Category Archives: Grace

Daring to believe….

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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. 

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

(Heb 4.14-16)

..he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him…

(Ps 103.10-13)

IF we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

(1 Jn 1.8&9)

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him…The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body.. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace!

(Rom 6.8,10-12&14)

I wrote last week of how a long-standing confusion and trouble in my thinking was being gently removed as God revealed what I have long misunderstood.. perhaps you wondered what that was?! Well, I have long been bewildered by what I – as a mature, well-taught christian woman should think about the fact that I still sin. What should my attitude be? Do I beat myself up for my shortcomings? It has been all-too-often the case that the devil has used awareness of sin as a means to entrap and bind me in self-pity and despair – which then made me feel even worse as that was not godly!!

Anyway, what I want to write about today, and perhaps more in coming weeks, is what God in his mercy and gentle compassion has shown me to be true, and to share something of the transformation which that is bringing. I want to glorify and praise the God who touches his children just where they need healing, and to encourage any reader who might be similarly struggling, not to lose heart..

As a believer, I am new-made and as dead to the power of sin and death as Jesus is in his glory at God’s right hand. The authority of sin over me is broken, and it no longer masters my heart or mind, nor defines my being. I share the life of God, since the Holy Spirit dwells within me; I am learning to recognise sin and to name and view it as God does (this is what confession means) – a blight upon his good creation. As God’s beloved child, my problems are his problems – and everything that troubles me is his business, as every loving parent knows!

The sin which remains active in the life of the believer is not part of their born-again self. It is tied up with the mortal body, which one day will be put off and transformed into a perfect and sinless one. It is removed from the core of our being, detached from our essential new self as Christ-followers. We are now on God’s side against it, and the glorious news is that in Jesus, sin IS already conquered – both past and also future sins which his children may commit before they die. So I am simply being invited to access all the rich resources of Christ in dealing with a problem which is NO LONGER an issue for God. This has been a critical point for me to grasp, and how gloriously, joyously liberating it is to realise that my Father delights to show forgiveness to me for as long as I live.

 Beloved Heavenly Father, how glorious it is to know that I am the object of your love and compassion even as I depend upon your abundant provision over and over again. Thank you that you have shown me that you are not reluctant to pour out all and more than I can ever need, since this is exactly what Jesus died and rose again to make possible! I am now and forever united with you, and the sin that remains is your business to deal with – the more often I come to you for aid, the better pleased you are! Thank you, and all my praise is yours for such grace in Jesus my Lord, Amen.

Since these things are true…

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The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

(Ex 15.2)

Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.

(Ps 116.16&17)

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.

(Ps 117)

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?… It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

(Gal 4.8&9; 5.1)

I have recently been led to think a great deal about the great theme of Exodus which runs through our whole biblical story – of being led out (of slavery)… led through (the wilderness)… and led into(the promised inheritance). The folk at the wonderful Bible Project have released a video exploring this theme, and also the conversations which informed that video, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. 

The whole point of the Exodus narrative in its original context is that there was nothing that the people of Israel could do to make it happen – everything was God’s initiative, the Almighty power-at-work, and it was ultimately all so that every nation under the sun might be blessed in knowing and glorifying God, the great deliverer. You may recall that Jesus, during his conversation with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration is talking about his ‘exodus, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem'[Lk 9.31]. The image of divine love responding to the oppression of his children by the enemy of God, coming down in power to meet them in their need, and to do for them what they could not do for themselves, should ring so many bells in our minds as believers! 

Our slavery was not to some human power, but something much worse – sin and death – but our God is greater than these, and the death and resurrection of Jesus marked a once-for-all-time victory. The great oppressor no longer holds sway, and nor do the lesser oppressors which the enemy of our souls loves to use, rendering us inactive in God’s service, keeping us fearful, timid, or hopeless. The gospel is our deliverance from slavery, and we have already received the Spirit as guarantee of our inheritance which is to live hereafter in the near presence of God. We are called to live in the place of rest which is accepting God’s inexplicable (apart from grace) acceptance of us as his children.

Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, I praise you today for your great lovingkindness and faithfulness. There is no end to your goodness, and you are utterly trustworthy. I am no longer a slave to sin; the power of death over me has been broken. Thank you that today I live in your love, and that your Spirit is within me to direct all that I do and say and think according to your will. 

Thank you that you have given, and are giving my soul rest – a spacious place of blessing. Let me dwell in that place and cease my anxious questings. You have won the victory for me, over all that would enslave, disable and discourage me – let me live in the reality of that triumphant rest for you, my Lord, have been and always are good to me.

Let me truly accept my own condition, neither wallowing despairingly nor deceiving myself into a false conceit. I am, as all believers are, a sinner who has fallen short; and a redeemed, born-again child of God. No more, no less.

I am no less a recipient of your grace than any other believer; I am no less susceptible to your power of transformation; I am the object of your persevering love and the apple of your eye. O Lord, lead me into the rest which is my inheritance as your child. Deliver me from vain striving to prove myself worthy of that adoption, from the pride which detests failure and short-comings, from the foolishness which expects more from myself than you, my Maker and Redeemer, expect. In the name of my mighty and marvellous Saviour, Jesus Christ your Son I pray, Amen.

Who(se) am I?

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“Who am I?  They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a Squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing
My throat, yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.

Who am I? This or the Other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptible, woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me like a beaten army
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine,
Whoever I am, Thou Knowest, O God, I am thine.”

Dietriech Bonhoeffer (4/02/1906 – 9/04/1945)

I recently came upon a recording of this poem, read by the actor Tom Hanks, in recognition of the 80th anniversary of the death of its author, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, under the German Nazi regime, just months before the end of the war. The poem was written while Bonhoeffer was in prison from April 1943 until the end of his life, some two years later. (This link might help you find that recording for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBATNRYIBdc)

Now I have known nothing like the crushing grief, oppression and disempowerment which Bonhoeffer experienced in those last months and years – it is impossible to fully imagine such suffering. But perhaps, like me, you can identify with the profound sense of disconnect which he describes – between his public and private persona – and also the deep and agonised questioning of his true identity.. who am I, if I can behave so very differently at one moment from the next? 

I believe that God is the source of our identity – it is in His naming, shaping, saving and transforming that we find significance and value, and meaning. Before anything else, I am the beloved daughter of the Almighty, redeemed by my Saviour’s blood and therefore eternally precious and secure. With these truths, I am armoured against the assault of the enemy of my soul who would drive me down endless arid roads in quest of ‘my identity’, and I believe that without these truths, humanity is astray without a guide, vulnerable to every fad, philosophy, and addiction. Only my security as one who is known and kept by God, can keep me from losing everything in the attempt to find myself! I don’t need to prove anything, but rather receive the abundant grace of my loving Father and rest in his gift.

And that is why these words of a man of deep faith, profound intelligence and eloquence are so moving to me. In the end, after all is stripped from me – health, freedom, family, achievements – who am I? What is true about me; where can I find rest, when tossed between apparently contradictory behaviours and opinions? 

I find rest in God alone. I rest not in who I am, but in who He is – the Almighty who loved me enough to send his Son to die for me. No matter how deeply conflicted I am, this remains true – Christ died for me, and his death and resurrection are sufficient to bring me home to glory.

Can you sense the relief? Does the weight not lift from your heart? We don’t need to answer all the questions, don’t need to have it all understood and neatly organised – we are beloved, and our path lies in sovereign hands which cannot fail to deliver us to glory.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. (Ps 91.1&2)

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning… O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. (Ps 130.5-7)

(*photo of “Joan”, sculpted by Benno Schotz, 1891-1984, in the Perth Art Gallery)

It’s not a performance, it’s a gift…

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Still the night, holy the night! Sleeps the world; hid from sight, Mary and Joseph in stable bare watch o’er the child beloved and fair, sleeping in heavenly rest…..

