Jeff’s letter – October

There’s a joke about an atheist who was fed up and tired of his Christian neighbour praying next door. One day the neighbour didn’t have any money for groceries and was praying loud for God’s provision. The atheist got so tired of listening to his neighbour that he went to the supermarket to buy her some groceries. He then left the bags on the steps in front of her house, rang the bell and hid in the bushes. When the lady opened the door and saw the bags, she thanked God for the groceries and the atheist came out and said: “I got you”! The lady asked him why he got her and he responded: “God does not exist, he did not buy you anything, I heard you praying to God for your food and went and bought you the groceries and left them here.  Now what do you have to say!”

The lady looked at him and then looked up and said: “Thank you God for your provision and for making the devil pay for it”!

As the summer comes to a close and autumn sets in, Christians across the country will be taking time to stop and remember, and to thank

God for his providence. Harvest gives us the opportunity to thank God for the provision of food; One World Week gives us the opportunity to thank God for the world in which he has placed us and Remembrance Sunday allows us to thank God for sacrifice which allows us to

enjoy the freedoms we experience.

The Devil doesn’t like it when we take the time to thank God for his providence; he’d rather we take what God gives us for granted, and sadly, that’s what we do most of the time.

Rather than thank God for his providence we bemoan the fact that supermarket doesn’t have the right type of food we want.

Rather than thanking God for the richness of creation we squander its resources.

Rather than thank God for the sacrifices made by others we waste our freedoms.

As the colours of the trees change around us and as we pin on our poppies over the next few weeks let’s decide to change our attitude and look for God’s daily blessings and, as the year moves on, let us too journey on with Jesus.