Dear Friends,<\/p>\n
Recently I spotted a quotation, or motto, on the front of someone\u2019s notebook, which read \u201cEverything is impossible \u2013 until it\u2019s done!<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, by Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n How many times have we thought, \u2018this can\u2019t be done\u2026we haven\u2019t much time\u2026I can\u2019t do this\u2026\u2019?\u00a0 I know I\u2019m guilty of such thoughts.<\/p>\n 9 times out of 10 it works out in the end \u2013 and we wondered what we worried about!<\/p>\n How did we achieve it?\u00a0 With some perseverance?\u00a0 Management planning?\u00a0 or \u2013 Team Effort?<\/p>\n I like to think of \u2018problems\u2019 as \u2018challenges\u2019, as tasks that need to be done.\u00a0 We have plenty of those \u2013 in our daily lives, at work, personal challenges, and definitely at church!<\/p>\n But who\u2019s on your \u2018Team\u2019?\u00a0 Who do you turn to for help?\u00a0 And how?<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s only natural to try and deal with things ourselves, but sometimes you just can\u2019t, and you need to turn to others around you.\u00a0 That might be family, or close friends, or our church family.<\/p>\n First and foremost we have God!<\/p>\n Even the disciples struggled with Jesus\u2019 teaching at times, for instance on how to enter the kingdom of heaven – how can anyone be saved?\u00a0 But Jesus replied, \u201c\u2026with God all things are possible<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d Matthew 19: 26.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that a better motto? To have faith in God!<\/p>\n The Brigades remind us of their motto: \u201cSure & Steadfast<\/em><\/strong>\u201d <\/em>from Hebrews 6: 19, which reads \u201cWe have this hope as an anchor for our lives.\u00a0 It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary\u201d.<\/p>\n These passages assure us that we can have faith in God\u2019s promises, which gives us hope, a hope which is securely \u2018anchored\u2019 in Jesus, particularly in his resurrection, ascension and glory in heaven.<\/p>\n The Psalms (among others) talk about God\u2019s promises, for instance Psalm 138: 8:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;<\/p>\n your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.<\/p>\n Do not forsake the work of your hands.\u201d \u00a0NRSV<\/em><\/p>\n See also the translation in the Good News Bible.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are other passages in the Bible that we can turn to\u2026\u00a0 1 Corinthians 15: 58, Galatians 6: 9, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, to name just a few.<\/p>\n There is a moment when we become aware of our human limitations and need to depend on God.\u00a0 Then, other possibilities become open to us.\u00a0 Perhaps we should do more of that \u2013 I know I need to, how about you?<\/p>\n God bless<\/p>\n Ann<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently I spotted a quotation, or motto, on the front of someone\u2019s notebook, which read \u201cEverything is impossible \u2013 until it\u2019s done!\u201d, by Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-06 21:38:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}