Still the night, holy the night! Shepherds first saw the light, heard resounding clear and long, far and near, the angel-song, ‘Christ the Redeemer is here!’….

Still the night, holy the night! Son of God, O how bright love is smiling from thy face! Strikes for us now the hour of grace, Saviour since thou art born!’

( Mohr, 1792-1848, translated by S.A. Brooke, 1832-1916)

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Rom 6.22-23)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved… For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. 

(2Cor 2.4,5,8&9)

As a Jesus-believer, I look forward to celebrating his birth into our world, remembering with awe and thankfulness the magnitude of that step from unimagineable glory, to the tiny compass, and total helplessness of a human infant. I am grateful that our culture provides time to focus on the story, pondering what it meant, and means, for all humanity that God became one who lived and lives among us.

BUT…. I am aware that for many believers, there is an expectation, a pressure that every year they should achieve a state of heightened spiritual awareness, a transcendent calm and detachment from the busy-ness and daily uncertainties which comprise our lives. Perhaps some people do manage, every year, to reach this condition of super-spirituality, and to pass the season in serene contemplation and worship. Personally, I do not.. and I believe it can be a dangerous expectation to entertain, a foothold by which the enemy of our souls will undermine and condemn us as lacking true faith and spirituality, when we just plod on with the challenges of each day, not feeling very joyful, or serene.

Did God say that we must achieve this super-spiritual state every Christmas and Easter season? Does it say anywhere in our scriptures that we are to generate a particular group of feelings? No! The glorious and grounding reality is not in any way related to our feelings, but is based in facts, in truths which are as immutable as God himself, and as different from human fallibility and fickleness as can be imagined! If we let ourselves believe the lie that somehow every real Christian ‘gets’ Christmas in some transcendent ways, then we are letting ourselves in for serious trouble – as lies usually do. But it is not necessary to screw ourselves up to some heightened emotions in order to properly give thanks, to worship and sit for a little in awed silence before Mary’s infant son.

If our lives in any given advent season do lend themselves to giving extra time to meditating on the truth, soaking up the music and letting God speak to our hearts in an unhurried way, that’s marvellous! But it is also quite acceptable for believers to sincerely celebrate and worship without that luxury, to experience no particularly intense joys, and yet still be blessed and nourished as they share when they can in singing and retelling the story. We are not being judged on our ‘performance’ as believers in that sense, and our best response to the gift of God in Jesus is humble, quiet and relieved acceptance. We can add nothing to what he has done for us, and the grace poured out in Christ by God covers all our needs.

Father, loving and tender-hearted refuge of my aching soul, hear your daughter this night. She is weary, shot through with bitter griefs and the beauty of Christmas music brings floods of tears. She is not serene, or calm but often sad and uncertain. Thank you that her salvation is still secure because it is not dependent on her feeling the right sensations, or striving to enter a particular state of mental tranquility!

The hour of grace has struck for her, for all the weary ones for whom the season brings such mixed feelings of gladness and sadness, hope and grief. Grace is ours now because Christ is born, and there is our true peace, one which lies deep beneath the stormy waves and cannot be taken from us. Thank you..

Abundant living…

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‘But this is my word’, Jesus continued ,’for those of you who are listening: love your enemies! Do good to people who hate you! Bless people who curse you! Pray for people who treat you badly… Whatever you want people to do to you, do that to them. If you love those who love you, what’s special about that?… No: love your enemies, do good and lend without expecting any return. Your reward will be great! You will be children of the Highest! He is generous, you see, to the stingy and the wicked. You must be merciful, just as your father is merciful. Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven. Give, and it will be given you: a good helping, squashed down, shaken in, and overflowing – that’s what will land in your lap. Yes: the ration you give to others is the ration you’ll get back for yourself.’

