[AI translation] Again, I did not choose this Word, but it was given to me ready-made according to the Bible reading guide that we are distributing to everyone in the congregation this year. I have highlighted these two verses from the passage for today. I am very glad that we are beginning the new year with this very passage. Especially in the two verses highlighted, there is great encouragement and promise for us, a complete giving of programs for the new year. The two verses are but two great exhortations, each with a promise, from the mouth of Jesus himself. One can be summarised briefly as follows. The other is: Trust, for you can trust! On the basis of this daily Word, I would like to talk about how I would like the year 1959 to be for us a time of grace of more prayer and more trust.1) So first of all, more prayer! Some might say that this sounds old, almost outdated. Out in the world, modern life with its millions of problems is whirling around, and inside the church, the Church is still giving its parishioners such an outdated programme to pray more. After all, since Jesus gave his disciples this advice to ask the Father, the world has changed enormously! What a difference between the cave dweller and the modern man who turns on the television in the evening in his centrally heated, all-comfort apartment! What an immeasurable distance separates the spear-wielding man from those who today design atomic cannons! These changes have, of course, altered not only the circumstances but also the man himself. Yet, in the gloom of the cave, the unresolved problems of home and family were just as much a part of the curtained, modern apartment. The hatred remained the same. We need love just as much today! The heart can still hurt today! Human malice is just as necessary today! We face death no differently than the ancients. Man remains man in his final existence! His main problem today is still the question of strength, that is, where to find the strength to live and to die. He is dependent on the grace and help of the Lord God from the very beginning.
Therefore, the more I know modern man - who, for all his arrogance and pride, is like a frightened child inside - the more I feel that the opportunity Jesus gives in this encouragement: 'Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you' (John 16:23), this opportunity of prayer is a greater gift to him than television or the fridge or electricity or anything else. Without heaven, earth is hell; without God, life is death! Perhaps even more so today than in the past.
Prayer is precisely what man needs most: a great immersion of strength! Not that there is any magic power in the words of prayer, but because prayer connects us with a strong God! It creates an invisible link in the midst of a world of doom, death and incomprehensibility with the One who is over all and reigns forever. Prayer is a spiritual connection to the heavenly powerhouse. It means counting on a power, a power that I do not produce from myself, but that I receive from God and of God in Jesus Christ. When I pray, I know that I am not alone, that there is Someone beside me, that God is present, and that I am in front of Him. And then God puts into our weak, weary, dull, emotionless prayer the strength, the blessings, the gifts we have asked Him for. So prayer is a very practical thing! It is a preparation for all the tasks of practical life. For we need so much the strength we receive from the Lord through prayer! In daily life, in bearing the burden of work with honour, in our tossing and turning among many tempers, in suffering, in enduring adversity, in living a Christ-exemplifying way of life. It is different, is it not, if you start the morning with only your strength to face a new day, or if you start the morning with strength from above, filled with the power of the Lord! Wouldn't it be seen in every area of our lives if this year were truly a year of more prayer!
When I say more prayer, I do not mean more prayerfulness, but more responsibility for the problems of the people around us and of the world. Because prayer is not only the breathing of a believer to breathe in the heavenly air, it is a service! A powerful and blessed service for the benefit of others! I am thinking, for example, of one of the classic examples of prayer, what Abraham does when he prays for Sodom. He is really arguing, fighting, struggling with God for the survival of a people he does not know, a people he has nothing to do with! Yet he stands up for them, he pleads for mercy for them. A man who prays takes so seriously the fate and tragedy of others. Their pain also shines through his prayer. He takes it upon himself to pray for them or even for them. He begs for mercy, for life, for salvation. The man who prays cannot be indifferent to the fact that this world is staggering unconsciously on the brink of the abyss of a third world war! Praying hands can best help save from a fatal crash!
Let me give you a biblical example! Moses prayed with Aaron and Hur on the mountain, while down in the valley the people, led by Joshua, fought the enemy. The prayers of the three men behind the battle line had a decisive influence on the victory of the whole group! How much concrete help can flow from prayer groups, from quiet prayer rooms, to people struggling with life's problems! How many good causes could be supported from behind the scenes! Or I think of the Apostle Paul, who calls for a great campaign of prayer among Christians around the world when he says: "I pray before all things that supplications, prayers, supplications, thanksgivings, may be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in dignity, that we may live a quiet and quiet life..." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) What this means is that there is a mysterious connection between the prayers of believers and the peace, quiet and tranquil life of the kingdom! That is why prayer is such a great responsibility and service! It must be done in the knowledge that much depends on it in the world. God includes the prayer of His own in the government of the world! There are gifts of God - forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, pure family life, deliverance, victory - that He cannot give until praying hands reach out for them. Through those who pray, God wants to give many blessings to those who do not pray.
