Tag Archives: Romans 6

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.

Not make-believe… truth

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Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life – no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: if we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.

We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time – remember you’ve been raised from the dead! – into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.

(Rom 6.6-14, the Message)

God brought you alive – right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled and nailed to Christ’s cross. So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it….. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life – even though invisible to spectators – is with Christ in God. He is your life.

(Col 2.13&14; 3.1,3&4)

Isn’t it weird, how the same words which have been spoken to or read by you for years can suddenly become illuminated with new meaning?! These past months have found me experiencing the personal equivalent of shifting tectonic plates, as my understanding of a particular and key aspect of faith has changed.

It has taken years for me to get to this place, a place where I really know just what it is that I have not understood, and can see clearly the problems that stem directly from that failure. I have prayed and talked, and God in his mercy has directed me through so many different  things – books, recorded sermons, public worship and confession, and above all through the study of his word, particularly in Colossians. I didn’t know it at the time, but this book has been absolutely the right one for me just now!

I am rejoicing in a new sense of who I am as a believer – of the difference that it makes to accept Jesus as Lord of my life. I now more fully grasp what it is to be ‘in Christ’, to be a partaker through him in the divine life and a channel for divine power and love to reach this broken and needy world.

It is not merely make-believe to think of myself as a beloved daughter of the Almighty, it is the truth. It is not a case of pretending something until it becomes real, but a case of stepping confidently into a new reality and then living it out to my fullest capacity. When my heavenly Father looks at me, he doesn’t have to pretend that I am acceptable, doesn’t have to pretend that I am beautiful and pure. It.. is.. the truth, the fact, the reality. How marvellous is that!!

Heavenly Father, I thank and praise you for you have rescued me from darkness into light and liberty in Christ Jesus. I praise and exalt my Saviour, who is the source, the foundation of faith and whose redeeming love for me has won my freedom and established your kingdom. I praise Jesus Christ as the object of faith – all that I hope for, all that I depend on is in him and therefore it is only by faith in him that I can live. He is the author and also the perfecter of faith; he is its beginning and its end. O let me continue to work out in my life what it means that for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!

Let me learn to love my Saviour more, to enthrone him in my life, to worship him and truly to live in all the riches which he has won for me, and which are my inheritance in him. O Lord, teach me! In the name and for the sake of my Lord Jesus, Amen.

Be it unto me as my Lord decrees..

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O Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end; Be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend: I shall not fear the battle if Thou art by my side, nor wander from the pathway if Thou wilt be my Guide.

O let me feel Thee near me: the world is ever near; I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear; my foes are ever near me, around me and within; but, Jesus, draw Thou nearer, and shield my soul from sin.

O let me hear Thee speaking in accents clear and still, above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will; O speak to reassure me, to hasten or control; O speak, and make me listen, Thou Guardian of my soul.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised, to all who follow Thee, that where Thou art in glory there shall Thy servant be; and, Jesus, I have promised to serve Thee to the end: O give me grace to follow, my Master and my Friend.

(JE Bode 1816-1874)

These words are engraved on my memory; are part of the soundtrack of my life just as much as the popular music of my teenage years, or the choral music of my adult life. I sang them at the annual Founder’s day event at school, I sang them at church, and the great striding melody which accompanies the words always made me want to march as I sang! They have been true for me for as long as I remember singing them.

And today, I simply want to give thanks and bear witness to the faithfulness of the God who called me into being, who caused me to be raised in a christian home; who imperceptibly birthed faith within me; who led me into adult life and to quiet paths of service and (I trust) fruitfulness. It is all his doing, all His love and compassion and keeping. I want to join with all God’s people in affirming that He is goodness itself, and utterly trustworthy! He has declared me to be his child, delivering me from the ruling power of sin, so that I might be ruled instead by love – the divine passion to which I can fully submit, confident that all that he ordains will be for my good and for his glory.