(Lk 6.27-38: NT Wright translation, 2001)

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. .. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge, I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

(Rom 12. 17-21)

Jesus came to usher in the ‘age to come’, the kingdom of God unveiled in the heart of a kingdom ruled by the powers of this age, where humankind had been held in bondage, enslaved and unable to fulfil the role for which we were created – to live for and with our God, stewards of his creation and bearing his image. From the outset of his ministry, Jesus consistently overturned expectations about what God was like, and what it looked like to honour, and live in freedom with him.

The religious leaders of Judaism in his day were trying to bring in God’s kingdom by tighter and tighter adherence to the law, laying a huge burden on the people to get it right. Instead of this, Jesus came like a tornado of fresh air, light and boundary-breaking! Jesus said that if our hearts were right with God – in humble repentance, and joyful depending faith – then we had entered the kingdom of God, it was among us and we were loved and secured by God in his family. Jesus set aside the legal observances, turning the spotlight on the heart, and asking – “do you love and trust me above all these rules; above your racial purity; above your wealth and status in Israel?” Jesus came and poured out God’s love unstintingly, with a breathtaking abandon and – in the eyes of the Pharisees and teachers of the law – a reckless disregard for tradition! And time after time, Jesus called those who believed in him to live as he did – because this recklessly generous life reflects the heart of our God, the love which held nothing back when it came to doing for us what we desperately need and cannot do for ourselves.

Do I believe that God is astonishingly merciful? Well, yes I do, because he reached me and rescued me, and continues to seek out those like me who have done nothing to deserve his favour. Do I see God’s provision of sun and rain, day and night, for every human being on the planet? Yes, I do! He does not grudge us the good gifts we receive, and more than that, He chooses to show grace and love even to those who persist in dishonouring and grieving his holy, loving heart.

As I contemplate the way that God’s kingdom generosity pours out from Jesus, I am challenged to consider my own attitudes and behaviour: do I consistently choose to love, to give, to rejoice and live in the light, no matter what happens to me? Am I grudging or giving with gladness? Which attitude honours the God who gave his son for me? Which way of living will rightly mirror the God whose grace is amazing, and whose goodness is readily shown to those who reject him?

O Lord, God of heaven, in your mercy work in me that I might live to honour you by living abundantly, generously, giving as you give, forgiving and eager to do good that others might thrive. Show me what I have to spend in this way – my words, my time, my love… Show me where I am miserly, fearful and indifferent – release me to live for you, showing me what it looks like here and now to be like my Father in heaven. Let me follow my Saviour in a life of selfless love, that you might be glorified and lives transformed. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.

The promise….

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Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up….. be careful that you do not forget the Lord..

(Deut 6.4-7,12)

When the people heard this,… they said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name  of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

(Ac 2. 37-39)

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

(2Tim 3.14&15)

The baptism of infants is not some magic ritual, nothing about the child changes as a result of having water sprinkled on its head. What happens rather, is that the congregation within which the child is brought for baptism is remembering and celebrating the abundant and free grace of God – who, when we were as dead things, incapable of any move towards Him, sent Jesus to set us free from the power and guilt of sin, so that we might live for and with Him. This child, born to christian parents, is the object of God’s loving care, all because of Jesus.. It is all God’s plan, all God’s power, all God’s agency, and we are invited to receive it!

It is that generosity and love which we celebrate in baptism – the person receiving God’s gift of salvation has done nothing to earn it, and while we pray and trust that they will persevere in faith, the mere fact of having been baptised does not guarantee anything about their future walk with God. Adult believers who have been baptised may walk away from their faith in the same way that the children of believers who have been baptised and raised in their faith may walk away.. I know it, I know those children and their grieving parents. Ultimately, we cannot make a person believe, and baptism can be rejected along with all the other aspects of our calling as believers in Jesus.

Today, I will be joining with my son and daughter-in-law and their congregation as my grandson is baptised. I will pray for him for the rest of my life, that he might grow to walk in the faith into which he has been born; I will pray for his parents to have wisdom in sharing their faith with their son, and in surrounding him with a faith-family; I will do what I can, when I can, to help this little one navigate the hurdles to faith which our blindly self-obsessed culture presents. But I cannot guarantee that he will follow his father and mother, his grand-parents and great-grandparents in trusting Jesus.

