I guess you are used to this blog being quirky now and then. Well.., it is today, with bells on!

The blog usually begins to materialise on the page through me asking God something. This time He asked me to think about something. I believe He was asking me to think about what were the commonest needs that I came across pastorally. Well, I could think of several, but the 2 that seemed to present themselves to my attention are marital tension in Christian marriages and sleeplessness. It is a sad fact that many Christian marriages are not in a very good place. It is also a sad fact that so many Christians cannot seem to receive and unwrap the gift of sleep that the psalmist assures us God gives to His beloved.

Here is the quirky bit: Paul has told us to earnestly desire the gifts that would build up the body of Christ, especially that we would prophesy. Well, alongside especially seeking that, this would build up the church a lot; people who had a gift of praying for or helping marriages and a gift of praying for sleep. I have bumped into a few in the former category and fewer in the latter category.

Sleep has often been contested in my life, quite severely. At one point I was in Norway speaking at a conference. My sleep had been dreadful, but I had told no one. A lady whose name I didn’t know, came over to me when I hadn’t asked her, prayed a prayer in words that I did not understand and went away without any explanation! From that moment and through the night it felt as though the inside of my brain was getting a massage… and I slept deeply and woke fresh as a daisy, which is not usual for a Scottish insomniac and is probably quite rare even for  a Scotsman who does sleep well! There was nothing that I could have asked for that could have built me up more! When things have become almost unbearable as they do become from time to time in the area  of sleep for me,  someone seems to have come along eventually and the effect of their ministry and prayer is that sleep has been restored. They have never been famous names in the Christian world, but of course the Christian scene does not always coincide perfectly with God’s Kingdom.

There is a fair bit of Christian and indeed Kingdom of God “help” and literature and courses etc. to do with marriage. There could be more and it could be more accessible financially for more people. The cost of these things is an insult to financially poorer believers as though God can only help you if you can pay for it. Christian help and victory now seems to have the same sort of possibility of accessibility as private medicine; it comes at a price for those who can afford it… but what about ministries in the power of the Spirit to help Christians sleep? That would bless an enormous number of Christians for whom the promise mentioned above, of sleep being given to God’s beloved , is both a promise they believe in and at times a bit of a torment to body, mind and spirit.

Well, I don’t know what you do with this blog today, so there it is! More normal levels of quirkiness will be resumed shortly….

Much love

Kenny

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