, untroubled and untroubling Teacher, with a wistful smile and a calm demeanour, pictured like a benign hippie, is a country mile from the reality of Jesus. The well-known words “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild” are so one sided they obscure and distort the Jesus of the New Testament. Yet Jesus says of himself, “For I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Yes, but that just means somewhere along the line what Jesus said is lost in translation! Meekness is not weakness, it is strength harnessed to purpose, the steel that supports each choice a person makes in favour of obedience to God, no matter what.

Tuesday

Matthew 11.29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

In an abrasive and aggressively self-promoting culture, meekness is unlikely to be the smart way ahead. Or so we’ve been conditioned to think. The word Jesus used for meek has inner resilience within its meaning. Oxen yoked to the plough demonstrate meekness, that is, strength harnessed to purpose, and power under control. We come to Jesus for rest, he gives us a yoke! But that implement guides and controls, enabling the obedience that comes from learning from the One who promises rest instead of weariness, and the yoke of learning in place of crushing burden.

Wednesday

Matthew 21.5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The triumphal entry was a different kind of triumph. Not an all-powerful ruler, leading a procession of victorious soldiers followed by long lines of conquered prisoners. He came gentle, meek, humble – three words used to translate the original Greek adjective. The triumph is not in the conquest, but in the purpose of his coming as the one called Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus’ coming, sets in motion the triumph of God, the victory of the Crucified – “Ride on, ride on, in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die…” Meekness and strength harnessed to purpose, redemptive purpose.

Thursday

Ephesians 4.2 “Be completely humble and meek, be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

This is Paul’s definition of what meekness looks and feels like. It means putting up with people, being patient with their problems, and not giving up on them even if they are the problem! This pastoral imperative comes after Paul’s urging them, “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Meekness is Christ-like, and we are called to be those who live in Christ, and in whom Christ lives. Many a church squabble breaks out because there is a deficit of meekness, a refusal to bear with one another in love. In short, our failure to take the meekness of Christ to heart.

Friday

James 3.13 “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the meekness that comes from wisdom.”

We learn from experience. When someone does something stupid, wrong or unworthy of them, we say, “You should have known better.” Actually, we don’t always learn from experience, unless we become reflective practitioners of our own discipleship. Wisdom is accumulated from lessons learned in meekness. You can’t be a know-all and a disciple of Jesus. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” is the command and demand that follows the invitation, “Come to me all who are burdened.”

Saturday

Colossians 3.12 “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.” 

You can tell a lot about a word’s meaning by the company it keeps. And Paul’s metaphor of being well dressed, clothed with Christ, describes in colourful terms the Christian as a non-fashion-conscious follower of Jesus. The clothes we wear make a statement, a visible message about who we are, the colours we prefer, even the impression we want to make. To be clothed in the meekness of Christ is to have taken his yoke, learned from him, and found rest. That’s identity statement enough.

Sunday

Matthew 5.5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The meek are blessed because they have come to Jesus. They have meekly taken his yoke and learned of him as commanded. The result is that they shall inherit the earth. What on earth does that mean though, really? The meek are the powerless, those who don’t make claims of their own self-importance; those who can look on the world without feeling they have to grab and possess as much of it as they can. They shall inherit the earth, not the material stuff of influence, but the reward of God who satisfies the hungry and thirsty soul, comforts the mournful, calls peacemakers his children, and opens a world of blessing to those who seek first God’s Kingdom.

Sometime in the early 1970s garden centres began to grow. They became increasingly common as places to go, first for the obvious reasons of gardening equipment, seeds and plants, but then came the cafe, and the restaurant, and the food hall. The places grew in size, but so did their social importance. The garden centre became the place to meet for coffee, to have a meal, to spend time (and money) with family and friends.

Where I live, there are two signature Garden Centres within 15 minutes by car, with two more less than half an hour away. They are social hubs where folk meet up, bus trips arrive on the holiday trail, elderly parents are taken for lunch and a look around, retired folk build them in as a weekly rendezvous point. They employ significant numbers of casual and permanent workers, they sell everything from garden essentials to cosmetics, from delicatessen foods to scented candles, garden furniture to walking boots. And that's just the two nearest us!

I wrote earlier about Garden Centres as places of social intersection, places where beauty can be looked at whether or not we take home a rose, hibiscus, or tray of pansies.

