Greetings from Northern Ireland.

It’s always good to receive the Standard Bearerfortnight by fortnight. It makes priority and blessed reading on Sunday afternoons!

I very much appreciated Rev. Rodney Miersma’s article, in the March 15th issue, entitled “The Work of the Lord.” He quite rightly states that this Psalm is a prayer of Moses that in effect is saying “Thy Kingdom come.” It is a prayer that all we Reformed people need to echo because, to quote him, “All our churches…Sabbaths, and feasts mean nothing unless the Lord bless it….”

As Reformed people in true churches we may wrongly assume God will bless all we do, and then become slack in prayer or even forget it altogether. The grace of God will be manifest as we use the means. We are strong on preaching. May we be strong in praying!

Personally we are exhorted to acknowledge Him in all our ways (Prov. 3:5, 6). The Lord’s Prayer gives us an all-encompassing model. Scripture is replete with prayer and exhortations to pray, especially in Paul’s epistles. We must pray for ministers and officebearers (Eph. 6:18, 19); for more ministers and missionaries (Matt. 9:38); for our families and fellow saints (Phil. 1:9-11); for our witness (Acts 4:29, I Thess. 1:8); for the Jews (Rom. 10:1); for the unreached peoples (Rom. 15:20; Matt. 24:14); for the persecuted (I Cor. 12:26 and Heb. 13:3); and for leaders and governments (I Tim. 2:1). Truly there is much to pray about. No wonder the apostles made it, along with study of Scripture and preaching, their priority.

Let us all make it ours and expand the scope of our prayers to include all of these things. The information is out there!

(Dr.) Julian Kennedy

Ballymena, NI