Thought for the Week - 2/5/2021

Dear Friends, 

In a report from last year it was estimated that the fast-food business in the UK was worth almost £15 billion in 2018, with KFC. McDonalds, and Domino’s Pizza coming out as the top three in the UK. The story is told of Colonel Sanders’ restaurant in the US that when a new motorway was built, taking passing traffic away from the store, his business crumbled. Desperate to find a solution he took his one asset, his famous secret recipe to try and find other restaurants to buy it so that he could take a slice of the profit from every chicken meal sold. We might think it would be easy, but it turned out to be anything but. Rejection after rejection came until he had visited over 1,000 businesses when he finally found someone to say yes, and the rest, as they say, is history, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born. What is interesting is that Colonel Sanders didn’t give up, but kept on going, believing that something would turn up. Sometimes it can be very hard not to give up on something or someone can’t it, especially when we can’t see any improvement or moving forward in a situation. But when life is at its toughest, that is the time to look up to God and not to give up. The prophet Jeremiah, writing to the exiles in Babylon instructs them to get on with their lives and says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11). It is quite a promise to hear, and one which for any of us who is undergoing any kind of trial in life a comfort to be assured that God is with us and has our best interests at heart. A couple of years back our church motto for the year was ‘Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing out eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). What we know about life is that the journey isn’t always smooth. Faith and life require daily steps of courage and commitment, but faithfulness to God is never wasted, and in Jesus Christ we are never alone.

Grace and peace,

Neil

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