Opinion
A new approach to sharing my faith
Catherine Ayre finds that the power of prayer really can help in daily life, and believes that actions can sometimes speak louder than words when reaching out.
In the small hours of the morning, God woke me up and I decided to make a cup of tea and spend some time with Him. I started worshipping Him, and the song that came up was ‘Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful’ by Keith Green. Every time I hear that song, the lyrics that always strike me the most are “I want to take your Word and shine it all around, but first help me to just live it, Lord.”
I love God’s Word and read it daily. As I do so, I am always crying out to Him “Just how do I put that into practice in my everyday life? How do I implement it? What does it look like in the situation I find myself?” It is no good if I just read God’s Word, enjoy it, but close the Bible without it impacting my life. It must change me, work through me and work out of me.
I have a great desire to bring the Word of God to people’s attention in whatever way I can. After all it has been my life’s foundation, and I have found it to work! It’s only natural to want others to experience the joy, the peace and the goodness found in God that I do.
Certain people in my life have never understood this aspect of me. And I don’t understand why they have so far rejected God. Even with countless discussions about the subject, we still don’t yet see eye to eye. In my heart, I almost despair. I haven’t given up hope, but there have been times I have maybe blurted things out in desperation and it has got me nowhere. As the lyrics read, it is my blundering way of taking God’s Word and shining it all around.
Recently one such person, a family member, had a birthday, and I went back to London because his request was to have a cream tea. It was a low-key event as we just had a few family friends around. I can’t quite put my finger on what happened exactly, but for some reason something shifted in me. This time, God was hardly mentioned, but I just served.
I said to Jesus “Whatever I do this weekend, I am doing it for You.” The difference was extraordinary. After the mini-party and after clearing up, this family member couldn’t stop raving about how much work went into it and how much he enjoyed himself. Jesus shone in that situation without me uttering His name.
It was with this backdrop that an incredible thing happened to me – a first. I call it my ‘Samson moment’. This family member needed his television placed lower down. He thought the best way forward was to put some shelving holding vinyl records on its side and put the television on that. I took one look at his furniture and thought of a better solution. There was another table that was lower in height, so it made sense to just swap the two tables. I suggested this and said I’d sort it. What came back was “You’ll never do it! The television is too heavy.” This made me all the more determined and so I prayed “God – I really want to help him here, help me and give me the strength to move the TV and sort this out.” I started moving things around and sure enough the television was exceedingly heavy, being older in make with a large screen. I felt this strength almost surge through me and I moved it without difficulty.
He was gobsmacked and exclaimed “How did you do that?” I simply said “I prayed for strength and God gave it to me.” He said “yeah, yeah” and I repeated what I had said. Something happened that day and that weekend. To me, it was a demonstration of God at work or to use a Christian term His ‘grace’ kicking in. I believe it spoke louder than any extra words I could have said.
So yes – in the words of Keith Green: “I want to take your Word and shine it all around, but first help me to just live it, Lord.”
The picture is courtesy of pixabay.com
Catherine Ayre, who lives in Norwich, is the author of the poetry book "Heart to Heart". She has a passion to see people connect with God through writing, music and radio.
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