MANY churches in the month of January will engage in a time of prayer and some will take part in prayer and fasting.

This year many in our congregation took the plunge and engaged in fasting for the very first time as part of our 24 days of prayer and fasting.

It has been profoundly interesting to hear what they are fasting and how they have found this new adventure of discovery. Our assumptions might possibly be how could we possibly cope without meals, meat, television, sugar or whatever else people are choosing to fast.

However, sometimes the reality can be quite surprising! After a time, you might just realise how well you can cope without something that seemed to play such a large part in your life.

Then there is the constant arrival of more stuff in our homes, the incessant need for more acquisition and then realising it’s hard work maintaining all of it.

We might wonder that one day there might be an avalanche as all our piled up trinkets and trophies come crashing down on us!

Perhaps it is time to go without something for a while just to discover what impact there is? Perhaps we could give some of our stuff to someone who really could do with it more than us?

Might January be a good time to declutter so that we can live with space to breathe? What I’m saying is that perhaps less can sometimes be more, that it’s surprising what we can do without and perhaps the one thing we truly need is more of Jesus?

Thank you for reading.

Rev Michael Hulland

Champions Church