Category Archives: Sovereignty

The power…..

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It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else!

(Rom 1.16, the Message)

God can do anything you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!.. glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millenia! Oh Yes!

(Eph 3.20-21, the Message)

So, friends, we can now – without hesitation – walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “Curtain” into God’s presence is his body. 

So let’s do it – full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshipping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

(Heb 10.19-25, the Message)

“Can I be honest with you? I’m actually not that into prayer, it’s Jesus I’m into, so we talk.

I don’t believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of God. So I ask for his help. A lot”

(Pete Greig, May 2019)

One of the drawbacks of growing up in a christian family and culture is that one develops particular habits of vocabulary, which are not always very helpful when thinking about faith in the context of our unbelieving neighbours and the need to witness to and serve them. I grew up thinking that a prayer meeting was a totally normal thing, and that setting aside several hours every Saturday evening was a perfectly reasonable thing to do – that it was action, not inaction; a privilege as well as a responsibility. But here’s the thing that Pete Greig’s words brought home to me… I don’t think that prayer meetings matter because somehow if we screw ourselves up to a pitch of faith then we can make God do stuff. I think they matter because we come to admit to the Sovereign Maker and Sustainer of all created things that we are utterly powerless! And I would hope that I might remember to talk and think about prayer in that way when I talk about it with unbelieving friends – it’s not about me and my faith, or my prayers, it’s all about Jesus and what God has promised to do through him and for him.

We pray because God alone has the power to work ALL THINGS together for his good purposes in this fallen world of ours; we pray because God alone can bring salvation in Jesus’ name to the desperately needy hearts around us; we pray because only the eternal and holy God knows what is the right and proper thing to happen in any and every situation. I am so grateful that God does not ask us to work out what is right before we pray for it to happen – what hope do fallen humans have of every making such decisions?!

We can pray anywhere at anytime; which is an astonishing privilege and a never-ending source of comfort when we are faced by troubling situations (our own, those of dear ones, or the devastatingly widespread suffering of people around the world). But perhaps – like me- you find it helpful to prioritise prayer at times by meeting with others to talk to God about what is going on in his world, with his children; obeying his command to pray that his will might be done, and his kingdom come here on earth as it is always and perfectly done in the heavenly realms. I can bear witness to the fact that when I gather with others to pray, I always benefit; my own faith is strengthened and I am encouraged to persevere in obedience and love; I know that I have obeyed God’s command, and once again lifted the burden for others which He lays on my heart up to his throne for the demonstration of his power and love in deliverance and transformation. I would also bear witness that even when I cannot see the answers which I long for, yet still to pray is to be in the right place – before the Almighty, and worshipping him in Jesus as the only Sovereign God.

Dear friends, let us pray – and wherever possible, let us do it together for our mutual benefit, and for the glory of God and the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord!

On human frailty

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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, O my being! Let me praise the Lord while I live, let me hymn to my God while I breathe.

Do not trust in princes, in a human who offers no rescue. His breath departs, he returns to the dust. On that day his plans are naught.

Happy whose help is Jacob’s God, his hope – for the Lord his God, maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, does justice for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, the Lord looses those in fetters.

The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord makes the bent stand erect. The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord guards sojourners, orphan and widow He sustains, but the way of the wicked contorts.

The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Hallelujah.

(Ps 146 R Alter translation, 2007)

Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils, Why hold them in esteem?

(Isa 2.22)

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord… But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream…

A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

(Jer 17.5,7&8,12&13)

I urge, then, first of all , that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

(1 Tim 2,1-4)

One of the – many – wonderful things about believing in Jesus, and trusting in God as our Father and Creator, is that we are invited to learn to think about the world, about time, and our place in it as God does. We are offered glimpses of the great divine narrative, and as that story is embedded in our thinking, becoming our story, we are set free from so much that brings fear, anxiety, all the tossings to-and fro between hope and despair which beset those who have no anchor in eternal love.

