Tag Archives: Galatians 6

Here’s looking at ….. my Father

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Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore them, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for the doing the creative best you have with your own life.

(Gal 6.1-5; Message)

One of the Pharisee scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show [Jesus] up: “Teacher, which command in God’s law is the most important?”

Jesus said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s law and the Prophets hangs from them”

(Matt 22.35-40; Message)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what does God for you is the best thing you can do for him…..we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around… So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

(Rom 12.1,4-6; Message)

“Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others.”

I suspect that I may not be the only person on the planet for whom the latter of these two commands from Paul is much harder than the former! There is no reason why I should find myself continually falling into the comparison trap, yet it is my daily experience and a chronic problem. I see the self-possession of others who quietly accept themselves as God has made (and is making) them, and wonder at their peace and steadiness. If this is something which you enjoy, give thanks and rejoice greatly at the gift and pray for those around you for whom it is not the case! I think of the blinkers which horses often wear to keep them from distraction and focussed on the way ahead – what I want are spiritual blinkers, to keep me looking at my Father, and not at myself or those around me.

All of our lives as believers seems to consist of living as well as we can for our Father in the particular circumstances which He has appointed for us. For each one, it will be different, and no two people will share the same physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual journeys. Our responsibility is to our Father first and foremost, and it is from His faithful love, his adoption of us as his children, that we gain our security, purpose, identity and hope. We need to trust that what He plans and is working in us is enough; each one is uniquely precious, for their own sakes, as his child.

Perhaps this is something we can lovingly do for one another as believers, as members of one body – celebrate the uniqueness of our fellow pilgrims to help them rest in God’s plan and shaping of them, even when it is not looking very impressive! We need grace to accept that others may have gifts we admire and lack ourselves. We also need grace to accept that others may admire our own gifts, and to keep giving God the praise for the ways that he provides for and enables His church to flourish.

Jesus commanded us to love others as we love ourselves – to clothe, feed, honour, comfort and speak God’s love and truth to others, as we do to ourselves. I believe that helping one another to see and be glad of our uniqueness is a great way to love-in-action, to countering the comparison trap, and nurturing a proper pride in our God, who has loved each one and is transforming each one according to his good purposes.

Heavenly Father, help us, your children, to see with your eyes as we look at one another. Help us to take our worth from your love, your plans for us, your secure grasp of us. Help us to recognise the glory of your children which is being revealed as we grow in faith and Christ-likeness.

Deliver us from the comparison trap, that we might love without envy or pride in ourselves, and might serve you free from those bonds of dissatisfaction and arrogance. Let us love one another, as Christ loves us, in practical service and faithful presence, accepting one another in his name and for the building up of your kingdom in this world. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Let me walk with you a while..

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Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.  Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God [He] will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

(Isa 35.3&4)

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

(Gal 6.2)

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the day approaching.

(Heb 10.19-25)

Between local in person bible study, online church bible study, online prayer groups, in person prayer and facetime prayer I seem to have spent a fair bit of the last five days alongside other believers in this work of encouragement – mostly on the receiving end of it, which is wonderful. As we read God’s word in community, we grow in wisdom and understanding; as we listen to one another’s stories and pray together, we grow in love and trust.

I fully believe that one of the principal ways in which God works to sustain us in the trials to which he calls us, is through one another. We are called to be his voice, his heart, his hands and feet to touch and aid one another. We are made in his image, and as believers, we are made new, set free by his overwhelming love for us to show that love to others. We are blest both in receiving and in giving, as God wonderfully binds his children closer to one another in affection and trust.

It takes humility to admit that life is hard, to accept that we cannot do it alone. But we are not meant to! God designed us in his image, and he lives in eternal community as Three-in-One, a relationship of delighting and harmony. We are made to be known, and once we realise that in Christ we are completely accepted as we are, we can open up to others, to love them and be loved by them. The gifts of God are to each one individually, for the blessing of the whole body of Christ – you have things which I need, and I may have things which can bless you. We need to be willing to both give and receive.