The promise was claimed by my parents for me; I claimed it for my children, and today my son will claim it for his son. We are a family rich in God’s grace as some in each generation have accepted their calling to live as followers of Jesus. I desire this more than anything for my own children and their offspring – nothing, nothing else matters as much in all the world, as that they should be safe in Christ. But I also know a very small part of the grief of our great God as he calls people to himself, only to see them reject his love and choose to walk in their own light. If it breaks my heart to see a child walk away from their Saviour, how much more must it grieve God who is love, who made each and every person that has ever lived with the desire that they might know and love him?

Heavenly Father, from whom all good things come, I thank you today for your gift of life and hope, for the child who has  joined our family. Lord God, may he grow up into faith, into a lifelong obedience and service of the Lord Jesus. Thank you that our salvation is your free gift, may I share that good news fervently and freely, so that more may come into your family and find peace.

Lord God, have mercy on those who would reject the faith into which they were born. Give us wisdom to love them well in your name; stir up within them a hunger for more than this world can offer; bring them back to the foot of the cross to accept for themselves the life which Jesus has won for them. Oh Lord, hear our prayer for the straying sheep, and sustain our hope, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

30 years is but a moment in time…

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Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. .. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!

People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. they feast in the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

(Ps 36.5-9)

Praise the Lord!

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures for ever. 

Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered for ever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures for ever; their horn will be lifted high in honour…

(Ps 112.1-9)

This weekend brings the 30th anniversary of the day when I promised to love and cherish my husband till death should part us… I have been married more than half my life, and hold this relationship to be one of God’s most precious gifts to me, in awe of the privilege of sharing life with one person, committing to faithfulness, forgiveness, patience and generosity every moment of every day for the rest of our lives together.

In the days before we married, I had some bad times of doubt, fearful of my untrustworthy feelings, and God in his mercy gave me this assurance… I knew, beyond all shadow of doubt, that I wanted to be good for this man, to see him thrive. If being married to me was part of that thriving, then I wanted to be married! That assurance has never left me, and how I thank God for it. No two marriages are the same, and I have no list of essential good habits, nor of ‘must-avoid’ mistakes, I only have faith that God who decided that marriage is a good idea, who brought us together, who keeps us together, and who has in his grace chosen to bless others through us over the years, will continue to do so as we grow older together.

As we each serve and worship God, putting him first in our lives, and sharing that priority, everything else falls into place and we depend only on him to meet our deepest needs, to be the perfect partner and Lord of our lives. No human being can always get it right, and what comfort it is to know that it is not my job to be ‘the perfect wife’! My task is to love God, and then to love others, my husband first, and to love him as Christ loved me – joyfully, sacrificially, faithfully, patiently, with understanding, grace, forgiveness and humility. It is my privilege to demonstrate Christ’s unconditional love to this human being every day. And how often I fail… But thanks be to God, who helps my husband to forgive me, and helps us both to find the will to go forward together in faith.

Thirty years… it seems barely possible, and yet the lines on my face tell me that those years have indeed passed. The children who were gifted to us are grown, and a grandchild is expected soon. We are becoming older, and please God, will do so with grace, growing in wisdom and contentment, happy that God’s faithfulness is the basis of our lives, and the theme song of our marriage.

Many do not get thirty years; some are never gifted with marriage but rather with a single life, and others experience great grief at the hands of the person whom they trusted above all others… I do not take this gift for granted, I do not elevate it as somehow superior to a single life, and pray that I may never abuse the trust which my husband puts in me, nor take advantage of his vulnerability to me. How does Christ love us? In a selfless, relentless, dependable way.. He always seeks our good, even through hard trials. Let me continue to learn what love looks like in this season of life; I don’t know how many more years I will have, nor what they will bring, but I pray God might be the one who is glorified and honoured by this marriage, as he helps me to be good for my husband.

And why do you worry?