God’s children are invited to put their hope in the only one who is worthy of it – the Almighty One, the Maker and Sustainer of all things, and the Author of the story. We are invited into an intimate, loving and trusting relationship with the only being who really is in charge. and can orchestrate everything that happens in order to fulfil His purposes – which are for blessing, beyond our imagining, as we take our place in his family and inherit the new creation.

Until that day dawns, this world is subject to the evils which beset those who have consistently rebelled against their creator, who persistently trust in their own gifts (which are truly good things, God’s gifts to us) in order to live without God in the world. Humankind is increasingly reaping the harvest of unbelief, of human pride and rejection of God. Populations are lured by extravagant promises of a golden future, to be inaugurated by leaders who know full well that they cannot actually deliver these things, and are playing on human needs and desires in order to gain power. No one, not one human being on our planet, is actually in control, no matter what their social media claims for them. 

While God may choose to permit the rise and persistence of regimes which bring appalling depths of suffering and cruelty, which dismiss the threats to our world’s fragile climate, which survive by threats, repression, mis-information and constant surveillance – the bible is clear that He is not tainted by or culpable for the decisions of these leaders, they will answer to Him for their use of power. 

Human frailty is written all over history, and we can see it today as we look around. How great is our relief then as God’s beloved children to know that we can put our faith for our lives and our future – and this world’s story – in God, who alone is able to bring good out of evil, and light out of darkness. We do not need to be buffeted by current affairs, and must be wary of being sucked into the waves of exaggerated reaction which increasingly masquerade as news. We have a foundation which is sure, and must exercise the discipline of fixing our eyes on God, keeping human beings – no matter how ‘powerful’, in their places.

Thank you Father, that you alone are reliable, and that in You I can trust. Help me to pray for those in power in our world, remembering their frailty and need of salvation. Help me to live steadily and confidently by faith in Your power and purposes, not swayed and frightened by what happens. Let my small life be a witness to your sovereignty, justice and goodness, so that others may come to put their trust in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Being realistic, not afraid..

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Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come… he will come to save you.”.. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way… But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

(Isa 35.3&4, 8&10)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted… It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as his children…. he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

(Heb 12.1-3,7,10-13)

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”.

(Jn 16.33)

He never said it would be easy….. but how quickly we react against our Lord when life presents us with painful and challenging situations. Being a follower of Jesus does not somehow exempt us from the experience of humanity – our bodies are mortal, subject to injury, disease, disability of every kind. We are as likely as anyone else to suffer from flu, cancer, unemployment, depression, untimely bereavement, and every other woe which afflicts our species on this beautiful but broken planet. It is absolutely crucial for our perseverance in faith that we understand and accept this truth – accepting it over and over as each new struggle or challenge presents itself. It can be very hard to do, but the bible is quite clear that for as long as we resist and resent God’s providence, we will fail to derive from it the blessings which He has prepared for us – depriving both ourselves and those around us as a result.

“If life’s adversities, and God’s use of them in discipline produce in the end both inward peace and moral uprightness, we cannot possibly have suffered in vain.” (Brown p235, Christ Above All – The Message of Hebrews. IVP 1982)

Please, please believe that I do not mean in any way to minimise or disregard the depth of pain, loss and weariness which some experiences can produce. I do not wish to imply in writing this that it is easy to persevere in faith when life has been blighted – it is not. BUT, I do think it is worth reminding myself of this truth regularly, when small difficulties arise, so that when the big things happen, I have some understanding of God’s ways and am accustomed to turning first to him for help. It is also good to remember this when we pray for others who are facing life-changing, irreversible trials – that they in turn will be given grace to accept and mercy when they doubt, and persevere in faith.

