Day 19: Living in me

Picture

Verse 1 John 1: 5-7

This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies us from all sin.

Thought

I have had family to stay this weekend and it has been lovely.  We have welcomed them into our home and given them the run of the place.  While there is an element of formality having guest in your home, it is easier with family or close friends to say 'My home is yours, please feel free to make yourself comfortable.'

We have chatted, drunk gallons of tea, eaten laughed and shared.  They have packed dishwasher, cleared tables and helped tidy up.  There has been no burden in having them to stay.  And our relationship has grown stronger for it.

Why then, when we invite Jesus into our home, do we say 'My home is your home' and then shut him in the living room and ignore him?  Give him the odd cup of tea and quick chat and then go out again, leaving him on his own?  And definitely don't let him into the bedroom/study/bathroom......

When we invite God to live in us, we should give Him an 'access all areas' pass and love spending as much time with him as we can.  He should be that guest we totally open our lives too, who shares in every aspect of our day to day living.  He doesn't mind the mess and will gladly help us tidy up our lives.  We just need to let Him.

Let Him fling open the curtains in all the little dark rooms of your life, open the windows and let the freshness of the Holy Spirit fill them with living air.

Prayer

Father God, let me not be a bad hostess to you.  Please feel free to have access to all areas of my life.  Open curtains and show up the dust in the rooms I don't want to face.  Let me begin to spring clean my heart for You.

Day 18: Rejoice!

Picture

Verse  Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.

Thought

When Paul wrote this, he was sitting in a dark and filthy prison with the death sentence hanging over his head.  And yet he was able to shout Rejoice!

We are told that we should take our needs straight to God, not to be anxious, but to pray and give our worries to Him.  When we do put our trust in Him, He will give us the peace beyond all peace, the peace we long for.  

When I am worried or anxious, I become increasingly ratty and short tempered, not gentle at all!!  As for shouting Rejoice….just doesn’t happen! I find it incredibly difficult to hand over my worries.  I always hang on to them while paying lip-service to handing them over.  How liberating it would be if only I could let go!  You always read of stories where people have done exactly as Paul suggests.  They hand everything over and just trust that God will take care of them.  You hear of wonderful things that happen like exactly the right amount of money, the right job, the thing that is their greatest need being presented to them. 

But I’m sure that equally, people hand over things to God and the miracle cheque doesn’t arrive in the nick of time.  I am one of the people who harbour little doubts and find it very difficult to trust and let go. I worry about not worrying!   I need to just take that leap of faith and know that God has my best interest at heart and let Him take control.  Without keeping my foot on the brake pedal…….

Prayer

Father God, let me trust in you, not only in dark times but in good times too.  Let me shout Rejoice in the sure knowledge of Your love.  Please fill me with Your peace that transcends all understanding.  Guard my heart and mind in Jesus Christ.

Day 17: Love your enemy

Picture

Verse:  Proverbs 25:21-22

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;  For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you.

Thoughts

I have always struggled with these verses.  I get that we should give our enemies bread and water.  I understand the value in showing love and compassion to everyone.  The thought of physically piling coals onto your enemies head is a little gruesome - even for the old testament. 

I read somewhere that, in these times, there was a person who tended a fire all night and kept the hot coals burning.  In the morning he would walk the village, carrying the hot coals in a bucket on his head, an go from home to home giving them enough coals to start the fires they needed to get their own fires burning.

So maybe the kindness of feeding and watering your enemy is the equivalent of giving them those coals.  By treating him with kindness you are giving him the source of starting his own fires of kindness. The 'enemy' may then review the way he treats other people and recognise that he needs to change too. 

It is also telling us that God will reward us for treating our enemies with love and kindness.  He sees all we do and recognises the good that we do.

Imagine all people are God's children and your family - treat them as you would treat those you love.  It is the greatest commandment after all....

Prayer

Lord God, please help me treat everyone with respect and love.  Let me not be the enemy shamed into good behaviour, but let it be an intrinsic part of who I am.  Help me to show kindness and to share what I have.

Day 16: Keep on Running

Picture

Verse Isaiah 40:30-31

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.

Thought

 

At the end of every week, I feel exhausted, mentally and physically.  Last night I felt physically exhausted having just completed a rather gruelling karate grading.  the above picture shows me at the end of the Bristol Half marathon - my tiredness is totally apparent!

My job can be emotionally draining as I deal with overworked people reaching the end of their tether.  I counsel exhausted people almost daily.  These days, people are expected to work longer hours and achieve a lot more for less and we overwork ourselves continuously.  And our body shouts STOP AND REST and we all too often ignore it.

We are not robotic super-humans.  We need to regain our strength.

