Doing a Martha

I used to see a particular friend on a regular basis. We’d go out to dinner at the local café and she’d come back to my place for a coffee and we’d chat some more.

On one occasion I was running late. I had enough time to either spend quiet time with my Lord, or clean up the house. I decided to clean up the house in case my friend came over after dinner.

Something inside me said this was wrong. I needed time with my Lord more than I needed a tidy house. And, to prove the point, it turned out that my friend couldn’t stay so she didn’t come back for coffee.

The Lord had tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me again how important it is to spend time with Him. He should never be our second priority.

Have you ever had one of those moments? Every time I think of mine, I think of Martha. She was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made by Jesus’ visit, but her sister, Mary, sat at His feet and listened to what he had to say.

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42 (NIV)

I Don't Want To Be Brave

I don’t want to be brave

For fear I might face the storms alone.

I don’t want to be strong

For fear I might think I can be independent.

I don’t want to be clever

For fear I might listen to my own wisdom.

I don’t want to be comfortable

For fear I might never move on.

Lord, I want to rely on you in everything I do.

I want to borrow your strength

And never think it’s mine.

I want to hold onto your truths

And never make up my own.

I want to remember I am safe

with you and nowhere else.

These are the things I ask

This is my prayer.

Writing for God

Yesterday God - yet again - demonstrated His power. He showed me again how much I need Him, how much I must rely on Him.

I realised that when I write for God I can’t allow myself to get caught up in any attempts of personal brilliance. I can’t allow the lure of pride to catch me off-guard. I am here to write for God, to share His word, to be His voice.

I can’t be His voice if I am busy saying my own thing my own way.

I can’t share His truths if I don’t stop to listen to them first.

When I write for God, work for God, do anything in this life, I must remember to hand myself over to Him so that He can use me. I can’t ever forget the importance of prayer. I must practice reliance. I must humbly kneel at His feet.

God is the one with the power.

God is the one with the words.

God is the one who should be glorified.

The Reward of Free

Yesterday I wrote about The Price of Free, that is, the cost of following Jesus. I covered alienation, self denial, reliance and vigilance. Today, I’d like to write the counter balance: the reward for following Jesus and why it far out-weighs any burden.

The reward is freedom. Without Christ’s sacrifice, without his saving grace, we would have remained locked in an inescapable prison. And then we would have died. But not only are we saved from death, we are given eternal life.

The reward is community. We may be alienated from the world, but we now have a new family. We are part of a community that builds each other up. We have all the support we could ever need. Our brothers and sisters surround us with love and encouragement and strength. We are made whole by the new connection to the many. The difference is that this community is not just made up of fallible people; it’s brought together through the renewing power of our Lord and Saviour.

The reward is self denial. From a worldly perspective this is a cost, but from a Christian view it is a reward. When we deny ourselves our world opens up to include others and most especially it includes God. We give Him room to move in our lives. We are more able to love others, more able to love ourselves and more able to love God and see all that He has done for us. We gain God’s peace.

The reward is reliance. Again, this could be seen as a cost, but the end result is a reward. It’s no longer up to us to save the world. It’s no longer up to us to carry the burden on our own (Matthew 11:30). It’s no longer up to us to battle the storms. We have our Lord who will fight for us. We only need to be still. (Exodus 14:14). We have no reason to doubt Him and every reason to trust Him.

The reward is a relationship with God. This is the greatest reward of all. We gain a friend who will never betray us, who will never leave us and who will always help us. We gain a love that gives us unspeakable joy. We gain a power that will always protect us. We gain everything worth having.

Can you think of other rewards to add to this list? How has God made a difference to your life in a way that out-weighs any cost?

The Price of Free

Our old home was a dungeon. We used to be chained there… in the dark...waiting to die. Then Jesus freed us. He broke our chains, he took our place and then he paid the price of our punishment. We couldn’t earn this freedom. We couldn’t buy this freedom. We couldn’t steal this freedom. He gave it to us freely. And so it cost us nothing to accept this gift.

But there is a cost to following Jesus. It’s important to know this. If we blindly follow Him, expecting rainbows and candy, then we will fall away the moment any form of conflict comes our way. Below I have listed some of the costs:

The cost of alienation: We no longer belong to the world. We are outcasts to its ways. We are set apart and different. No longer can we laugh at the lewd jokes. No longer can we gather in the workplace kitchens and exchange gossip. No longer can we bad-mouth someone else because they bad-mouthed us. We must face persecution without striking back.