God calls his children to persevere when their families have been shattered by broken relationships, or by illness and disability; when their own lives have become severely limited or their employment prospects permanently blighted. These “weights” are cripplingly heavy, and only Christ can ease their burden upon us and enable us to keep walking in his ways. It is in this continual turning, dependance, humble acceptance and valiant expectation that God is with us, working for our good and his glory THROUGH what is happening, that we find ourselves journeying each day nearer to the glorious city where all sorrow is ended. As we walk thus, we can be free from fear of what may come to us in the days ahead, because we are always in the care of our loving Heavenly Father, whose purposes for us cannot fail to be fulfilled.

Dear Lord, take all of this life’s adversities and use them for our blessing and your glory – enable us to accept them from your hand. We are called to live with all the evils which beset this broken world, and it is only with your help that we can do so in ways which honour you. Lord, lead us by springs of fresh water, and sustain us on the journey, that we might not faint by the way…

When it’s rough…

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Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore… Lord, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart..

(Ps 125.1,2&4)

Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy; those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

(Ps 126.4-6)

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for while they sleep he provides for those he loves.

(Ps 127.1-2)

May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children – peace be on Israel.

(Ps 128.5&6)

“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more…”

(Jer 31.15& Matt 2.18)

As God’s creation, a woman, I know that I am made in his image – I reflect his nature and character in spite of the many ways in which sin has blighted and contorted that image. My experiences as a woman, as a mother, sister, and daughter are places where I gain insight into the nature of God. Many of my emotions are prompts, by which I am moved to pray according to God’s will for the situations around me. My mother-heart is a pale reflection of the passionate, powerful love which God has for his children – and as such, I believe that my pain is also an insight into what it costs for the Almighty to watch his children suffer, to be rejected by them, to know that their choices will cost them dearly. A father will know the pain perhaps in a different way, and that too is a reflection of our great God in his unfathomable richness and depth. I speak only for myself..

And sometimes, I am Rachel… weeping and lamenting for losses which seem unbearable. I have believing friends whose children are astray from the faith in which they were raised, seemingly immune to the love of Christ and resolute in resisting the Spirit. I have believing friends who have lost adult children and young grandchildren to illness and death, who daily have to choose to keep going in the face of unimaginable grief. I have believing friends whose believing children are facing huge challenges and who are struggling to find courage to persevere.

What do God’s believing people do when their lives are assaulted by such storms – when their lives become the storm and there is no hope of relief or abatement? In these circumstances, the blessings which the psalms call down on the heads of God’s faithful people ring hollow, and we resent their apparently easy assumption that faith brings prosperity in health, family and inheritance. In these circumstances, we return to Job on his ash heap; we sit with him and silently acknowledge that God is sovereign, his ways beyond finding out and that we are but dust before him. We follow the psalmist in lamentation for the very real grief and pain, threat and danger which we are seeing and experiencing. And then we follow the psalmist in preaching to himself, in deliberately choosing to consider the God who has revealed himself to us.

We see a covenant-keeping, self-sacrificing, patient, gracious, merciful, generous, powerful and all-knowing Lord. We see Love written large in the words of the prophets, in the ministry of Jesus and ultimately across the Cross itself. We see reason to hope, when the darkest and bleakest day in history becomes the moment when light triumphs completely and for ever over death, sin and evil. If we cannot find a refuge here, then we are truly astray without any guide in a cold and hostile wilderness, and life has no more purpose or reason to be prolonged.

So let us cling on my friends, because the Cross happened, the Resurrection is true. We have a saviour who knows what it is to be human, and what grief and despair can do to us. We have a God who knows that we are frail, and who invites – no, who begs – that we continue to come to him in all our troubles, for ourselves and for others. He promises, not that it will all suddenly become easy, but that He will NEVER leave us to bear it alone.