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…. so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.. now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 

(Rom 6.17-22)

Today I give thanks, along with all God’s people, that I am now a slave to righteousness and am being shaped day-by-day, through all the travails of life, into the likeness of Jesus my Lord. The commands and duties which shape my life are now all for good, and bear fruit for good, and I am empowered to know and to keep these commands because Jesus has given me his own spirit, his heart, his mind. I am on the road to eternal fullness, to never-ending fruitfulness and joy, to the bliss of being at home and without shame in the presence of holiness. And all this is because of Jesus, my master and friend, my guide and guardian. His ambition for me is outrageous, so far beyond my poor imagination, and it fills me with such a deep ache for my true home that I am increasingly eager to be away and to be with the Lord.

My slave-master is Righteousness himself, and I can surrender myself fully and confidently to his providence, because he died for me. My slave-master is Love incarnate, I need not fear his rod, nor hesitate to obey his word because he died for me. He is shaping me, in love, to become like himself – love and righteousness.. how can I resist?!

O Thou the reflection of whose transcendent glory did once appear unbroken in the face of Jesus Christ, give me today a heart like His – a brave heart, a true heart, a tender heart, a heart with great room in it, a heart fixed on Thyself; for His name’s sake. Amen

(J Baillie: A diary of Private Prayer, 1937)

Holy… me?!

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“I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”

(Lev 11.44)

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

(Ps 29.2)

Your statutes, Lord, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.

(Ps 93.5)

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.. the Lord is gracious and compassionate.. he remembers his covenant for ever… The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.. enacted in faithfulness and uprightness… holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

(Ps 111, extracts)

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands… Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who … conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered for ever.. their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord… their righteousness endures for ever..

(Ps 112, extracts)

… so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.. now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.. the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Rom 6.19,22&23)

In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

(Eph 2.21&22)

It is only recently that I have properly come to understand that the word ‘holy’ is almost a synonym for God – meaning as it does the otherwise indefinable ‘otherness’ of the divine in all his glory, power and purity. Psalm 111 expresses many of those qualities in lyric power. So when the bible talks about holiness adorning God’s house, it is in the sense that a person’s home expresses their character, their taste and interests.. Ultimately, the word can only be applied to God, but the bible narrative is clear that in relation to God both people and things may be described as holy – meaning that they are to be regarded as his peculiar property, and again, designed to express and mirror his unique qualities. Again, in Psalm 112, we find a description of those who reflect God’s nature, the same words being used of them as were previously used of God.

God made humankind in his likeness, made them holy, to reflect and express his nature as they exercised stewardship in his name in creation. After their rebellion, God’s purpose in all the great story of redemption and re-creation is to restore that god-likeness or holiness in humankind, so that we might return to the joy and fullness of life for which we are designed. Jesus has accomplished the victory which makes holiness the birth-right and inheritance of all who trust in his saving power, and we may be sure that God who has begun this work of transformation will not rest until it is complete.

Holiness therefore is not something to be afraid of as somehow depriving us of opportunities or enjoyment of life. Holiness is the likeness of God as revealed in us by the work of the Spirit, as our minds and hearts are transformed in the freedom which Jesus has won for us. Those qualities when blossoming within the church as a dwelling place of God by his Spirit are indeed an adornment, a beautiful expression of the master of the house and an attraction to all who would find peace, hope and new life.

You, O Lord, are holy – what a tiny word to encompass and denote all that is your glory and character, your essential qualities. To become holy is to be gaining in those qualities – reflecting in our human sphere those aspects of your character which are within our scope to express.

We are your people, made in your likeness, created to thrive in so far as we reflect you and fulfil your purpose for us. You have set eternity in our hearts and endowed us with the life of the age to come where your holiness will be perfectly mirrored in our sinlessness. Lord, grant us even now to grow in this godli(ke)ness, this set-apartness, which is your nature and our destiny, that we might be a clear and winning witness to you in our day and generation. Thank you, that because of Jesus’ victory, we know that you will not cease to work in us to this end; let us then be joyful and praise you. Holy and awesome is your name, God our Lord!

