I’ve not written much lately. Work’s been busy, crowding out quite a lot of things. Time to reflect and think about what to write has been an early casualty.

It’s not just on the blog that I’ve been running out of words. I remember a time when talk of Jesus came naturally to my lips. He was a part of every day conversations, both with Christians and others.

What happened?

Well, here’s a big thing that struck me recently. I’ve taken my ability to talk about Jesus for granted, and so I’ve stopped praying about it. “God knows that I want my friends to become Christians… so there’s no need to talk to him about it.” Then I’m surprised when opportunities don’t present themselves, or they do and I’ve no idea what to say.

Here’s Paul to the Colossians:

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (Colossians 4:3-4)

Paul asks the Colossians to pray that he’d have opportunities to speak of Jesus, and that when they come he’d speak the gospel clearly. The greatest evangelist of the early church, if not all time, and he prays for the right words to say and the opportunities to say them! If Paul realises he needs prayer in order to speak of Jesus, then of course I do too.

This coming week the CU at my old university has a load of events planned to help students reach out to students with the good news of Jesus. Just round the corner there are all sorts of outreach opportunities for churches over the Christmas period. Great opportunities – but none of them, none of them, will get anywhere without prayer.

And that is good news. Why? Well, in prayer we recognise our inability to change people’s hearts, including our own. We come to God needy and dependent, as children to our Father – and, gloriously, we find that he is powerful and he listens! Speaking of Jesus is hard. By ourselves, we wouldn’t be up to it. But we’re not by ourselves. God is with us and goes before us.

So let’s ask for his help. Let us pray.