Reflection & Prayer

Hello Everyone,

Yet another week and we continue in the battle of what has become the norm of 2020.

I am starting today by sharing with you, a summary of what I have just read written by a DCI.

This Officer was thanking everyone for going the extra mile to make everything work. That includes those people who now undertake to make equipment work so that meetings can take place and training in various parts of the County, whereas before, everyone travelled to be in one room.

I too want to express my gratitude to all of you. Besides caring for yourselves and that is the number one essential, you are out there for everyone else; both your Colleagues and the Public, constantly making sure the work of the Police takes place. A huge thank you.

I want to encourage you too.

If you have seen this Prayer Letter over the last 12 years, you will know that I have a number of favourite verses. The following is one of them. I am sharing it with you again today as in the last few days I have seen a short commentary on it, which truly encourages me.

“You are God’s Handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works; which God prepared in advance for you to do” Eph 2.10.

Please live in the good of the following, based on that verse.

What a promise:
We are loved
We are valued
We have a purpose
We have power.

May you know the empowering of that verse in these coming days.

Remain and Rest in Him.

Blessings
Alice.

Hello Everyone,

I wish to start today with a personal thank you, for your Prayers for the Remembrance Service which took place on 11^th of the 11^th Month 2020 here in Surrey HQ’s. It was a very special time much Blest by the Lord. What a privilege was mine to lead such a Service.

I continue to Pray that you are staying well.

Here in Surrey and Sussex, our new Force Chaplain has arrived, her name is Frances Novillo. I know she would appreciate our Prayers. Moving home and settling into this very large area covering the two Counties would be immense in normal times but in today’s world – an indescribable task.

A few weeks ago, I received a verse from an Officer outside our Prayer Letter distribution area. He told me having been able to return to work after many weeks due to PTSD, that this verse had spoken to him and wanted to share it with me. The verse intrigued me at the time.

Psalm 125 v2:

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore”

I did not know from pictures I had seen that there were Mountains around Jerusalem. Apparently, there are hills. One of them being the Mount of Olives. The writer of this Psalm would not have known the significance of this area when he wrote those words in Psalm 125. It is where we find Gethsemane, it is where Jesus wept over Jerusalem and it is also from where Jesus rose into Heaven.

All significant happenings in Jesus’s life are special for us today. As we ponder on the happenings in the world in which we find ourselves today – and have no idea what the future holds for us, God knew all those years before why that Psalm was written. He has our futures in His Hands today.

He knows. He is there and He will be there. Thank You Lord.

Blessings

Alice.

Hello Everyone.

In two hours, as I write this Prayer Letter, we will again be going into a Lockdown planned to last until December 2^nd. This week the threat level has moved up to Severe in the UK. And in the USA – a Presidential Election that defies description. Having a Daughter living in Seattle, I am really aware of this happening. As I keep on being reminded; it is 2020.

Everything is different; changed; made smaller; a feeling of great anxiety around. Life is not what it was this time last year.

This coming Sunday we will be celebrating Remembrance Sunday, but without the display in London to which we have become accustomed.

Here in Surrey Police we will be holding a Remembrance Service on the Chief’s Lawn, instead of indoors on the 11^th Nov. A much reduced Service to which we have become accustomed over the years. I have the honour and privilege of leading that Service.

But the one thing that has remained the same is the Love of Jesus for us.

As we recall this Sunday and Wednesday those people who gave their all for us to be free, may we too, give thanks to The One who gave everything for us, so that we may be reconciled to God.

Luke 22.19:

Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying – 

   “This is My Body given for you, do this in Remembrance of me.”

In Him and In His Grip.

Alice.

Hello Everyone,

I have this week chosen (much to my personal surprise) to take time off.

Due to Covid and other circumstances I have not been on holiday or had a break of any kind since July last year.

I cogitated with myself over this decision on Sunday. Then on Monday, I read a verse in a book called Soul Fuel, A Daily Devotional; by Bear Grylls.

He had written about “Plans that we make”. The verse was Prov:16.9:

                           “In their hearts; Humans plan their course

                               But the Lord establishes their steps”.

It has been amazing what has happened this week so far. I have stood down from regular commitments. In turn the Lord has placed many things before me to handle. But – He knew what I was capable of and “Established” my steps.

                                             A God given Holiday!

Incidentally – every activity that has been handed to me is Police related, He knows where my heart is!

Many Blessings.

Alice.

Hello Everyone,

I was speaking this afternoon to one of our Officers in Woking Police Station. We were chatting about how life was at the moment, how everything seems to be impacted by the virus that has chosen to come to live with us. As we went to leave each other, I was reminded of a phrase I sometimes used as I left a conversation. “Well we have put the world to rights again”. I mentioned it to the Officer, “If only that was true” was his reply.

A few weeks ago, I was with three friends, again discussing our lives as it is today. I stopped taking part in the conversation and thought about what we were saying. I then re-joined the conversation with, “If a year ago, we decided to jump forward a year and listen into this conversation and we were able to hover above our heads as we are sitting here at this moment, we would have no idea what we’re talking about and surely we would wonder why we were sitting so far apart from each other.

Yes, things have changed so much.

This week I have had cross my path a verse that I often use, but it now has a different significance to this time last year:

Esther 4.14 “We are here for such a time as this”   

The Lord has chosen us to be here when such major happenings are taking place. He needs us, for such a time as this, to be His Children amongst those with whom we work. Being there for our Families and Friends. He will enable us to carry on as His Children, even though we are finding this situation exhausting.

Also, this week, I heard the following verse:

John 15.16  “You did not choose Me, I chose you”.

An amazing sense of security in those words for today.

You are in His Grip.

Alice.

Hello Everyone,

Today I am greeting you with the Words that Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His Disciples –

“My Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”. John 14.7.

These were the words I shared with you last week. Because of your replies; I knew they had to be my opening words today.

Two Colleagues, one in Surrey, one in The Met are suffering from Pneumonia, not Covid related. Prayers please.

The Prayer Letter goes out to our Brothers and Sisters in Surrey, Sussex and The Met. I send a copy and then they are sent on to the CPA Groups. I wrote to the Representative in The Met, as I sent last week’s PL and referred to the weariness I was feeling and of which I am aware of, as I visit many Departments here in Surrey.

He replied to me with the following words-

                        “Praise be that we have a God that never gets weary!”

As I read those words, I was reminded of a Service held in London by The Christian Police a few years ago, where the writer of that message above asked me to close the Service in Prayer, just as it started!! “Yikes what am I going to say, no time to prepare …” Immediately to mind came a scripture I put to music some years before, (I did not sing it), but I read it as a proclamation over everyone there. Here it is below. Indeed “God does not grow weary”.

Is: 40. 29-31.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

In His Grip.

Alice.