O Lord, the mystery of your divine purposes mean that we often fall bewildered and grieving in your presence, unable to understand or bear the pain of life, and struggling to hold on to your promises. When those we love are oppressed – by pain, bereavement, unemployment, illness, and despair – we pray for your deliverance and are disappointed if those prayers appear unanswered. It is not simple.. in so many grievous situations where your believing children suffer, we are overwhelmed by the pain and your ways seem utterly obscured. O Lord, you know our frame and what we can bear – spare us, strengthen us, protect our faith and keep us clinging to you when the waves mount high. Truly, we have no hope apart from you! In Jesus’ precious name, we cry to you.. 

  • Image courtesy of Neil Urquhart – with sincere thanks!

Room to breathe

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When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid… It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans… Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord… I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation… Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever.

(Ps 118. 5,6,8,19,21&29)

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls..”

(Jer 6.16)

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children… Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

(Matt 11.25&29)

In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.. I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.

(Ps 31.1,7&8)

I grew up in a house from whose windows one could see for many miles; could see the sea, distant hills and watch the weather moving across the landscape. In recent years that experience was gifted to me for a season, and how precious it was. Now I am back among buildings, with no distant horizons to gaze upon, and a sense of being hemmed in. The biblical picture of ‘a spacious place’ is therefore one with which I can strongly identify, as synonymous with the sweet rest which God gives his people as they depend on him.

To rest is to refrain from striving, and that is God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ. All our labours towards God are wasted time and effort, since nothing we do can achieve for us the deliverance and fulness which we desire. In Jesus, these things are offered to us freely, and in accepting them, we enter the inheritance of God’s children – which is rest from struggle, from futility, from fear, and the opportunity to live as we are designed to live.

We may certainly strive as believers to become more like our Lord, through studying his word and keeping in step with his Spirit. We also strive in his kingdom, to sow the seeds of gospel truth, to make disciples and to celebrate his goodness and unfailing love. But all these things are done from a basic position of resting, a freedom from anxiety and fear. Our labour is never worthless, and we are enabled for it by our Father in heaven. Our salvation does not depend upon it, and all we do is motivated by His love for us and our desire to respond to his generosity. We have nothing to prove.. how restful!

Thank you Lord for your covenant love, which endures for ever and is my inheritance. Thank you for calling me out of bondage into a spacious place, where I live in your presence, the object of your abundant care.

I am provided for, I need not strive; I can glimpse glories afar off, and walk in the light of your presence; I worship in the company of the redeemed, your people and in their company I walk in the old ways which you have appointed for our blessing. What bountiful gifts we receive from you!

You have won for your people the victory, and we follow in your triumph procession to inherit the land you have prepared for us, to know peace and perfect rest when the true King shall come in power. This is marvellous in our eyes, we rejoice to rest in you today, and worship you with glad hearts. Amen 

Dreams and visions…

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“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy… And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles.. which God did among you through him.. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him… Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear…. 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.

(Ac 2.17&18,22-24,33&38)

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.

(Eph 1.13&14)

I have never personally experienced any of the more dramatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, no prophetic words, or dreams, nothing out of the ordinary. I do nonetheless believe that as a follower of Jesus, I am indwelt by the Spirit; I believe that God himself is the source of my life and is transforming me into the image of his Son. I believe that as I walk by faith down the years that God gives me, I am learning to think, to love and to live more and more according to God’s will – because He is making me new by the work of his Spirit. 

God works through each of his children, their gifts and strengths just as much as their weakness and failures – which is a great comfort. It means that I can rely on the Spirit to direct me in serving and living for God in the place to which I have been called. At the moment, that service primarily looks like making a home, and getting to know a large congregation of people. But I am praying that over time, through daily duties and apparently random encounters, God will be directing me and leading me into the particular tasks which are already prepared. 

I don’t have an agenda; I don’t know what is right yet and many things are good! So I pray for wisdom to discern over time just where to commit time and energy. And yet, there are ideas lurking in my mind which I can’t shake off, and which I am accordingly bringing before God in prayer, asking if these are of his sending.. 

