And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not

Logically speaking, I should have had no reason to be discouraged. I mean the Lord did awesome things yesterday in the final session at the women’s prison, as we ministered His love and grace. There was hardly a dry eye in the place. But emotions aren’t always logical, and the one thing I want more than anything else in the world, and have been waiting for years for, is what was on my heart and mind as I came to Him this morning. And the fulfillment of His promise seemed as far off this morning, as it did at the beginning!

And as I do in times of discouragement, I opened the file on my computer of His promises and significant Scriptures that He has underlined in my heart over the years. And I read “He works little by little” (Exodus 23:30); and “Does He speak (promise) and then not act?” (Numbers 23:19); and “Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left”(Joshua 1:7); and in verse 9 “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Then I heard Him whisper the verse at the head of this post from Galatians 6:9.

And as I started simultaneously to read, write, type and to pray, the verse “David strengthened himself in the Lord” (1 Samuel 30:6) came to mind. And I realized that this is what I was doing. And then the words “He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a word way for me” from the chorus also came to mind. And as I choose again to stay the course, the confusion started to lift, and the peace return. It always does, because He is faithful, His word is powerful, and His love consistent.

Father, You have promised that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, we will mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31). Lord I love it when You speak to me through Scripture, and when You whisper to me in my heart. Father I pay this morning that all those reading this blog will, if they have not already done so, with Your help learn to strengthen themselves in You. And I give You all the honour and glory and praise again in Jesus Name Amen

I am fearfully and wonderfully made

One of the many books that I bought a long time ago, but have not yet read (road to hell etc.), is called “The evidential power of beauty.” The premise of the author, is that the beauty of the universe is evidence of design. And it never ceases to amaze me, how scientists can investigate the intricacy and beauty of the universe, but still not see what we are designed to see, namely the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). But even more puzzling, is our blindness (and yes I’m including myself here) to our own beauty, and in particular to the fact that you and I are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

If you are reading this, then you can read! And yes most of us can, but that does not make it any the less remarkable that we can put some scratches on paper that have meaning. What other creature can do that? I fell a few weeks ago leaving an ugly wound on my arm, but my body healed itself, and now there is very little evidence that I fell. I remember reading in Science fiction about a machine that could repair itself. We are not there yet, but we might be. We invented the aeroplane because we saw birds could fly. Yes I know chimps can mimic too, but think about the sophistication of human endeavours compared to chimps! We put a man on the moon for goodness sake! What I am saying is that we have lost the wonder of the glory of all that God has created in particular we have lost the wonder of who and what we are!

Likely, we because we listen to voices other than God, we sell ourselves short! And because we sell ourselves short, we limit ourselves and in doing so engage in self-fulfilling prophecy. Well it is true that I personally could never climb mount Everest, or win a medal in the Olympics. But that does not mean I cannot do what He designed me to do. And the problem is that we get discouraged because we compare ourselves with ourselves. But we are unwise to do that (2 Corinthians 10:12). And I can do what He designed me to do, and so can you. And He has things for you to do that only you can do (Ephesians 2:10), and each and every one of us has infinite value and purpose (Jeremiah 29:11)!

Father, it seems to me we either think too little of ourselves, or too much. But I wonder sometimes about even those who seem to think too much of themselves, if they are doing that to cover what they really think even from themselves. Lord I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and so is each person reading this blog. And Lord each and every one of us has infinite value, and I know this because You sent Your Son to purchase our redemption on the cross. And a person or thing is worth what is payed for it. Help us therefore Lord to treat others and ourselves in accordance with what You think of us, because what You think of us it what is true. In Jesus Name Amen

The slow and reluctant death of the orphan spirit

I was reminded recently, how much I, and generalizing to the rest of the world we, need to be seen and loved and appreciated. I was reminded of this by a remark that I thought was neither kind nor called for. And it started a conversation where in the end he was more gracious than I. And I had to ask myself, why I was so defensive. And in answering, I am coming to the conclusion that the orphan spirit is not yet fully dead in me. But He has not called us to be orphans (John 14:18).

