Sep 12, 2026 8 min read The Christian Compass...

The Christian Compass…

Your Saturday review of the week's teaching — and the last one to reach you on a Saturday…

Saturday, 12 September 2026

Welcome to This Week's Christian Compass!

Well, here we are. This is the last Christian Compass that will land in your inbox on a Saturday — but don't worry, the Compass isn't going anywhere.

From Sunday 20 September the name simply comes with us. The Saturday review and the Sunday round-up have been doing two halves of the same job for a while now, so we're bringing them together into one weekly send, and we're keeping this name: The Christian Compass. One email instead of two, and it'll do something neither of them quite managed on its own — look back over the week's teachings and videos, and look ahead to what's coming.

Looking back. Pressing on.

So here's how it runs. Tomorrow, Sunday the 13th, the round-up comes to you in its old familiar shape one last time. Then on Sunday the 20th the new Compass begins, and that same morning a teaching called Joining the Dots goes out to explain the whole thing — why we want to close the gap between reading the Word, seeing it taught, doing it, and passing it on.

Nothing is being taken away from you. One fewer email, one place to look, and the same Word taught in the same plain, practical way.

With Christ's love,
Dave & Elaine

Weekly Inspirational Reflections: A weekly segment offering spiritual insights and biblical reflections to inspire and strengthen your Christian Walk…

When Heaven Seems Quiet

Silence is not absence, and delay is not refusal — keep coming to your Heavenly Father…

This week we spent five days on prayer, and we began in the hardest place: the prayer that appears to go nowhere. You ask. You wait. You ask again. Nothing seems to move, nothing appears to change, and heaven feels silent. That is where many believers quietly give up — not in open rebellion, but in tiredness. They stop asking because they have decided that asking makes no difference.

But silence is not proof that God is absent, and delay is not proof that God has refused. We are far too quick to judge prayer by what we can see. If the answer does not come in the way we expected, or inside the time we allowed, we assume nothing is happening. Yet God is not bound by our timetable, and He does not owe us the explanation we think would make the waiting easier. Faith keeps praying when sight has nothing new to report.

Scripture does not tiptoe around the reasons prayer may seem unanswered. Sometimes there is a reason in us: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss [James 4:3 KJV]. We can pray from selfish desire, ask for what would feed the flesh, or want God to approve something He has never promised. At other times, we may be asking while resisting what He has already shown us in His Word. Prayer is not a way of persuading God to follow our will. It is where our heart is brought into line with His.

And sometimes there is no quick explanation at all. We have asked according to the Word, searched our heart honestly, and still the answer has not appeared. That is where prayer becomes more than getting something. It becomes trust. Will we still believe that our Heavenly Father is good when we cannot yet see what He is doing? Will we keep coming to Him instead of backing away from Him? Waiting is hard, but walking away will never bring us closer to the answer.

The thread running through all five days was this: prayer was never meant to be a routine we perform at a distance. It is a child speaking to a Father who already knows — for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him [Matthew 6:8 KJV]. We are not informing Him. We are not performing for Him. We are coming before Him because He is our Father, because we need Him, and because prayer keeps our heart turned towards Him.

That changes prayer from a duty into a relationship, and it changes the way we read an unanswered prayer. It may call for correction. It may call for patience. It may call for us to listen, obey, and keep trusting. What it never calls for is silence on our part. So when heaven seems quiet, keep coming. Keep asking. Keep searching the Word. Keep your heart willing to be put right. And do the one thing He has already shown you while you wait — because an unanswered prayer is not necessarily a closed door; it may be a conversation that is still going on…

Weekly Review: exploring our daily journey of building strong spiritual foundations - read it on the blog and watch the matching short video on our Back to Basics: Christian Living YouTube channel.

Something to Think About: Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?

📖 Read 👉 Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?

We opened the week with the question most people are too embarrassed to ask out loud. Not a tidy answer, but an honest look at what Scripture actually says about silence, wrong asking, and waiting.

▶️ Watch 👉 Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?

Messages from the Outpost: Relationship Over Routine: Receiving from Our Heavenly Father

📖 Read 👉 Relationship Over Routine: Receiving from Our Heavenly Father

Prayer stops being a performance the moment you know who you are speaking to. A Father, not a distant official — and children receive.

▶️ Watch 👉 Relationship Over Routine: Receiving from Our Heavenly Father

Write This Down: Use the Word as Prayer!

📖 Read 👉 Use the Word as Prayer!

The most practical teaching of the week: when you do not know what to say, say what God has already said. Praying the Scripture back to Him.

▶️ Watch 👉 Use the Word as Prayer!

