The day’s materials
Local Government and Community Wealth
Local Energy and Warm Homes
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Old Testament
For the LORD your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware lest you forget the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end; and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.
Acts 17:24-28
New Testament
The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things. He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
Deuteronomy speaks to a people about to receive a good land: streams, springs, wheat, vines, oil, honey, and houses filled with provision. The danger is not only scarcity, but forgetfulness. Comfort can teach the heart to say, 'My power has got me this wealth.'
In Athens, Paul begins even lower down: God made the world and gives to all life and breath and everything. We do not live in a world of raw material and private achievement. We live inside gift. Every warm room, lit street, working pump, school boiler, library, clinic, and home depends on provision we did not finally make.
Energy for the common good is therefore local as well as national. It is felt in cold flats, public buildings, neighbourhood centres, small firms, and the bills that decide whether people can gather, work, or rest. Scripture will not hand us a tariff or a grid plan, but it will humble our imagination. Lord, keep us grateful when we are well supplied. Give wisdom to those stewarding local energy, housing, and public buildings. Teach us to use comfort without pride, and to notice the neighbour for whom warmth has become a burden.
Prayer points
- Lord, keep us from forgetting you when our homes and public places are warm, lit, and secure.
- Give wisdom to those stewarding local energy, housing, schools, libraries, and community buildings.
- Protect households facing cold, debt, or anxiety through energy poverty.
- Guide local decisions toward resilience, restraint, and care for the vulnerable.
- Teach your Church gratitude that becomes practical neighbour-love.