Message from Tim

Low battery warning

What, if anything, have you missed about church? Have you missed seeing your friends? Have you missed the singing? Have you missed the sense of involvement and purpose? Have you missed the teaching? Have you missed a sense of God’s presence as you met for worship? Have you missed the opportunity to seek God’s strength and guidance for the coming week? Have you just missed something that you loved and enjoyed?

If any of the above apply to you, how has not being able to come to church affected you? Has it toughened you up spiritually or has it left you weaker? Have you managed to maintain your relationship with God and your sense of commitment, or have these faded with the passing of time?

So what is the charge like in your spiritual battery? Those of us who are car drivers will know that if you don’t drive a car, gradually the battery will go flat: once the voltage drops below 11.8 V you are in trouble. Sometimes a dead battery can be recharged, but if it has been left too long it dies completely: I think it’s because over time too much lead sulphate accumulates on the battery plates, and the sulphuric acid in the electrolyte turns to water. Unless you have a car alarm which goes off when your battery discharges, the first time you realise that you have a problem may be when you try and start your car and find that the battery is flat.

So, it’s really important to keep our spiritual batteries charged so that we have the inner resources we need when the time comes and we need to do the right thing or to live life well. Church is not the only way of keeping our spiritual lives charged up, of course: our own routine of Bible study, prayer and meeting with other Christians throughout the week. But if we let those things slide, we could find ourselves in trouble.

I know that some of you are keen to return to church; others among us are rightly cautious. Can I ask you honestly to assess how you feel about coming back? Is how you feel about coming back to church an indication of the state of your spiritual battery? If there are warning signs that the charge is low, can I gently urge you to find ways of reconnecting with God?