Yesterday's government vote on Trident replacement raises the perennial questions of answers to prayer.  Loads of people of all theological convictions and many faiths were praying about it yesterday.  I assume most were praying for a 'no' vote (me included, depsite my past connections with defence and not being a pacifist) but there will have been some, I guess, who were praying for a 'yes' because their conscience dictated otherwise (let's face it, when it comes to the civil equivalent, I probably would be, if I wasn't open to the suggestion that for all my convictions may be worng, so will ask for wisdom instead).

So, was the 'yes' actually God's will or was it a failure to hear or respond to God's will?  I remember the intense conviction I had that God had called me to a certain congregation in 2003, only for them to vote 'no.'  Countless people told me that it must have been God's will, but I felt at the time that it was a failure to hear/obey it.  Who was right?  Who decides?  How?  That church called a minister at almost the same time that I was called to Dibley; I believe God's 'plan B' is every bit as good as God's 'plan A', but it isn't the same, and there are consequences to be faced.  Too easily we assign things to being of God, when they are remote and, in some circles at least, to the devil when they directly affect us.  More rarely do we acknowledge our own finitude or sin.

I am truly saddened that our government wasn't brave enough to make a decision that would have shown us to take seriously such things as non-proliferation, but I am encouraged that a substantial number of MPs were willing to stand up and be counted.  This, surely, is an answer to our prayers.  Maybe this is the start of something new, something good, something Godly.

As Baptists we live with the tension of believing that we discern Christ's mind through the church meeting and recognising the potential for our own foolish, partial and sometimes downright sinful free will to prevent this.  Maybe we, or at least I, need to show some generosity to our political leaders who are no worse than the rest of us, and follow the lead of the apostle Paul in praying for, not about, them.