The passage in Isaiah is associated with a band of pilgrims, on their way home at last and with a vision of the glory awaiting to sustain and encourage them. But they are weary with the journey, wounded from struggles and long-carried burdens. And so the prophet’s words exhort them to encourage one another, saying, “Look!! The Lord Almighty is on your side, he is your Father and Champion, and is entirely for you.” If we walk alone, who can encourage us?

Are you willing to walk with someone a while? To be a fellow pilgrim, not a lone pioneer?

Let us not neglect opportunities to meet together, in small or large groups, so that we might encourage our fellow pilgrims by listening to their stories, sharing their joys and sorrows, bearing their burdens – walking in their shoes for a little way if we can. As we make ourselves available to be used by God in his church, we ourselves are encouraged and bound more closely to people who will in turn support and watch out for us lest we stray, who will pick us up when we fall, and bear our burdens when we have no strength or words to intercede for ourselves.

May God grant us increasing love, patience and gentleness as we walk together on the road, that we might be good for one another; keeping our eyes fixed on him and trusting that he will keep his promise and bring us safely home.

Father, it hurts..

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Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent for ever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. for you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. 

(Ps 61.1-5)

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

(Jn 13.34)

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a person’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage, … if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully… Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer… Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn

(Rom 12.6-12, 16)

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

(Gal 6.2)

Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission is reported to have said this, “The Lord’s work, done in the Lord’s way, will never fail to have the Lord’s provision.”

While I am sure this applies to global mission movements and great developments in church outreach and evangelism, I also believe that it applies to my own small life. It could be translated to read, “As I obey God’s call to offer my life in his service – whatever circumstances I am in and whatever resources are available to me – I may be sure that He will enable me to fulfil that particular and unique calling.”

I have been working out just what that means in this current season of life – and being a slow learner and a forgetful soul, I find I am treading familiar ground with a sense that I should have been here a while ago!

My life does not involve many responsibilities, I have much personal freedom to structure my time, and that brings a challenge in knowing what God wants me to do with my availability… Recently, I have felt overwhelmed with the sheer number and range of burdens being carried by my friends and family, let alone those further afield to whom I am committed in prayer support. As I wrestled with the discouragement and sense of my own futility in face of such need, I was helped by the love of friends and some wise counsel. The Spirit has been working mercifully to open my eyes to a new understanding.

This burden of sharing in the lives of others, which is also a privilege of course, is my particular calling in this season. I have time when I can be alone and without distraction, when the Lord can take me through the names and needs of many, to obey Christ’s command of love and bear them before him in prayer.

I want to bear this burden honourably. I want to glorify my Lord as I give myself in this way – not grumbling or complaining about the list of names, nor becoming cynical and weary of the work. I want to remain hope-filled and quietly rejoicing in the goodness and faithfulness of God, even as I contemplate suffering or loss. My dear Lord knows my heart, and promises to meet my daily needs in order that I may fulfil this desire to serve him worthily; as my heart is permitted to feel a little of his great heart, sorrowing or rejoicing, over all his beloved children.

Today therefore, I embrace this calling and thank the Lord for it. I do not need the answers to the trials of others – this is his business. Instead, I come in humble and glad faith to the ONLY one who can bring relief. I bring those my heart loves to the Father by whom they are even more beloved. I lift these precious people up for his love, even as a child comes trustingly to a parent for the fixing of a broken toy, or comforting of an injured sibling. If I am tempted to fix them myself, or to try and wrestle God into a solution of my own making, I will only become distressed and weary.

Father God, I come in love and thankfulness for those whom you have given me to pray for. I rejoice in all that they are, and all that we share as your children. Above all I give thanks that you know their need and are already at work to meet it. I thank you that your will is more glorious and generous in its outworking than I can begin to imagine, so that I don’t need to try to find the answers but simply lift them to you and cry, “Father, it hurts!”.

 

 I ask Thee for a thoughtful love, through constant watching wise, to meet the glad with joyful smiles, and to wipe the weeping eyes: and a heart at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathise.

(Anna Laetitia Waring, 1823-1920)