power in my prayer

For the last few weeks I've had the children’s Christian song by Dave Godfrey called “power in my prayer” stuck in my head. It goes like this: “there’s power in my prayer, there’s power in my prayer, James 5:16 you know what I mean, there’s power in my prayer.”  So I decided to look up the verse in the bible.  James 5:16 states “therefore, confess your sin to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”  The song and verse is clearly telling me to pray as it holds great power. But why do I need to pray? Surely if God is omniscient (all knowing) then he must know everything I want and need, without needing to say anything.   Anyway, even when I do pray it doesn't mean I get what I ask for, so how is it so powerful?   

                 I began answering that question by acknowledging that am 100% certain that God is all -knowing and all -power full and therefore doesn't need our help for anything.   But God asks us to pray for our own sake, he wants us to build a relationship with him. Like when a father asks his young child to help him with his DIY project, the father is perfectly capable of doing this task alone and in fact the child could be more of a hindrance to him, but he uses the task as a way of bonding with his child, in the same way being involved with the work that God is doing through prayer, helps us to bound with God.   We are closer to God as we are involved in what he is doing.   We must also remember that as God is all-knowing and we have limited knowledge, he knows far more then we about what we need and therefor e we should trust in him to provide and not come to him with a wish list that we expect to be for filled, after all, the joy in prayer isn’t the things we get out, but building a relationship with God and working alongside him.  

Once I get a song stuck in my head I have to listen to it so that I will sing it no more, and so I looked it up online. By doing this I was reminded of anther one of Dave Godfrey’s   songs and a time when his children stood at the front of my church and sang this: “as I trust in you, you give me peace within, so I look into your face and say, daddy I need you” for me that’s how you should pray, seek God for guidance and support in all, for he is our Daddy listening and comforting,   there really is power in my prayer.   

Abby Clark is on the yfcone eta drama program

She is based in Radcliffe with the Methodist church

Journeys

Have you ever had to travel on a car journey with no map or sat nav? Hiked across the countryside with no compass? Or even been lost somewhere, with no one to ask for directions?

It’s often hard to get lost in the 21^st century with smart phones and good road signs, but in life sometimes we can feel like we are on a journey and have no clue where we are going, and if we did, how we would get there.

This thought of journeying has been something I've been thinking a lot about recently and has made me remember how God has led me over the past couple of years. When I stop and think about where I am now and how I got here, there is so much I can be thankful to God for. If someone had of told me when I was 15 that I would be living in Nottingham, study a schools, youth and community degree and volunteering for NYfC I probably would have laughed at them. As at that point in time all I was interested in was carpentry.

It was only a few weeks ago that I shared in a rock solid group how God had been with me on my journey through life. I asked the group what they thought their journey looked like and gave them a picture with four different pathways. Each had a different obstacle or difficulty that might have affected the journey. But through this I asked them to draw their own path or life journey and show me if it had ups or downs, obstacles or diversions and maybe even if they recognized God journeying with them?

I have always found Abram’s call by God in Genesis 12 helpful, as it makes me put things into perspective and I can liken my story to his. You see God appears to Abram and without warning or explanation tells him to leave his home, his family and the land he knows because God has something better in store for him. Abram has this incredible ability to just obey without argument or complaint and leave with no map (or sat nav or smart phone), just relying on God to direct him as he travels.

Often when we don’t know where we are going it can be really scary, most of us like to be in control of our lives and be the ones to make decision about whether we turn left or right. I would personally like to challenge you to let God be in control. If Abram had never been willing to let God lead him, he would never have become one of the great fore fathers in the Bible and if I had never said yes to God when he asked me to go into youth work I would never had experienced his blessing and provision and would probably still be in Leicester working as a carpenter.