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“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these… So do not worry, saying, ‘what shall we eat?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matt 6.25-34)

..and because I’d heard that you are loyal and faithful to Jesus the master, and that you show love to all God’s holy people, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

I pray that the God of King Jesus our Lord, the father of glory, would give you, in your spirit, the gift of being wise, of seeing things people can’t normally see, because you are coming to know him and to have the eyes of your inmost self opened to God’s light.

Then you will know exactly what the hope is that goes with God’s call; you will know the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in his holy people; and you will know the outstanding greatness of his power towards us who are loyal to him in faith, according to the working of his strength and power.

(Eph 1.15-19, translated by NT Wright)

Father, it’s like there is a disconnect in my brain; what you tell me to be true, what I know to be true, somehow doesn’t reach or influence the places where worry lives, where anxiety hangs out, where all my night-sweat fears lurk until they can jump out and cause my heart to beat like a great drum, bursting out of my chest.

I know, I KNOW, that you see me, you love me, you will never let me go from your loving hands. And I know that in this season of transition, of uncertainty, you go with me, indeed you go before me to prepare good works for me to do and things to enjoy with you! So why can I not control these feelings? 

Thank you for reminding me that my feelings are not the basis for my actions, for my decisions, and certainly not the basis on which my faith exists! Thank you, that it is as your beloved one in Christ that I experience your power and love, that I rest in your grace as one forgiven and restored to closest fellowship with my loving Father. It is all that Christ is and has done, and is doing even now that is the basis for my salvation and therefore the sure ground for my faith.

Thank you that in your abundant kindness, you are growing wisdom in me, the wisdom to see truth, to see what really matters; to see Christ in all his glory and to know that nothing can stop you from working in power to transform me, along with all the rest of the church, into his likeness.

Why, then, are you cast down my soul? I will yet delight in the Lord, my God and King! Bring all these troubles to your Father in heaven, who in his infinite power and goodness has provided for each need even before you recognise it. Delight to cast yourself with these burdens at his feet, and to exalt him by trusting him to deal with them in ways that will exceed all you can think or imagine. Remember that the power which is turned to work in the world for the glory of God, to glorify Christ in his church – is for you and all those who confess him as Lord. That power which raised Christ from the dead, is even now working through you and for you, all to the purpose of God, to the exaltation of Jesus and the making-right of all that is wrong.

Father, your daughter comes to you in her weakness – her frame is known to you, and the power which uncertainty, anxiety and change have to affect her in so many ways. Deliver her from false guilt about these feelings; give her wisdom to cling to you in response to them and to continually preach the truth to herself, so that the feelings are not the loudest voice in her mind, but rather the story of your power and love at work for eternal glory and a secure inheritance for all your beloved children.

Praying in the face of disintegration

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O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgement, for no-one living is righteous before you.

The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.

Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. 

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. 

For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

(Ps 143)

Lord God, how far we have fallen short of your ways and your standards. Your people are weak from compromise with the values of a fallen world; tainted from acceptance of the lies of the deceiver; ashamed by our failure to live for you, to speak the truth about you, to be willing to suffer rejection for your sake.

For your name’s sake O Lord, preserve our lives, purify us and restore our zeal.

Lord God, how far the evil one has managed to entice us away from faithfulness, from unity, from the fierce love which fears nothing for the sake of the lost.

In your unfailing love, O Lord, silence our enemy in all his many forms, and lead us back into fearing only you, longing to please only you.

Lord God, how far we are buried in our shame, far from the confidence which belongs to the  beloved children of the Creator of all things and deep into the darkness of hiding from you as we let self-pity rule, instead of running back to you in repentance and exulting in forgiveness.

In your mercy O Lord, hear our cry from the darkness, and come to our relief. We deserve only judgement; in Christ, we receive grace and by him are restored to our place in your presence. Establish us firmly, keep us loyal and humble, and lead us according to your will for we trust in you.