You can catch up with it here,

Thinking some more about this since then, one other thought seems worth mentioning. The 'Garden Centre' is an important neutral space where conversations can take place, emotional support and encouragement can be spoken, and sometimes needs no words, just the tea or coffee, the 'fine piece', and a wander around a safe place.

The other day while walking around with a friend, in the covered outdoor area, I was aware we were walking in a place of visual therapy. There were the sparrows chirping in their own pub-level of shouted conversation; there was a robin staying near enough to be noticed, and distant enough to prevent those humans taking any liberties. There was bright sunlight highlighting the colours of pot plants, outdoor plants, mature acers in huge pots, roses and fuschia, geranium and hibiscus, summer cyclamen and alpines set in gravel – to mix a metaphor, a symphony of colour. He went his way, I went my way. We met, talked briefly and walked some more. 

I've come to realise that sometimes it's the physical environment that enables those conversations when important words are said; and creates a fertile place for those conversations that require few words, if any. The beauty is what needs to be heard (that misapplied metaphor again), and the peace of a garden (centre) is a different kind of aromatherapy, which lowers those defences we've become used to holding up to obscure what we might be embarrassed for others to see.

Of course much of this happens and we aren't even aware of it. Many come and go, time after time, and may not even wonder why it is they keep coming. And, of course, many will come unreflectively and simply enjoy the meal, browsing the plants, or the in the food-hall, buying whatever meets the current requirements – for the garden or the dinner table. And why not, for many folk, blessings don't have to be spelled out to be enjoyed!

But friendship and conversations, beauty and safe space, coffee and time shared with a trusted other – these some of our inner life's important support systems, and garden centres facilitate these for millions of people living in a culture where such social exchange and mutual recognition are often hard to find. Or so it seems to me.

As a Christian, I'll take whatever comes as blessing at its face value. Not all spiritual practices have to look spiritual, or feel devotional. God has more ways to bless the human heart than we can begin to think of, and much of the time we enjoy them with no thought of how this happiness of the heart happened to to us! And perhaps, as one who is a recipients of a Love Eternal in its scope and reach, I must guard against becoming so used to God's surrounding goodness, that all is taken for granted. A garden centre is no return to Eden, but it is a good reminder of the Creator, and of ourselves as dependent creatures, and of a God-loved world eloquent in beauty, fragile and at times broken.

Which line of thought always brings me back to Julian of Norwich's parable of the hazelnut - 

“And in this [sight], he showed a little thing the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand as it seemed to me, and it was as round as any ball. I looked therein with the eye of my understanding, and thought: “What may this be?” And it was answered generally thus: “It is all that is made.” I marvelled how it might last, for it seemed to me it might suddenly have fallen into nought for its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: “It lasteth and ever shall, because God loveth it. And so hath all things being by the love of God.”         

And if a garden centre can evoke that kind of faith and faithfulness, then maybe, just maybe, going to the garden centre is a kind of spiritual discipline!

TEXT FOR THE WEEK.  I Peter 1.3:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Monday

“Praise be to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s where Christian worship, prayer and faithful existence start – with praise. Not our requests and needs, but the heart recognition of who God is and all that God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter will go on to spell that out in the rest of the text. But impulsive, self-asserting and outspoken Peter has learned this late in life to put first things first. Praise is the music of a heart set free to live and love in the grace of God.

Tuesday

“In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Mercy is love in action and always involves self-giving care for the other. Praise God, says Peter, for the gift of new life in Christ. Every believer lives with a forward look to hope-filled horizons. All of them illumined by the blazing reality of ‘the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ The resurrection is the ultimate new beginning, the defeat of death by the life of God, the birth of hope from despair. By resurrection and the gift of new birth, God speaks a reverberating “Yes!” of forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal. 

Wednesday

“…and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”

New birth, living hope, and now a God-given inheritance, with a triple lock guarantee! It is imperishable, unspoilable, and unfading. What God has given to us in Christ is index-linked to his resurrection. This new life and living hope, with all its blessings of peace with God, the gift of the Spirit, the renewal of the heart for service, are directly dependent on God’s power and mercy, and demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our inheritance in Christ is ring-fenced by grace!