The cost of self denial: God must come first. We are no longer number one. We must deny our pride, our self reliance, our stubbornness. God must come first, even above our spouses, our children, our friends and our jobs.

The cost of reliance: We must give up our independence. We must put our trust in God and rely on Him in everything we do.

The cost of vigilance: We can’t relax and take it easy. We must be forever vigilant for the subtle things that turn our attention away from God. We can’t take a break. We can’t fall back on our old ways.

Are you prepared to pay the price of following Jesus? Can you think of other costs to add to this list?

Tomorrow I will talk about the REWARD of following Jesus, which far out-weighs the cost.

Fallen

I was in a car accident a couple of years ago. Three cars were involved because someone was in a hurry and thought that cutting across traffic in peak hour would be a good idea. As accidents go I guess it wasn’t a major one. No one was killed or seriously injured, although I did suffer a neck injury and had to go to physiotherapy for 6 months. One car was scrapped, my car was in the repair shop for over two months and we were all shaken up for a long time.

I had to question God. Why did this have to happen? He could have prevented it. He could have ensured I wasn’t there in that lane at that time. He is all powerful after all. He is supposed to protect me. He is supposed to love me. So, why? Did I do something wrong?

Well of course I did something wrong. I continually do the wrong things, and even think the wrong things. I am not perfect and will never be perfect. Only Jesus was and is perfect. And it’s a mighty good thing for all of us that perfection is not a condition of God’s love or even of his saving Grace.

God doesn’t punish us when we fail to be good people. Bad things happen to the righteous and the wicked alike. Bad things happen to the innocent and the guilty. Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world. We all have the freedom to make choices both good and bad. Bad things happen as a consequence of our poor decisions, our pride, our self-reliance. When anyone moves away from God bad things will happen and everyone around them will feel the effect. This is why we must always humbly rely on God in everything so that our influence on others is only good and uplifting and strengthening.

The Monkey Trap

I recently watched an old documentary about instinct verses intelligence in primates. The show noted that chimpanzees were highly intelligent. However, even though they could make rudimentary tools to achieve certain things, instinct still ruled them.

Scientists placed a treat inside a cavity with a small opening. The monkey could smell the treat and knew it was good. He reached in and grabbed his treasure only to discover that he couldn’t get it out. The monkey’s closed fist was too large to get through the hole again. All he had to do was let go and he’d be free. But he couldn’t do this. He wanted the treat. He tried forcing the treat through the hole. He tried shaking it and yelping, but nothing worked. He became oblivious of any potential danger. He didn’t even realise he was trapped.

We too rely on instinct. We hold onto things and refuse to let go. We worry and fuss. We stick to our hold habits rather than following God’s way. We think we know what's best for us and pursue the wrong goals. In our stubbornness, we become oblivious to the danger that arises whenever we do anything without God.

This is why we must learn to let go of the worldly things. We need to learn to listen for God’s direction, and allow Him to carry us along the right path. This is a thing to be practiced, with daily reminders through prayer and fellowship. The more time we spend with God, the more His desires become our desires, and the less we rely on instinct.

A Wandering Mind

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Exodus 14:14 (NIV)

This is one of my favourite verses in the Bible. It is also one I have struggled with for many years. I may be able to sit still for a long time, I may not fidget very often, but I am one of those people who suffer from a wandering mind. I think, I worry, I fret, I plan, I ponder. How can I be still when all this is going on? How can I remain focussed on God? How can I let him fight for me when my mind churns in chaos?

The first thing I’ve found that helps is to ask God for forgiveness and then to forgive myself. There is little point in worrying about the worrying. It only adds to the worrying.

The second thing that helps is to thank the Lord for making me the way that I am. I have a crazy mind that can lead me astray, but it can also lead me to wonderful places. And so I thank the Lord for that.

The third and final thing that helps is prayer and persistence. What all these things do is turn my thoughts back to my God – and back again to my God. They teach me patience and humility and most especially reliance on the Lord.

What helps you to be still in our Lord?

The Big Picture

Would you know what the first image was if you couldn’t see the second image?

Often we think we know what the big picture is. We carry on living as if we had all the answers. We bravely make plans on what we think we know and we rely on this knowledge above anything else.

And then something happens and we realise we don’t know everything. We remind ourselves that we are fallible. Then we turn back to our Lord and humbly ask for forgiveness because we have learnt – yet again – that we can only rely on Him. Only God can see the big picture, the whole picture. Only God understands everything. Only God can guide us through our blindness with a steady hand.