I was privileged last week to spend some time with others in our particular denomination of the global church, time to share stories of encouragement and time to pray and together unburden ourselves to God. Our organisation is in a time of ‘re-structuring’, resulting from declining resources – it resembles more the implosion of a controlled demolition, and sadly is causing a great deal more mess and grief than those spectacles usually do… As faithful servants within a collapsing organisation, we are presented with a gloomy prospect, and it is very, very easy to become despondent.

But the organisers took time to bring us stories of God at work, of leaders being trained and visions of new work being realised; of churches where a mission-orientated church family is seeing lives transformed and a community illuminated by the love of Christ. And crucially, we were reminded that our hope for the future of the church of Christ in Scotland does not depend upon the right strategies, or even the ‘right’ personalities, but upon the good Spirit of our good God, working through his people to share the good news.

And our God is not weakened by modern culture, his arm is not thwarted by secular belief or aggressive aetheist philosophies. God remains on the throne, remains all-powerful, all-knowing, merciful and loving, unwilling that any should perish.

What should we then do in these days? We follow the example of the psalmist, and get to prayer – remembering God’s faithfulness and his promises as the basis for our confidence in asking for his work among us today and tomorrow. To “Keep it real, keep it simple, keep it going” in our praying, and not to give up; to believe that even if God chooses to let his church in this land become a tiny remnant, yet that he is still working out his purposes and will be glorified in his good time.

While we have breath to speak, and freedom to share the good news, let us be about his kingdom work, praying as we go and trusting that the Lord will daily encourage us with word of his unfailing love, guiding our steps, and teaching us to do his will as becomes his servants. It is ours to obey, and his to do everything else.

Grace to relinquish

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Jesus said to them, ” I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

(Matt 19.28&29)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

(1 Pet.1:3-7)

We make promises to one another in marriage. We promise that we will conduct ourselves in particular ways, regardless of the situations in which we find ourselves, and also regardless of how we happen to feel on any given day. A marriage can only survive if the partners trust that – so far as is humanly possible – those promises will be kept. We have to believe that our spouse means to love us at our least lovable; to care for us in our weakness; to be loyal and discreet about our failures; to be for us even when we are against ourselves. Without that trust – in their words becoming motivations, attitudes and deeds – we cannot fully give ourselves to the relationship, but always hold back in self-defence. My trustworthiness is the gift I give to my husband, so that he knows my word is true, and can rest in it.

As followers of Jesus, we have also made promises before God – to enthrone Christ as Lord of our lives, to hold ourselves in readiness to serve him, to hold all his gifts to us on an open hand and continually offer them up to him to be used as he pleases for his purposes. We do not bargain with God when we become believers – we are not earning favour or salvation by our own love and service – but the magnitude of Christ’s saving work calls forth a response of whole-hearted dedication of our whole selves to him, and in our fervour we sing that he is all we need or desire in the world…. And then he offers us the opportunity to prove that our words were more than empty air, but represented the deepest truth about ourselves, and so often we hesitate.

What does that hesitation say about our trust in God? I think it says that we have a very low estimation of our Father’s abilities or desire to do what he promised. The bible is full of people who doubted God and tried to hold onto things, to manipulate situations in order to protect themselves and get their own preferred escape from trouble. How we struggle to believe that the dark valleys are necessary, are truly God’s path for us. How we rage against the loss of those things dearest to us, as if God were simply mean and liked to make us sad.

Friends, I am facing the end of a chapter in my life which has brought wonderful joys – good things for which I have thanked God over and over again. And now He asks me to relinquish these good things, to trust him for an unknown future, and to do this in such a way that He will be glorified in my life and witness. As I thought about this, I have been reminded of the words of saints of old. I have been rebuked and challenged by them to seek the grace of relinquishment for the sake of Christ, to follow cheerfully where He calls me. May God enable me to obey with readiness, thanksgiving and a spirit of trusting gladness, as I lay this place, this community and all the joy it represents on the altar as my sacrifice of praise.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life my all.

(Isaac Watts, 1674-1748)

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

(Jim Elliott  1927-1956)

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.

(CT Studd 1860-1931)