Now what lies behind my defensiveness could perhaps be described as pride, or denial, and perhaps there are elements of both. But what I am seeing is that there are the insecurities in myself, where there is no logical reason to be insecure. Well, I am guessing that we all have insecurities, and likely we all want others to think well of us, and it is not always going to happen! And even when it does, the experience of the negative can so easily dwarf the positive. I mean if I do ten things right and one thing wrong, what is the one thing people will remember? Likewise I can get ten compliments and one insult, and what is the one thing that will occupy my thoughts?

For the longest time, even as a Christian, I took my self worth from what I did for the kingdom and what others thought of me. And when it was negative it often took me into a tail spin of obsessive thinking. And to get over that, and myself, I had to learn that what God thinks about me is far more important that what you, or the rest of the world, thinks about me. And even, then getting this from my head to my heart was, and with this recent reminder is, a process. The point then, is that when we fully know and can rest in the knowledge of who we are in Christ, then like Him, there is no need to revile when we are reviled (1 Peter 2:23). In particular, there is no need to be defensive when others say unkind things about us.

Father, I believe that we all need to be seen and known and loved. Thank you Lord that when we let You, You will more than make up for what we lack, and You will heal the wounds of our many rejections. In particular, You promise that we will remember our shame no more (Isaiah 54:4). But this letting You, which is our part, it is not easy. In particular we need to stop speaking negative things over ourselves, and we need start speaking over ourselves what You say about us. And because You are no respecter of persons, and You spoke this over Jesus (Mark 1:11), then I can say “I am your beloved son and You are well pleased with me.” Likewise You speak this over all Your sons and daughters. So I ask You this morning Lord, to give us ears to hear and eyes to see Your extravagant healing love, and to rest in it, in Jesus Name Amen

Joy is withered away from the children of men

In a conversation I was having with the Lord this morning, I was remarking how easily I seem to lose my joy. And He reminded me of this verse from Joel 1:12. The party lifestyle of many, would seem to deny the truth of this, but I know well from my own life, the reality of the proverb “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, And the end of festivity may be grief” (Proverbs 14:13).

We were talking yesterday, essentially about guarding the heart from offence, and certainly offence is a joy killer. But there is something infectious about the frenzy which hides the underlying desperation of a culture hell bent on going its own way. And it is easy to get sucked in to the denial of those who are reaping what they are sowing, but who are far from ready to admit, let alone deal with, the consequences of poor choices made. The Psalmist, at first seeing only the outward appearance, cries out “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain.” And he is unable to understand “Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end” (Psalm 73:13, 16, 17). How important it is, to come back again and again into His presence, and to live in the perspective of eternity!

And in thinking on these things this morning, the Lord is reminding me again of the importance of looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that joy that was set before Him, endured the cross despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). And once again the He is reminding me that pain is a barrier, the other side of which is joy. And as I push through this barrier by continuing to choose to trust Him, and by refusing to be weary in well doing, I sense the joy rising me again.

Father, it has taken a long time for me to come to the place where I can substantially dwell in Your presence. And I want to pray for those this morning, who are struggling to let go of the things that hinder coming into Your sanctuary (presence), thus killing their joy. Thank You Lord that it’s not all up to us, and that You are far more interested in bringing us into this place than we could ever be! Thank You Lord for Your abundant grace and mercy and joy in Jesus Name Amen

Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23)

How do we do this? Our hearts are assaulted in all kinds of ways, but I am thinking this morning specifically about how often others let us down, or sometimes how we let ourselves down. I have a friend who has much integrity, and perhaps because he has such high expectations of himself, he also has very high expectations of others. But more often than not others do not live up to his expectations, and this causes him pain, grief and anguish. When he was telling me about some of the things that grieve him, and about his expectations of others, I felt lead to ask him “How is that working for you?”

We can I think, go from one extreme to the other. I know people who do not expect anything, because if they don’t expect anything they will not be disappointed. But to me that is to shut your heart down, not to se it free. On top of this, as a teacher I know that in some ways there is a crisis of expectations that has exerted and exerts a downward pressure on achievement. And thinking on these things this morning is causing me to examine my expectations as we minister week by week in the prison.