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Simon Bentley is on his first year placement at NYfC

He is studying Theology and Schools work at MCYM

Having a Personal Faith

Something I’ve been challenged on recently is the idea of having a ‘personal faith’. It’s so easy to fall in to that trap of feeling like you know all there is to know about Christianity, so you must therefore have a really strong faith, right? Well, maybe. Doing a degree in youth work and theology at a Christian college often tempts me in to thinking that attending lectures, learning about the Bible, going to prayer meetings and being a Christian youth worker is enough. But I’m starting to learn that it’s not. My ministry needs to be rooted in my relationship with God; otherwise there is just no point. So, like any other relationship, a relationship with God requires sacrifice. That sounds brutal, but I mean it in the sense of sacrificing our time and effort to spend time getting to know God on a personal level. This means listening to Him and valuing what he has to say. Only then can we truly have faith, because God can do some wonderful and exciting things in our lives that we couldn’t even imagine unless we take time to invest in Him. It’s like; imagine that you had never tasted chocolate. So you read about chocolate and people tell you about how great it is. But only you know how great chocolate really is when you try it yourself. And let’s be fair, the rewards are pretty amazing! So today, I encourage you to think about how you can have a personal relationship with God, and go for it!

Charli Wood is key worker in Bilborough

She is also on the 3rd year @ MCYM

What have you been trusted with?

Writing a Blog always makes me reflect about what is important to me, important enough to write about and share with other people, so I was really glad when on our Notthingham Youth for Christ away day our boss, Richard said that the scripture for Youth for Christ this year was the "Parable of the talents" (Matthew Chapter 25 verses 14-28). This story really impacted me as a child, and challenged me once again when I read it with the team.

The story talks about a Master who gives 3 servants with a different number of talents, to one he gave 10, another 5 and another 1 before he went away. While he was gone the first two servants invest in their talents and are able to double their numbers. The Master is overjoyed, praises them and is able to share and entrust to them more of what he owns. The servant who had one talent didn't invest in his talent. In fact, he was scared of the way his Master ran his work/business so hid his talent in the ground until his Master came back to return it. As a result he was punished, his talent taken away and given to the one with 10 and he couldn't share in the Master's riches and was thrown into suffering.

This story reminded me that, in life, we are all different in our giftings and responsibilities, that God has made each person in a particular way. Our gifts, personalities, skills, styles, strengths, weaknesses, weird habits and relationships with people in our lives make us unique. It's not just what they are, or whether they seem a lot or a little that defines us, it's maybe even more what we do with them.

I used to focus on the last servant more than the other two who had used their talents. I used to feel sorry for him because he let his fear of a person (his Master) and a scenario (his Masters business) which was a misunderstanding in the first place, confuse and rob him of his duty, which was only to do the task right in front of him, to look after his talent. Because of fear and misunderstanding he missed out on the opportunity to use his talent, enjoy using and learning How to use it, reaping the rewards and sharing that, and more with his Master and the other servants.

This story reminded me again that God is a Dad, He is a loving Father. We may not always understand Him (the Master), in fact we CAN'T because He is an indescribable Being who controls the universe (His business) and we can't even control a fly or our lives properly, but we can know this: He has made us who we are, and there are things that we have been trusted with, people, jobs/chores, (home)work, decisions, opportunities and talents and if we are faithful with the few things right in front of us then when the time comes we can be trusted and blessed with more.

I hope this has blessed you as much as reading the story, and writing this speel has blessed me. Don't let life confuse you, don't be afraid, learn to enjoy who you are and what you have, and believe that He will always want to bless you.

Mona is key worker in Arnold

Being that someone

We all probably had someone in our Christian walk or just in our general life someone who has always been their for us. Someone that has encouraged , challenged, inspired you, someone that has not given up on you when your going through a hard time. I know when i was growing up having someone that was all those things helped me through life but most of all in my christian walk. This someone was a youth leader in my youth group. The way that she lived her life that reflected God and the way she never gave up on me even though i was a pain some of the time and tried to push her away she still stood by me.  She showed me that God to was all those things and so much more.

Working with young people i have noticed that encouraging them makes a real difference to them. Helping them reach their potential and not giving up on them when sometimes they feel everything in their lives is going wrong. Sometimes you might not see all the impact that you have on a young person but i know from my experience that the person that encouraged me has helped me get where i am today. 

