Disruption

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The council are digging up the road outside my house. It’s noisy, dirty and inconvenient as there is nowhere to park our cars. The road is closed to traffic which involves long detours to get anywhere. Muck and rubble is being loaded on to lorries and driven away. The notice says it will be completed in 47 days! (a strange number, will it finally be gold-plated?)

The result will be a lovely smooth road and pavement. It had been a trip hazard. The upheaval will be worth the trouble. It’s like my life. God has to get rid of the rubbish, sin and grime in me. The resulting restored life will be worth the trauma. Praise be to God.

Psalm 23

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When I think about this psalm, I see it visually. I imagine myself lying in a wildflower meadow, surrounded by bees and butterflies. Then my God leads me along smooth, sandy paths. To my left is a stream, not too still, that would become stagnant. The stream is gently flowing into the centre of the picture and teeming with fish. To my right are rough dangerous places, places where I could slip, fall and face the shadow of death. Then beyond that, still to my right is a wonderful city which appears to be sitting on a hill, though for some reason, in my vision it is down in a valley.

I’m enjoying the wildflower meadow but I know I will need to travel to the right and pass through the dangerous valley. Then I shall immerge on the other side and enter that wonderful city. As the psalmist tells me, ‘I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’

Envy?

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I wonder how David, the future king of Israel felt about just being a musician in the court of King Saul. Did he ever want to shout, ‘I’ve been anointed as your next king, yet here I am stuck in this corner almost ignored except to play calming music to you in your demented moments.’

David might have suffered from FOMO. Yet it seems he just kept all these things in his heart and observed what kingship was like. Did some of his psalms come out of this waiting time?

Pray Without Ceasing

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In 1 Thessalonians 5 we are exhorted to ‘pray continually.’ How can we do that is in this frantically busy world? Paul who wrote these words must have had a slower pace of life! But what I believe is that we need to have an attitude of prayer. We need to be only a breath away from uttering another prayer. We can have a structured time of prayer, morning and or evening, when we might use Bible notes as we read the Bible. As soon as we wake in the morning we can give thanks for a night’s sleep. We can give thanks for the promise of a new day.

Leaving home we should pray for our neighbours, travelling we might pray for fellow commuters. Hearing a police car or ambulance we can pray for those involved. Those we know who have problems can feature in our prayers during the day and there are many situations that can demand instant arrow prayers.

That’s praying continually.

Do Not Be Afraid

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The car travelling on the wrong side of the road crashed into the coach full of school children. Two children were killed and many injured. One lad waiting to be rescued with blood streaming down his face cried out ‘Is this really happening?

In times of tragedy or bereavement to can feel like the young lad. We, too, cry out to God, ‘Is this really happening?’ That is when God speaks to us ‘Don’t be afraid, I am with you.’ It has been said that words of comfort occur 365 times in the Bible, one for every day of the year. God knew that we were going to meet troubles.

Sadness and sorrow will surely come to us but we don’t have to cope alone. We have a Saviour to contact who mourns with us and who understands.

Just Where We Are

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We don’t need to be in church or in deep meditation to make contact with God. He will meet us at the place we are at. It is not necessary to have a campaign or rally for God to speak to us. We can’t down tools and wait for a message.

Esther was busy being a queen, Gideon was hiding in the winepress, he wasn’t at prayer. Mary, the mother of Jesus was going about her daily chores. James and John were trying to catch fish and Paul was just travelling.

God is always with us and He will meet us just where we are.

The Lord of Hosts

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It seems almost sacrilege to use words to describe God. He is so great, mighty and powerful that our language cannot do the task justice. The danger is that we don’t try ; we try to bring God down to our level so that we can cope.

One day every knee will bow to Him whether they want to or not and they will be dealt with accordingly. In this day and age we need to tremble before God. We have lost some of the reverence that our forefathers had. We need to metaphorically take off our shoes before and prostrate ourselves. Our God is too great for even the world to contain Him.

The Lord our Peace

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‘You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You,’ the Bible tells us. We Christians attest that God has been faithful in the past and our prayers have been answered according to God’s wishes.

But what of the future, can we trust Him for that? If we can recall a time when God has failed us in the past, then we cannot trust Him for the future. But God has never failed us. It’s just that devil again trying to have a go at us. As an old hymn says, ‘I’ll thank Him for all that is past and trust Him for all that’s to come.’

Like a Pharisee

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David Wilkerson’s book lead me to ask myself another question.’ Am I hypocrite like a Pharisee? I look good on the outside, say the right words and go the right places. None of this matters at all. What matters is what God sees in my heart, in the secret places of my heart. When no-one is looking am I pleasing God? Am I like the builder who was building the topmost part of a cathedral which no-one would see. He was building to the best of his ability for the glory of God. May I do the same.

The God who Pardons

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My thoughts today have been driven by David Wilkerson’s book, ‘Hallowed by Thy Names.’ Jesus died for my sins and removed them as far as the east is from the west. That means they’re gone, completely gone .So why do I sometimes feel convicted of my past sins? In one of the old hymns, we plead, ‘break the power of cancelled sin.’

It is during the night that I recall these sins, these cancelled sins and they can bother me. Even King David says words to the effect ‘Lord I was ready to faint because of my sins.’ Another hymn writer takes the words from Micah ‘Who is a pardoning God like Thee?’ That’s the question and the answer is no-one. The devil can’t taunt us because our forgiving God is stronger than the devil.

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