I see in my mind’s eye a packed church, with hundreds of young people praising and rejoicing in their Saviour, committing to serve their God and their community in love and faithfulness… a dream, yes. But also a reminder that God can do anything when He releases people from their bondage to sin and death. I believe that, I long to see it in this place…

And I long to share with other believers from across the town in praying for our community and all the various forms of witness to Jesus which happen within it. When God’s people gather to pray, beautiful things happen – mutual encouragement, strengthened faith, new boldness and expectation that God will break through in transforming power.

Lord God, my loving Father, thank you that I can trust you to glorify your name as I surrender to your will and serve you as best I can. Thank you that you are at work transforming my mind and heart, and for these desires which you have given me – to see our young people, and our whole community reached with the good news. Lord, lead me according to your will, to those with whom I can pray.

Pour out your Spirit in this place and bring transforming power to the lives of those around us. The living death which is exile from you and bondage to sin, cannot resist you since Jesus has broken its power, and how we long to see his victory realised in each and every individual! Your kingdom come, your will be done, in this place as it is in the heavenly realms..

in Jesus’ powerful and glorious name I pray, Amen.

 

O Lord, such pain..

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Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.

No-one calls for justice; no-one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil…Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands..

The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no-one who walks in them will know peace. So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness:”

(Isa 591-4,6&8-9)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’.”

(Matt 23.37-39)

O Lord, what bitterness and despair come upon us as we consider what is happening today in our world. Nation at war with nation; regimes scheming and manipulating the lives of millions for economic and political ends. Implacable hatreds being fed by rhetoric, biased re-tellings of history, entrenched positions which must be defended and therefore justified at any cost. 

The agony and the anger together scream at us through our phones’ newsfeed, our newspaper headlines, and we cannot blot them out. The intractable and utterly tangled webs of history continue to give birth to pain, cruelty, human brutality and all forms of violence and destruction. 

The narrative of history is made up of the lives of millions of individuals, each one precious and known to you. The great stories of nations are worked out in the details of my life and the lives of people like me around the world – the small, ordinary ones who never pretended to have authority or to understand the trajectories of power. It is the suffering of the small people which rips the guts out of us. We see ourselves in their faces as they search for loved ones under the rubble of bombed buildings; we see our children in the limp bodies carried from battlefields; we see our elders in the frail forms stumbling from pitiful shelter to shelter in an effort to escape the violence.

Fear and hatred are breeding fear and hatred, as they have always done and will continue to do until you return to bring an end to the pain and darkness… how long, O Lord, will it be? The roots of the troubles lie so far back in history, and are so overgrown with all that has happened through the intervening years – with all its partial truth-telling, and inadequately understood motivations – that in many places there seems no hope of any resolution which can bring peace and justice. Where is your perfect judgement, O Lord? Where is your healing peace?

For all those who today are immersed in conflict, violence and fear, who know you as Lord, and call upon Jesus as their saviour, I pray today. May they be given the courage they need to face whatever happens with faith in you. May they be given the moment-by-moment strength to live for you in their own situation, and to point others to their only hope – Jesus. May they shine as lights in the darkness, and testify to your presence. May they not fear death, since it will bring them home to you. May they be given courage as they watch loved ones suffer, and may their faith not fail.

For all those today who are in positions of power – to authorise or restrain violence; to advise for or against destruction; to act in mercy or to act in ruthlessness – I pray, O Lord. In your sovereignty, work out peace, justice and healing so that the suffering will be ended. May those in power be appalled at what they have let loose, and instead bend all their efforts toward peace, seeking to promote the well-being of their people without violence and with justice.

Lord, God of the nations, it is only by your power at work in human hearts that such things can come about. Of ourselves, we are hopeless and helpless to stem this tide of evil. Your people beg that you will have mercy, that your spirit might move to transform darkness to light and bring peace where there is no peace. Your arm, O Lord, is mighty to save; your heart is full of compassion; let us see your kingdom come! 

spare me the closed ear…

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Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you.. 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.. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you..