The same can happen with our faith.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the ways we serve the Lord that we simply run out of the energy our faith needs to flourish and grow.  We can even start resenting that very service that we took on with  joy and eagerness. But in these verses God promises us that He will renew our strength.  When we feel weak He will feed and refuel us.  Rest in Him and let Him replenish your energy. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.- Matthew 11:28

Prayer

Father we confess that we are only human. We do get tired. But we have a God, that’s always willing to strengthen us.

Day 15: Precious stone

Picture

Song:  Dave Bryant (1978)

Jesus, take me as I am, I can come no other way,

Take me deeper into You, Make my flesh life melt away. 

Make me like a precious stone, crystal clear and finely honed. 

Light of Jesus shining through, giving glory back to You.

Thought

I am using a song today that has been on my mind for the last couple of days.  I love this song and the concept of being a sparling jewel.

Think of a diamond and how it is formed.   It starts off as a lump of coal buried deep in the the dirt of the earth.  Under extreme heat or pressure, it slowly crystallises until if forms the diamond.  Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man.  But if you put a diamond in the hands of an amateur jeweller, he can turn it into worthless stone by chipping off the wrong bits or striking it in the wrong place and shattering the stone. But, if you hand this raw diamond to an expert jeweler, he will cut and polish it with extreme skill and care.  And the end product will be a diamond that shines with amazing brilliance and sparkle. He will find the most beautiful diamond within that raw stone and cut many facets to add to it's brilliance.

The words of the song ask us to be prepared for God to gently cut and polish us.  

If you take a lump of coal and carefully cut and polish it, shaping it like a diamond, you will still only have a prettily cut lump of dirty, black coal.  

We may have to suffer great pressures and heat of life to become the rough diamond that God can then take to cut and polish.  He can produce the diamond that will sparkle with His light and truly reflect His beauty.  And the more facets the diamond has the greater the sparkle.  Be prepared to shine in every facet of your life.

God knows our limits and He will not allow us to be tested or tempted beyond what we can endure. Sometimes it feels like He has taken us way beyond what we can handle; yet if we focus on Him, lean on Him and trust Him absolutely, He will strengthen us.
To Him we are more precious than the most beautiful diamonds, and He wants to bring out the greatest beauty in us.

Prayer

Lord God, please help me be the diamond you want me to be.  Let me work with you to shave off the rough edges and polish up the true beauty within.  Lord shine through me.  Let all facets of my life reflect Your glory.

Day 14: Bear the fruits of the Spirit

The Picture:

The Verse: Genesis 1: 11 ‑ 12
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed‑bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
The Thought
I have a little apple tree in my garden that I planted when Joseph was born.  It has delicious apples called sunshine or sunrise - I forget which - but for a little tree it produces an impressive crop.
But it requires a lot of care - pruning, feeding, defending from little boys who pluck the fruit before it is ripe, keeping off slugs and snails which are prolific in my garden and have found a way to get into the tree, wasps etc.
This is our like our faith.  We all have the opportunity to produce God's wonderful fruits, but we need to feed our faith, fight off the external factors which can destroy the fruit and trust God to care for us and keep us pruned.
And we aren't expected to just produce one crop - like the apple tree has a new crop every year, we produce new and sometimes different fruits at different times of our life.  
So when you see the spring blossoms, stop and look within yourself to see what blossoms God has blooming within you and look forward to and be open to the fruit's of the Holy Spirit that you will bear
The Prayer
Spirit of God, set us alive with the blossoms to bear your fruit.  Let us flourish and grow under your care and trust in You.  

Day 13: And the trees will clap their hands

The Picture

The Verse Isaiah 55:12

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

The Thought 

The book of Isaiah is so rich in promises and prophecies.  The Saviour is promised to us.  I read this verse as an outpouring of the elation Isaiah felt at the promises of Jesus.

When I became a Christian, I can remember the zinging feeling of joy!  And if the hills and mountains had sung or the trees clapped – I wouldn’t have been too surprised.  Although I grew up in a Christian household, I didn’t become a Christian until I was about 12.  We were on our confirmation camp up in the Cedarburg mountains and were camping in the pine forest.  I can remember the hissing and singing noise the needles made as the wind passed through them.  Indeed the trees clapped their hands!  My dad (as always!) was at the camp and I can remember his joy when I made that commitment.  How much greater must God’s joy be when we turn to Him as our Lord?

My dad gave me a bible after that weekend and I wrote the date of  my conversion.  When I found that Bible recently, I was thrilled to find that my Joseph was born on the same date (some 26 years later though).  I hope that I am around when he makes his commitment to God.  

When I am out walking in the mountains or moors, the song from this verse often comes to mind.  And I am filled with the joy of God!  I hope that I sing it all day today! 

The Prayer
Father God, thank you for the joy we can find in You.  Thanks you that the very earth breaks into song at the thought of you.  Help me maintain that joy even when times are tricky, that I might always have a song in my heart to worship You.