And the conclusion I am coming to, as I think about these things, is to look to Jesus and the way He dealt with the disciples. He had high expectations “Anyone who would come after me must deny himself take us his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Then when they let Him down, He patiently used the occasion to teach. For example when they were arguing among themselves who was the greatest, Jesus taught the the need to be childlike (Mark 9:33-37). How well He exemplifies the way of love which “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Father, in guarding my heart, I need to have a realistic expectation of myself and others, yet not to underestimate the fact that we are made in Your image. This is especially important for as I seek to minister in recovery situations. As we say so often, we seek progress not perfection, and we need to be patient and gentle with ourselves and others. Thank You for Your promise that You who have begun a good work in us will keep right on helping us (Philippians 1:6), and in particular making us more like Jesus. Help us, help me, not to become weary in doing well in Jesus Name Amen i

I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief

In the midst of his suffering Job’s “friends” had seen his suffering as punishment from God, and had basically told him what he needed to do was to repent. But as the opening of the book of Job makes very clear, his suffering was from the devil, not from God. And Job’s suffering was made worse because of his friends misunderstanding. In this morning’s quote from Job 16:5, Job is telling them that if the situation were reversed he would be strengthening and comforting them.

As James tells us, our tongue has the power to bless or curse (James 3:9- 12), or to put it another way, the tongue has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). This last verse is been in my heart for some time now, but I was thinking mostly about how we talk to ourselves. However, this morning meditating on this verse, I am thinking about how we speak to others.

The Bible has much to say about this, for example “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Or James again “No one can tame the tongue” (James 3:8). It is in this same context that James tells us “In many things we all fail” (James 3:2). So where is all this coming from? Jesus tells us that the heart of the matter is the heart, for "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).

Father, Your Word tells us that we need to keep our hearts with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. It’s not about will power, for only You Lord, can change our hearts! And I want to thank You this morning, that You are in the process of giving us a new heart, taking out our stony, stubborn, heart and giving us a tender, responsive heart (Ezekiel 36:26 NLT). Thank You again Lord, for the transforming power of Your Spirit as we seek daily to guard our hearts, keeping short accounts with You, repenting when we have blown it, and submitting to You. Help us to be diligent to do this, and we will give You the Glory in Jesus Name Amen

Lord, help me to know how fleeting my time on earth is

In this extract from Psalm 39:4 (Passion translation) David had been wrestling with a number of different things. He has been deeply grieved by the wickedness that was going on around him (versus 1- 4), and he is bothered by the pointlessness and the futility of most of what we do. In particular in verse 6 he cries out “ We live our lives like those living in shadows. All our activities and energies are spent for things that pass away. We gather, we hoard, we cling to our things, only to leave them all behind for who knows who.” On top of this he is afraid of being overpowered by his own sin (verse 8). It never ceases to amaze me how well the Bible knows us!

Because he knows God, he is left with just one conclusion “My only hope is to hope in you alone” (verse 7),so he cries out to God. I love the way the passion translation puts it “Lord, listen to all my tender cries. Read my every tear, like liquid words that plead for your help. I feel all alone at times, like a stranger to you, passing through this life just like all those before me” (verse 12). Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt! And like David I have cried out to Him for help (verses 8,10,12).

I also like David, I have learned to counsel myself “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? ... Hope in God” (Psalm 42:11). And I go to the file where I have recorded many of the promises He has underlined for me “I will never leave you nor forsake you - come unto Me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And if needs be, I work the conditions of my promises as in Philippians 4:4-7, repenting for where I have failed. And God is faithful, for He has promised “And the God of all grace …., after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10). And He has, and He does!

Father, we sing the chorus “I never want to go back to my old life!” I do not! Thank You Lord for Your faithfulness, for Your mercy and for grace to help in time of need. Help me Lord to know how fleeting my time on earth is, to remember that You are in control, that I am not the keeper of the universe, You are! And I ask this in order that I may live one day at a time and for You and You alone in Jesus Name Amen