That is why the world needs praying churches. Here in the church we can expect such spiritual awakening, demand such powerful preaching, hope such prosperity for our country, desire such good government from our authorities, hope such peaceful unfolding in international tension as we can fervently pray for! The chief service of the church of Christ is prayer! "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you" (Jn 16,23). That obliges you! I can ask anything in His name if I have accepted what He has done in my name. That He suffered for me, died for me, took my punishment on me! He has won the victory over death for me! In my name: it also means that those who make themselves entirely available to Him, who strive with Him for the fullest realization of the Kingdom of God in every area of life, can pray "effectively". More prayer! This includes being more Christlike! The more fully one is Jesus', the more one's prayer is worth.
Our founding principle of 1959 is this: more trust! "I have spoken these things to you so that you may have peace in me. In this world you will have tribulation; but trust, and I will convince the world" (John 16:33), Jesus tells His disciples. In the strongest terms, he calls us to go forward with confidence on the foggy road of the year ahead! Let us confidently go on and on! The word translated "trust" in our Hungarian Bible has a richer meaning in the original text. Perhaps the meaning could be rendered: 'Be always of good hope, be of good courage, do what you do with joy! Isn't it great that on the eve of a new year, Jesus encourages us in this way? But he also says openly: "In this world you will have tribulation" (John 16,33b). On the contrary, it is precisely in connection with these dangerous situations that the call, the encouragement, is made! It is as if he were saying to trust, to be of good hope, not to despair when the waves of misery in the world are crashing! He tells us the deepest reason for this serene, hopeful attitude: you may trust in all circumstances because I have convinced the world!
Clearly Jesus is referring to the victory that He has won over Satan, the prince of the world, by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead! First there at Calvary, and then at the empty tomb at Easter, it was made clear, it was made certain, that God's plan and power to redeem the world could not be thwarted by sin, could not be thwarted by Satan, however much he might have wanted to! There is no power that can hold back the consummation of God's reign in this world! Therefore: trust! Therefore: trust! Therefore, have good hope! It is more than the frivolous optimism of the world. It has no basis! But your courageous, hopeful mood is based on a divine act in history: the death and resurrection of Jesus! This hopeful hope that Jesus encourages us to have has to do with something that has already happened in the past. We tend to think in terms of struggle and victory, from struggle to victory. After the struggle there is the victory. You have to fight for the victory! The order is: first you have to fight, fight a lot, then you will win. Well, there is some truth in that. But what Jesus is saying now is that this order is preceded by another order: first there is victory, and then comes the struggle. First there is a great victory, His victory, the victory of Christ! So now let us fight, and let us fight with good hope, courage, joy and confidence! Let us go about our daily work, following Jesus, carrying burdens, fighting sin, loving and serving people! Let us face all that is to come with good hope, courage, cheerfulness and confidence! The characteristic feature of this confidence is that it completely excludes any superficial judgement of the situation, any light-hearted optimism. This confidence is very realistic! It counts on the given situation and circumstances, even if those circumstances are not at all trusting and hopeful! The great and powerful thing about this confidence is that it does not glide over reality, but shines a light on it! "In this world you will have tribulation", says Jesus. I don't know who will have tribulation in this year, in this world. I only know that God will still be our Father. Jesus will still be Lord! All power in heaven and on earth will remain in his hands! Even His own will not escape the tribulation in this world, but the Father will lead them through it. He still knows why He does what He does! We shall know in eternity! Sometimes even here on earth we can sense something. The deepest blessing of the tribulations of this world will always be that we learn what it means to trust, to look forward with good hope and to go on courageously! Whatever complications, confusion and misery the world may produce, Jesus' encouragement is valid: trust! Trust!
You know when you take a letter from your GP or family doctor to a specialist in a sealed envelope? That's how you know: it's about me! But what it says about me is a secret. You must not know! That is how we are all setting off now with the sealed envelope of 1959 in our hands. We know that our future is in it, but what is in it is a secret! There is no point in guessing, in pushing the envelope. It's not worth peeking inside to see what's written about us. There is no need to sigh, nor to be afraid, nor to stop. We are free to ask for everything from above! We can always hope and trust! It is so good that Jesus begins this new year with this word. I have spoken these things to you so that you may have peace in me. In this world you will have tribulation; but have confidence, I have convinced the world." (Jn 16,33)
So let the year 1959 be a blessed time of more prayer and more trust, a time of grace!
Amen
Date: 1 January 1959.
Lesson
Mt 6,24-34