I have a brilliant brother, but I would never claim he was God let alone be prepared to die for believing it - unlike the brother of Jesus who was martyred for doing just that.

Interestingly James was not one of the first disciples. It is clear from the gospels that Jesus’ family’ didn’t believe in Him at first. In fact, it seems that they initially sought to restrain Him because they thought He was a bit crazy, and I can understand why they reacted like that. So how do we explain such a dramatic about turn?

There’s a very simple answer to that question - James had a life changing encounter with his brother after He had been resurrected from the dead on the first Easter Sunday.

I was reminded of James when I read a recent news article that stated that believers from very different denominational traditions and backgrounds will be uniting for a National Week of Prayer in October.

It will take place from October 12 to 20 with the vision of gathering Christians from across the four nations of the UK to repent and pray for a spiritual awakening and more lives transformed by Jesus. Church leaders backing the initiative include the Orthodox Archbishop of London, Archbishop Angaelos, and the Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen.

Open Doors UK & Ireland, 24-7 Prayer, CARE and the Evangelical Alliance are just some of the organisations getting involved in the campaign. Christians from Pembrokeshire will be gathering for their annual Prayer Breakfast on in Hook on Saturday, October 19 too.

I instinctively turned to James because when I read the New Testament, I find that he, as much as anyone else (other than Jesus of course) encouraged people to pray. Take this well-known example: ‘the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results’.

Kamesh Flynn, the project co-ordinator is clearly encouraged by the way Christians have been gathering to pray already, and she has issued this plea: “No matter the denomination, individual area of influence, or whether you are gathering three people or 3,000 people, we believe this is a moment for the UK to return to God and flourish in the identity found in Him."

Father Dominic Robinson, from Central London Catholic Churches, added: "We want to invite you to gather for the National Week of Prayer as Christians together, remembering our need for God, thanking God for His great gifts, and praying as Christians together for the reawakening of the soul of our nation."

We are living in turbulent troubled times so much so that the heads of the UK and US foreign intelligence services warned recently that “the international world order is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War”.

We are facing massive problems in UK too with overcrowded prisons, a ‘broken’ Health Service and huge economic challenges.

Can anyone deny that we urgently need God’s help? So, let’s turn to Him as others have done in the past knowing Jesus has given us this promise - ‘If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.’