Thursday

“This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…”

  Peter was writing to Christians who were facing persecution, the forfeiture of property, exclusion from society, loss of status and everyday freedoms. If we are faithful to Jesus it may well cost us too. Peter’s point is that our salvation, our security in God, our status as children of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – whatever else we lose, we can never lose our place in God’s love, and our hope in Christ. What we have received in Christ, all the graces and gifts of salvation, are under the lock and key of heaven, guarded by the eternal promises of God.

Friday

“who through faith are shielded by God’s power…”

In case we missed it, God not only guards and keeps all he has promised to those who are in Christ; but because we live in Christ by faith, we also are shielded by the power of God. An older translation says “we are kept by the power of God.” A shield is only effective when it comes between the heart and danger. The Psalmist even calls God a shield, One who protects and defends when the heart is under siege. 

Saturday

“until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Outside the discourse of the Church, the word salvation is hardly ever used these days. But it is a key word of Christian life. “It contains the ideas of rescue from danger, healing from illness, deliverance from the threat of death, and entering into a state of well-being.” We are born anew into a living hope, so that in faith we look forward to the final revelation of all that God plans for the new creation in Christ. So we live in anticipation, but we do so secure and “kept by the power of God.”

Sunday

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Read the whole text again, and allow your mind and heart to follow its rhythms. Another word hardly used outside church is ‘Doxology.’ Literally, it means to speak words of glory, to give God glory. This week we have explored Peter’s passionate description of Christian salvation, and taken some time to think about the experience and realities of God’s grace and power and love in our own lives.

It seems right to finish with perhaps the most frequently sung four-line verse in English hymnody, written in 1674 by Thomas Ken: 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

TEXT FOR THE WEEK.  I Peter 1.3:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Monday

“Praise be to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s where Christian worship, prayer and faithful existence start – with praise. Not our requests and needs, but the heart recognition of who God is and all that God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter will go on to spell that out in the rest of the text. But impulsive, self-asserting and outspoken Peter has learned this late in life to put first things first. Praise is the music of a heart set free to live and love in the grace of God.

Tuesday

“In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Mercy is love in action and always involves self-giving care for the other. Praise God, says Peter, for the gift of new life in Christ. Every believer lives with a forward look to hope-filled horizons. All of them illumined by the blazing reality of ‘the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ The resurrection is the ultimate new beginning, the defeat of death by the life of God, the birth of hope from despair. By resurrection and the gift of new birth, God speaks a reverberating “Yes!” of forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal. 

Wednesday

“…and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”

New birth, living hope, and now a God-given inheritance, with a triple lock guarantee! It is imperishable, unspoilable, and unfading. What God has given to us in Christ is index-linked to his resurrection. This new life and living hope, with all its blessings of peace with God, the gift of the Spirit, the renewal of the heart for service, are directly dependent on God’s power and mercy, and demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Christ. Our inheritance in Christ is ring-fenced by grace!

Thursday

“This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…”

  Peter was writing to Christians who were facing persecution, the forfeiture of property, exclusion from society, loss of status and everyday freedoms. If we are faithful to Jesus it may well cost us too. Peter’s point is that our salvation, our security in God, our status as children of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – whatever else we lose, we can never lose our place in God’s love, and our hope in Christ. What we have received in Christ, all the graces and gifts of salvation, are under the lock and key of heaven, guarded by the eternal promises of God.

Friday

“who through faith are shielded by God’s power…”

In case we missed it, God not only guards and keeps all he has promised to those who are in Christ; but because we live in Christ by faith, we also are shielded by the power of God. An older translation says “we are kept by the power of God.” A shield is only effective when it comes between the heart and danger. The Psalmist even calls God a shield, One who protects and defends when the heart is under siege. 

Saturday

“until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Outside the discourse of the Church, the word salvation is hardly ever used these days. But it is a key word of Christian life. “It contains the ideas of rescue from danger, healing from illness, deliverance from the threat of death, and entering into a state of well-being.” We are born anew into a living hope, so that in faith we look forward to the final revelation of all that God plans for the new creation in Christ. So we live in anticipation, but we do so secure and “kept by the power of God.”

Sunday

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Read the whole text again, and allow your mind and heart to follow its rhythms. Another word hardly used outside church is ‘Doxology.’ Literally, it means to speak words of glory, to give God glory. This week we have explored Peter’s passionate description of Christian salvation, and taken some time to think about the experience and realities of God’s grace and power and love in our own lives.

It seems right to finish with perhaps the most frequently sung four-line verse in English hymnody, written in 1674 by Thomas Ken: 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.