I am not myself…

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..if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body… “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Cor 15.14&15,20,42-44,55-57)

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 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…offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life.

(Rom 6.6-8,10&11,13)

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

(2 Cor 5.14&15,17)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you.. you will be my people, and I will be your God.

(Ezek 36.26-28)

Easter day…Resurrection day…. whatever one chooses to call it, after that day, all the world was changed for ever. The creator had become a creature. God became human, entering into our darkness and despair in order to do the only thing which could restore us to our place as God’s beloved people, for whom the earth was formed, and with whom He desires to live eternally. When God becomes human, anything may happen: the dead are raised to life and the blind see; the ‘rules’ of creation are joyously suspended, so that food is multiplied and the storm stilled at a word. The outcast is welcomed home, and to each and every one, their dignity and worth as God’s child is restored.

The world in those days couldn’t stand it – Jews and Romans, rich and poor, religious and secular, they united against him and condemned him to death. He was unspeakable, worthless, to be despised and destroyed. Today, our world continues to reject him, to cancel him and persecute those who would speak out in his name.

But he broke death…on the first day of the week, he rose, clothed in the imperishable and glorified body which will one day also be given to each of us.

And today, millions around the world will sing ‘Glory to God’, for his power in salvation through Christ – because in spite of thehuman arrogance born of two millenia of ‘progress’, the risen Christ lives in the hearts of his humble people. What does human scorn matter to us, when we have life in all its fulness and the hope of glory to come?  What hope does a godless universe offer us to compete with full salvation, forgiveness, and new life in Jesus?

I found these words many years ago on the internet, and cannot now track an author to give credit to for them. I share them here, because they powerfully express the truth about the lives of God’s redeemed people. I invite you to read them aloud to yourself – often – as you praise God for his grace and salvation today!

I am not myself. I am Christ raised on high. I am not who I was when I stumbled on sin and lost my way, when guilt or fear kept a close watch through the night, when striving to perform or please marked my day.

I am become another, and what a life is now mine. The fullness of the freedom of the blessings of heaven fills my days and velvet guards my dark. Each part of me is welcomed and loved. I am whole. I am one. I am uncluttered by the past. I am done with death dealing and dogma, with mounting stairs to God. I am not climbing, I am here, raised on high.

I am alive with the life of Christ. I have the fullness of God in my veins, the wisdom of God a treasure in my heart. I can live in His glory, I can serve with His splendour. I can know His ways for they are mine. We are one. I have been raised with Christ.

The greatest gift

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I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see  him with my own eyes – I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

(Job 19.25-27)

Jesus said.. ” I am the resurrection and the life. One who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” [Martha] told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

(Jn 11.25-27)

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)

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him … and so we will be with the Lord for ever.

(1 Thess. 4.13,14&17)

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth;

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ’till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. 

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn; 

Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born.

(P Cappeau, translated by JS Dwight, 1855)

I don’t think I have ever been more thankful in my life that my Christmas celebrations are based on the historical person of Jesus, and on what He came to be and do for me. As I look around at a weary world full of pain and struggle, a society which is grasping vainly at ‘tradition’, family, or some nebulous ‘hope’ as the basis for a party, and see so many hurting people for whom the whole idea of ‘celebration’ is both insulting and painful, I grieve and pray God’s mercy.

But I also give thanks because as a follower of Jesus, I have a hope which is certain, based on something outside human fallibility, outside this broken but beautiful world; something which is more real than I can begin to understand. Christmas is not ‘just for the children’. Christmas is not some general season of goodwill and superficial cheer. Christmas – the birth of God as a human baby, come to dwell among us, to die and rise again – is for the lonely and desolate; for the abused and the abuser; for the tyrant and the oppressed. Because He came, everything can be different, every heart re-born into hope and humility, grace and generosity, praise and perseverance.

