15. ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16. And I will askthe Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.’

John 14 vv15&16

Jesus makes this statement to his followers, but this statement is timeless it applies equally to us in 2025. Do you love Jesus? If you do then the Advocate or to use his other name, the Holy Spirit will be with you all the time. You will never walk alone because God is with you today, tomorrow and for ever. That is the Good News of the Christian Faith.

What does this mean in practice? You may talk with the Holy Spirit. You aren’t simply talking to yourself, you are talking with God. Nothing is too trivial, when you want to discuss something God will always listen. He won’t look down on you or demean you, he will listen with love and understanding. You might want to talk about yourself or someone else. You might want to talk about something you have heard in the news, about situations and peoples near or far, he will listen. But then when you have said your piece, sit back quietly and listen. You probably won’t hear words back from God, but you will probably find your emotions change. If it was a matter causing you to grieve or suffer you may feel yourself becoming calmer.

There are times when we don’t need to even put our thoughts into words, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we only need to offer our hearts and minds to God and then wait in silence.

There is a posh name for this, it is called prayer.

I am sure many of us remember that wonderful ‘tech’ of its day - the radio. Youngsters often don’t know what we are talking about! Do you remember having to tune the radio so you could listen to a programme. As a youngster I always tuned into Radio Luxembourg to listen to the music whilst I did my homework. They were the days!

Why have I told you that? God is always tuned into us but we need to tune ourselves to God. To put it into other words, to pray, to talk with God we need to stop and focus our thoughts on God and then prayer can begin.

Praying is simple, but if you have problems come and talk to one of the Ministry Team. We need to remind ourselves that prayer is the engine room of the ship called the Church. Everything we do or say in the Church needs to be undergirded with prayer.

The Church needs you to provide the heart and soul of the community, without you something will be missing.

May God bless you in your prayer life.

Andrew SSL