(Deut 6.3,6&18)

Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? .. You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.

(Isa 42.18&20)

The Sovereign Lord … wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

(Isa 50.4&5)

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

(Jas 1.22-25)

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches…

(Rev 2.7)

When my children were small, distracted and impatient of instruction or parental caution, I would sometimes ask them to listen to me with their eyes as well as their ears… I reckoned that if they were concentrating both eyes on my face, they were a good deal more likely to be concentrating their minds on my words! The faculty of hearing is repeatedly referred to in the bible as of crucial importance in responding to God’s revelation of himself, and always the inference is that unless one responds in obedience, one is not really listening, not hearing properly.

If I claim to be attuned to God’s voice, alert to his instruction, and yet continue to make choices and behave in ways which contradict his will, then I am not actually hearing him at all. I have closed my ears to his voice, and am listening instead to my own desires, or to the cultural voice which speaks more pleasingly. It was this sin into which the people of Israel fell, and were repeatedly warned against by the prophets. All their boasted faithfulness to God was in practice a willed deafness to his call to obedient witness and dependence on him. They paid a very high price for that persistent rebellion, and I need to learn from their story to be humble and aware of the danger of complacent self-assurance.

To have faith in God, is to make no distinction between hearing and obeying, and we are thankful that it is God’s gift which enables us to respond to him in this way. Apart from his grace, we are bound in a deafness which amounts to fatal rebellion against our maker and redeemer.

In Jesus, we see that perfect listening obedience which enabled him to do all that God entrusted to him, to speak God’s words and to proclaim the coming of the kingdom with such power. In Jesus, we see one who heard and trusted, whose unique understanding of God’s will bore fruit for our salvation. He is our constant companion and our good shepherd; he always knows God’s will, and can carry it to completion. We can therefore walk in confidence with him, knowing that he fully hears and understands the Father’s will and we can trust him always, whether we understand or not.

It is the Father’s will and gift that we should hear and obey him in faith; it is our good Shepherd’s voice which comforts us along the way and restores us when we have become weary or gone astray; it is the Spirit who quickens us to listen with our full attention, desiring only to discern God speaking that we might delight him in our obedience.

Heavenly Father, quicken my spirit to concentrate fully on you as you speak to me through your word. Let me hear you clearly, let hearing be obedience, submission, loyal love and trust. Let the likeness of Christ be seen more and more in my readiness to put your words into practice, and give you all the glory in my life.

Thankfulness is not boasting…

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Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

(1Thess 5.16-18)

Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures for ever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate….

The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. they are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness. He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant for ever – holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

(Ps 111.1-4,7-10)

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

(Rom 12.15)

Job.. fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised….. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

(Job 1.20&21; 2.10)

I am in a season of abundance, shall I fail then to give thanks to the giver of every good and perfect gift? I am acutely aware that many of those near and dear to me are walking in shadows, living with open wounds of grief and clouded prospects of despair – but that should surely not diminish my desire to praise and thank the Lord for what he has allotted to me in these days. It is good and right that the greatest cause for our thanksgiving should always be our salvation, by the great redeeming work of God through Jesus Christ, but surely we should also recognise and fully appreciate the many other good things which we receive?!

I have known grief and trouble, I shall know them again. I have known fear and doubt, I shall know them again. I have known dryness of spirit and weariness of soul, I shall know them again. BUT…. today, when my life is overflowing with good things, today I should be as whole-hearted in my rejoicing as I am in lament when life is painful. My Father God knows my frame, and knows my heart, and delights to show his love to me – I will therefore not despise these gifts and this season of abundance, but rather boast in the love which he bears for me, and ascribe all the glory to him.