I can sing and be glad because Jesus came; came for me and for you; came to make a difference for ever, and it depends not on my feelings about it, but on God’s truth and love and power and faithfulness to His own promises. This greatest of all gifts comes to set aside all human striving and delusion; comes and says, ‘Believe in me, and stop chasing peace in all the wrong places.’

Jesus is God’s hope for the hopeless; God’s healing for the broken; God’s forgiveness for all us sinners; God’s love for the unlovely; God’s home for the exiles; God’s light for the rest of our journey in this sin-darkened world.

Celebrating Christmas does not mean pretending that there is no pain, or that life is perfect. For some, and sometimes for me, Christmas has been viewed through tears, through a shadow of bereavement or other major source of pain and weariness. But I think that when we choose to give thanks through our tears, God is even more honoured than when we find it easy to be glad. No, we celebrate because the coming of Jesus makes all the difference to the pain and imperfection – we see their transience, see that under God’s providence they are not in charge. We are no longer alone in the dark, and it doesn’t all depend on us to make it right – what a burden that is, and how good to lay it down!

In Christmas, we celebrate the coming of the King, whose kingdom is now established among us in all who believe. I hope that for you and those you love, this coming King is welcomed as Lord and Light, Saviour and Friend, so that no matter what darkness is in your life at the moment, you can rejoice in Jesus and be encouraged and strengthened for the year that lies ahead. We do not know what the future holds, but – as the old song says – we know who holds the future, and we trust ourselves into his nail-scarred hands.

Getting practical..

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Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statues. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.

(Ps 119.97-104)

Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

(Rom 6.17-19)

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level. The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds. ..we even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ.

(2Cor 10.3-5, JB Phillips)

I praise you, Almighty God, because in your mercy you set me free from the law of sin and death; I am no longer bound by a power too great for me to resist, which compels me to do that which is opposed to Christ. I praise you, Merciful God, because in your compassion you dwell in me by the Holy spirit, whose power is great to transform me, and overcome evil. I praise you, Loving God, because in your wisdom, you have given me your word – and in it I find the Word of Life by whom I am sustained.

I bring to you every part of my being – limbs, mind and spirit. I bring to you every area of my character – strength and weakness, interests and abilities. I bring to you every relationship of which I am part – intimate and distant, easy and difficult. I offer all these things to you as my worship, and also, dear Lord, to reflect and manifest your righteousness – that Christ-likeness which is your goal for my life.

I confess – and you already know it, so why should I hide? – that so many of my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways not your ways. I am still often in rebellion against Christ’s lordship – but how I rejoice in the truth that you have made me new, whole and clean, and that those sins I continue to commit are forgiven, not counted against me. How glad I am that you see my heart, and there you see a growing sensitivity to sin which is a guarantee of your Spirit’s working and purifying – you have set my heart to desire you, and in spite of my failings, I know it does. Thank you!

In my mothering, dear Father, let me love as you love. Let me release my children into your care – over and over, as often as it takes; affirming again that it is not for me to dictate your ways with them.

In my worrying, Almighty, Omnipotent and Omniscient God, let me instead turn to praise that it is not my job to fix everything, or even carry part of the burden, but rather to cast all my cares on you, and to praise you in the midst of my troubles.

In my studying, Giver of every good and perfect gift, let me enjoy the gifts you have given me, the passions and interests I have, and reject all anxiety and godless fear for the task ahead. Let this process show me, and others, that you give your servants peace as they serve for your glory and not their own. Let me reject all the foolish pride in achievement which drives me, and instead remember that your delight in me depends all on Christ.

As a citizen of a world facing uncertainty in politics, climate and every other sphere, let me not be crushed by hopelessness for the future. You are making all things new, and calling us to work with you for the new kingdom of God. Let me take those despairing thoughts captive to the glorious promise of Christ’s return and the day when we shall see the new heaven and earth and find our God dwelling in the midst of his people.

In every part of me, Lord, be glorified as you enable me to recognise where you are calling me to repent of old ways of thinking and doing, and to submit them – one by one, over days, and months and years – to the lordship of Christ and the truth of your word.