Trust in the Lord and do good;

    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Increasingly, as the years have gone by, I’ve realised there’s no use fretting over things I can’t change or control; I need to get on with doing those things I know I am called to do. Here are three of them, and they belong together in the life of discipleship. We are called live lives of trust, obedience and prayer. (By the way, “…enjoy safe pasture” can read “tend faithfulness”: in other words, cultivate being faithful to God and His way like a shepherd tends his flock).

This is a scary world where violent, greedy, selfish people elbow others out of the way, govern callously and cruelly, and regularly appear to get away with it. But, as Walter Wink observed, ‘History belongs to the intercessors.’ Against many appearances to the contrary, it is the people who know how to pray who shape history. They tend to be hidden, anonymous, out of the way. They may often be be poor and unimpressive, marginalised and weak, but the power to change the world lies with them. They are the ones who “Keep company with GOD” (‘The Message’). Is there any better way to live?