All that he gives, I will choose to receive with thankfulness. When it is loss or struggle, I thank him for his unfailing presence with me, his provision for and good purposes in me through the trials. When it is abundance, I thank him for the refreshment of spirit, the ease of mind, the upwelling of gladness which come to me by the gifts; and I pray that I might not take credit for them but lift each one up in thankfulness to honour him as the giver, and not myself as in anyway deserving or earning them. I make this wonderful and familiar psalm my own song and prayer in these days:-

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

In grass meadows He makes me lie down, by quiet waters guides me.

My life He brings back. He leads me on pathways of justice for His name’s sake.

Though I walk in the vale of death’s shadow, I fear no harm, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff – it is they that console me.

You set out a table before me in the face of my foes. You moisten my head with oil, my cup overflows.

Let but goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for many long days.

(Psalm 23, R Alter translation)

Father God, as I survey the many wonderful ways in which I am blessed in this season of life, may I receive each one as your gift, and hold it ready to offer up again to you, for your purposes and your glory. My health, my strength and opportunities; my marriage and my children; my abilities, friendships and resources – all these are yours to give and to withdraw, and in all circumstances, I would choose to praise you and to give thanks for you as my God, the one whom alone I fear and worship, and who does all things well. Keep me thankful, humble and make me fruitful, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Actively waiting…

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Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. he does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

 (Isa 40. 27-31)

As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with joy. You will even be able to thank God in the midst of pain and distress because you are privileged to share the lot of those who are living in the light. For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness, and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son. For it is by his Son alone that we have been redeemed and have had our sins forgiven.

(Col 1.11-14; JB Phillips paraphrase)

Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.

(Elisabeth Elliott)

As servants of our Lord Jesus, in one sense we are always ‘waiting’ on the Lord, because each day brings new opportunities to meet and serve him – in his people, in the tasks to which we are called, in appreciating all the good things he gives us. In another sense, we have seasons of waiting – perhaps for the arrival of a child, the outcome of a medical procedure, the termination of a time of testing at work, the occasions when decisions have to be taken about employment, retirement, choosing a house or a spouse. There are always things which we would like to have decided NOW, when God asks us to be patient, and to trust him as we wait for clarity, direction and decisions – the latter often lie in other hands and we are thus spared the temptation to fiddle with the process and accelerate it for ourselves! And ultimately, we are all waiting for the return of the Lord and the full inauguration of his kingdom, with the creation of new heavens and earth and his rule of justice, righteousness and peace.

What do we do in our waiting time? How do we deal with uncertainty and the challenges of day-to-day living when big questions seem to shake our foundations and make planning for the future so difficult?

The answer surely lies in the fact that we trust in a sovereign, good and gracious God – in other words, we accept that we cannot control or know the future, but that we are loved by the one who does! So we also accept that uncertainty is a prompt to faith, to cling to God’s word and promises, and to trust that his timing is perfect.

There are many questions to which I would like answers now, quite valid ones! But I must wait on the Lord’s timing, and in the meantime, I have a choice to make about my attitude to what is going on. If I choose trust, then I am proclaiming God’s sovereignty over my life, and my glad submission to his will. If I choose trust, then I can be busy each day with the tasks which are immediately to hand – I can look to serve his kingdom with the freedom and resources I have today. If I choose trust, then each day I am waiting on the Lord to do his will, and I will be strengthened to do so, to be about my Father’s business, and also surely also be in the best place to receive his guidance and direction for the future.

Friends, let us pray for one another, for this wisdom.

Eternal Father, and sovereign Lord of our lives, grant us we pray the wisdom to wait upon you each day in faith and trust. Your plans for us are perfect, and you have work for us to do each day which will build your kingdom. Help us to leave the unanswered questions to your time and answer, to be about your business and not to fret over a future which is not ours to dictate or forsee.

As we wait on you each day, may we find strength for the tasks at hand, and also for the waiting, for the offering up of the questions as often as they arise, for the deliberate choice to trust you in all things. Be glorified in us we pray, through Jesus our Lord who most perfectly waited on you through all his days, Amen.