I hope that in my life I can be that 'someone' who takes the the time to listen, to encourage to challenge and inspire someone and that the way I live will reflect God who is always that someone to everyone .  Can you be that 'Someone' ?

emily@nottinghamyfc.co.uk

Emily is our key worker in Inham Nook 

and is also our church resources worker

young people, the hope of our world?

I was glued to the television, nothing was stopping me from watching this. Yes I was slightly tired, it was about 12:30am now, but I was determined to see the end of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony. I had survived all aspects of the incredible, creative and wonderful ceremony even as others around me gave up and went to bed. All there was left to watch now was the lighting of the Olympic flame signalling the official start of the Olympic games. “Who was going to light it?” I wondered. Suddenly on the television David Beckham is seen driving a speed-boat towards the stadium with a younger athlete holding the torch. I thought “Maybe it is him, no big surprise though and hardly imaginative”. Then the torch is passed to Steve Redgrave and I think, “Ok this is it, this guy has got the most amount of Gold medals for Great Britain in history, no-one has been more successful, so it must be him!”. Steve Redgrave jogs into the stadium and I expect that to be it for the lighting of the torch but…it wasn’t…. Moments later Steve passes the torch to a group of 7 young people, aged between 16-18, who all have great talent and potential to represent Great Britain in the future. These 7 young people then light the Olympic torch signalling the start of the London 2012 Olympic games. Everyone expected ‘the lighting of the torch’  to be carried-out by a successful and experienced athlete who was known to all, instead 7 young people for 10 minutes left the world breathless with the hope that they brought to one of the biggest events around.

Last year at this same time of year, young people due to the riots were deemed “a lost generation”. This year a group of young people positively impacted the world. When young people are given the opportunity; and are empowered, loved and befriended; they can make a  massively positive impact to this world. The question is, are we going to let them? I urge strongly that your answer to this is a resounding “YES!!”. So this year at Nottingham Youth for Christ we strive to continue the positivity surrounding young people that this summer has brought, to empower a generation of young people to show the world what fantastic hope, creativity and love that they can bring. 

Mike Harrison is  NYfC's key worker in Nuthall and Kimberley

He started in September 2012 and   

is getting married in 2013

What is Faith?

Will has just come onto the Nottingham YfC team as key worker in Radcliffe and South Notts. In his first blog he talks about the idea of the Christian faith.

I remember in my first few months as a Christian a few people asked if I had Faith. My rather rushed but honest answer was “Erm…a little bit…maybe?”. I didn’t feel that I could answer with a simple “yes” or “no”, I was hardly a spiritual heavyweight but there was a little something there, enough to taste and want more of.

In life, everyone has faith in something or someone. By that I mean something that a person trusts in, relies upon, hopes in, and holds as the direction of life. Every second, we put our trust in something. Imagine you are sat on a chair, your body relies on the structural integrity of the chair to prevent your body from falling on the floor. Or imagine you run and jump. Wouldn’t it be odd if instead of jumping up and landing, you jumped and kept flying through the air?! It is our past experiences that guide us but it is our trust that empowers us in action. It encompasses everything that we see, do, feel, know and experience - an external authority but an internal compass; Faith guides and influences. Can you see how important it is where we put our trust and hope?

Faith affects its surroundings and can be seen through its effects – much like the wind. We can see the leaves being blown around or find it hard to walk into a strong headwind, but we cannot see the environmental air-pressures that cause it.

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament describes faith as “…confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). See how the writer of Ephesians is exploring how faith in God affects our daily lives? God is in everything that we long for, and everything that we don’t understand. He is our reassurance and promise of love and grace.

Back when I was young, everyone seemed to be using the phrase “Faith Grows”. In my early years following Jesus, I had experienced faith growing but didn’t really understand it until I had to start explaining Jesus to people. Faith grows by footsteps and conversations. It’s is a series of personal decisions that we make, to put our lives in the hands of our Father in heaven. Some decisions are bigger and more influential than others, but God loves it when we put our trust and hope in Him, however big or small the decision may appear to be. To Him, every faithful decision is beautiful. I

Faith is a relationship, flowing from one to the other; Jesus offers an eternal hope, joy, forgiveness, peace and love…it is our choice to accept and trust in His amazing love.

Will Lee