Messages from the Outpost: Don't Enter the Battle Unarmed: The Power of Scripture Memory

📖 Read 👉 Don't Enter the Battle Unarmed: The Power of Scripture Memory

You cannot use in the moment of pressure what you have not put in beforehand. Why memorising the Word is armour, not schoolwork.

▶️ Watch 👉 Don't Enter the Battle Unarmed: The Power of Scripture Memory

Back to Basics Teaching Blog: Overview — Ephesians: The Letter Written to You

📖 Read 👉 Overview — Ephesians: The Letter Written to You

And on Friday we began something new. Ephesians is our Friday series from here — eight parts through the letter Paul wrote to ordinary believers about who they already are. This is the overview: what the letter is, who it was for, and why it is written to you.

▶️ Watch 👉 Ephesians: The Letter Written to You

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More to Watch on YouTube — There's plenty more waiting on our channel. Browse all our playlists, catch up on the teachings you've missed, and keep an eye out — we add new videos to these playlists whenever we can…

Browse all our playlists 👉 Back to Basics: Christian living - YouTube

Living Out Our Faith: Weekly Challenges! A practical guide offering weekly steps to apply your spiritual learning. These challenges turn Bible teachings into daily habits through simple, doable actions…

Pray one verse back to God

Take Wednesday's teaching and put it to work. Open the Bible, find one verse that speaks straight into what you are facing, and pray it back to God in your own words. Do not just read it and move on. Stop. Speak it. Believe it. Let His Word shape what you ask and steady what you feel.

This does not need to be a long session. One verse. One honest prayer. Once before Monday. But do not treat it as a box to tick. Come before your Heavenly Father expecting His Word to do more than fill the silence. Let it put your thinking right, strengthen your faith, and bring your heart back into line with what He has said.

If heaven has felt quiet lately, start there. Your feelings will tell you that nothing is happening; the Word gives you solid ground under your feet. So pray His words, stand on what He has said, and refuse to let silence have the final word…

This Week's Key Takeaways:

An unanswered prayer is a conversation still going on, not a door closed
Scripture allows for wrong asking — Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss [James 4:3 KJV]
Prayer is relationship before it is routine; the Father already knows the need — [Matthew 6:8 KJV]
When you do not know what to say, pray the Word back to Him
What you have not memorised you cannot use under pressure
Fridays now belong to Ephesians — eight parts on who you already are in Christ
From Sunday 20 September the Saturday review and the Sunday round-up become one send, called The Christian Compass…

Standing Strong in Faith! You are equipped with God's strength to build an unshakeable faith—one that will inspire generations to come!

Let the Word Set Your Direction

Knowing the way is not enough. We must walk in it…

A compass is only useful when it points to something fixed. If its direction changes with the weather, the terrain, or the opinion of the person holding it, it cannot be trusted. The same is true of our Christian compass. Feelings shift. Culture changes. People approve one thing today and condemn it tomorrow. But the Word of God remains steady. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. [Psalm 119:105 KJV] It shows us where we are standing, where we are heading, and where the next step should fall. Without that light, sincerity is not enough. We can be completely sincere and still be walking in the wrong direction.

The Word guides us as we gain knowledge and understanding of it. That means more than remembering verses or agreeing with sound teaching. We must read carefully, consider honestly, and allow Scripture to correct what we think, want, and do. If our understanding never reaches our feet, it has not completed its work. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. [James 1:22 KJV] The danger is not only ignorance. It is hearing the truth so often that we mistake familiarity for obedience. We know what the Word says about forgiveness, purity, speech, service and faithfulness — but the real question is whether we are doing it.

Obedience keeps the compass useful. Each time we act upon the Word, our direction becomes clearer. Each time we knowingly resist it, confusion grows. We cannot keep ignoring what God has already shown us and then complain that we do not know which way to go. More often than not, clarity comes while we are obeying the instruction already in front of us.

God has given every believer a place in the body of Christ. We do not all have the same function, but every part matters and every believer has something to supply. Your calling is not a platform to build for yourself. It is your place of faithful service under the Headship of Jesus Christ, for the strengthening of the whole body. Comparison will pull you off course. Fear will tell you to hold back. Disappointment will tempt you to stop. The Word calls you to press on.

Paul said, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [Philippians 3:14 KJV] Pressing on is deliberate. It means refusing to drift, refusing to live by applause, and refusing to give up your place of service because the road is hard going. Strength comes from knowing what God has said. Direction comes from bringing every choice back to that fixed point. So take the one thing He has already shown you this week and do it — that is how the compass stays true…