‘The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping … an angel of the Lord appeared …’ (vv.6–7)
Peter was awaiting trial by King Herod, knowing that his fellow disciple James had just been executed. But he wasn’t having an anxious, sleepless night. In spite of his chains and the guards around him, he was so soundly asleep that the angel we went to rescue him had to strike him to wake him up! At the eleventh hour, as believers are praying for him, Peter was miraculously freed from prison.
You may have personally experienced God’s eleventh hour timing, in provision, healing or ‘deliverance’. I love the stories George Müller (who founded schools and orphanages in Bristol in the early 1800s) told about God’s provision. One such anecdote refers to him saying grace in front of the orphans he needed to feed. He had no food at all, but was expectant for God to move – and He did. While George was praying, the baker walked in with many loaves for them to eat.
But for all the stories of God’s incredible rescue, it is important to acknowledge that not all are healed or delivered from death. Many of the early Christians were martyred – as are many Christians still today. And, of course, thousands are dying right now at the hands of the current pandemic.
Corrie Ten Boom who, along with other family members, helped many Jews escape the Nazis from the Holocaust during World War II by hiding them in her home, was herself imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp (the same camp in which her sister Betsie died). In a letter, Corrie retold an incident from her childhood:
‘When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip … when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money … just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength … He will supply all you need just in time.”’*
May God uphold you with the strength and wisdom that you need in this time of nationwide lockdown. May you know His love and care in the moments when you feel scared or alone – and may you sense when He wants you to reach out to others; perhaps through a text or video call.
*From a letter written by Corrie Ten Boom in 1974.
Prayer: Lord, when I’m facing difficult situations help me to trust that You’ll be there ‘just in time’ – to heal me, provide for me, deliver me or give me all the strength I need (even if it is at the eleventh hour). I want to pray now for our nation during this time of lockdown; that fear and loneliness will not take root, and that Your Church will find creative ways to reach out. May we be Your hands and feet, even when we can’t physically visit others. Be with those who may be struggling with the isolation; may they reach out to You and come to know You as their loving Father and powerful saviour. Amen.
‘Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (vv.16–18)
Writing to the Thessalonian Christians, the apostle Paul emphasised the importance of living in continual relationship with God. But how do we pray continually during a time of international crisis? How can we truly be joyful always, especially as we face becoming more isolated while our national leader calls for social distancing?
My mother once gave me a little book that was written by Brother Lawrence, and it had a huge impact on me, teaching me much about being aware of God in my ordinary, everyday life. He was a lay brother in a 17th-century monastic community, and his book describes how he practised being aware of God’s presence at all times – whether he was peeling potatoes in the kitchen or praying. For him there was no distinction between the two. He wrote:
‘… think often of God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you: why then must God be neglected? Do not then forget Him, but think on Him often, adore Him continually, live and die with Him …’ *
Brother Lawrence believed that the Lord wanted to be involved in every aspect of his daily life, however mundane, and that that has a massive impact on our outlook. I have found pausing throughout my day to recognise that God is with me, and that He longs to hear from me, helps me to connect with Him in a deeper way even while I’m working.
In this uncertain time, including God in every moment and learning to be thankful are vital practices to include in our daily routines. As life is being pared back for us all, why not take the time to focus on them in the coming days?
Prayer: Lord, help me to be aware of Your presence with me – always. Help me to trust You, to see where You are at work, and to remain thankful in my heart despite the uncertainty we are facing in these days. Amen.
*Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1993) p.65.
‘Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”’ (v23)
Jesus was conscious of God’s preordained timing of events throughout His ministry. This meant He carried out God’s purposes while on earth in a way that sometimes baffled His disciples. For example, instead of travelling immediately to heal the dying Lazarus Jesus ‘stayed where he was two more days’ (John 11:6), knowing that the miracle of raising Lazarus from death would bring the greatest glory to God.
Jesus knew His life on earth would end unnaturally prematurely, and that He would have to suffer the cruellest of deaths in order to be the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin and to overthrow the works of the devil.
There are references to Him sensing God’s perfect timings throughout John’s Gospel: ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ ‘Now is the time for judgment on this world …’ ‘Jesus knew that the time had come …’ ‘Later, knowing that all was now completed … Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’ (John 12:23,31; 13:1; 19:28,30).
As He died, Jesus knew that He had completed what He had come to earth to do. We, too, have particular tasks that God has for us to do (see Ephesians 2:10). I wonder whether you have ever experienced a sense of God’s timing in your own life?
Prayer: Lord, I give You my life afresh. Help me to hear and obey what You want me to do each day. Amen.
As it is World Book Day, I wanted to finally get back to posting some book recommendations, based on what I have been reading recently. It has been far too long, and the list I’ve put here is just a tiny reflection of the books that have touched me in the last couple of years. Nevertheless, they are well worth a look.
Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas
This was the book I was reading as I sat next to my mum while she took her ten-day journey to heaven. I read it at all hours of night and day, as we took it in turns to sit with, and care for, mum. Simon’s loss was unexpected, quick and heart breaking and he pulls no punches with his honesty about what life was like for him and his son in the first year after his wife died. The writing is raw, for which I am truly grateful – we need more books like this.
A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser
This is my current read, which I started while staying down with my dad just after mum died. It is a man’s honest experience of a freak car collision that caused the death of his wife, mother and daughter. He and their other children survived. Since then, he has wrestled with what happened, and with his faith, but has come to the conclusion that loss gives us a chance for our souls to grow. When I was looking for books about grief this was one that was recommended by many and I can see why. There is much to challenge and stretch, but it is also like having a companion for my grief journey.
The Promise is His Presence by Glenna Marshall
I read this book last year, but have just been putting together an interview with Glenna for Woman Alive (and with so much material there may be a blog too!) After facing infertility, chronic pain and huge hurt as her and her husband ministered to a new church, God took Glenna on a journey of discovering that, when it comes down to it, his presence truly is all that matters. Again, a really challenging, but equally life-changing book.
Embraced by Lysa Terkeurst
I am using this devotional each day. The entries are quite short and easy-to-read but, so far, most of them have really spoken to me, as Lysa shares honestly and openly about her own struggles. There are 100 devotions that cover all sorts of everyday issues, inviting us to see how God longs for an intimacy in our relationships with him – wanting to embrace us with his loving arms.
Isaiah’s Legacy by Mesu Andrews
I love Mesu’s writing and was eagerly anticipating receiving this book. I saved it for when I knew I’d have a few days when I could devour it – and was quickly drawn into the story. It actually deals with a lot of darkness and sin from an ugly time in the story of God’s people, so be warned. But there is grace and redemption too…
‘crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their illnesses.But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’ (Luke 5:15–16)
I love being busy and so often fill my days to the full. However, over recent years God has been talking to me about being overly tired. I think it can be a challenge, particularly when we can see so much need around us, to choose not to get involved with those things we discern God hasn’t asked us to.
But those urgent needs can be pressing, much as the crowds Jesus faced were. We need to learn from Jesus – even though He was faced with huge needs every day, He still took time out to rest and be alone with His Father in order to be refreshed, renewed and refocused. If we do not do that for ourselves, and instead continually respond to every ‘urgent’ need, we will eventually ‘burn out’. I have certainly experienced this.
It feels all the more poignant to be writing about this today, as it would have been my mum’s 75th birthday. Before she died (just over a month ago) she wrote to each one of us. I had helped her write those letters a couple of years ago, when she seemed close to death. But she had hand-written something extra in mine, something that we had actually spoken about the last time we had visited as a family. She told me she was worried about how I always seemed so tired, and always so busy. She urged me to slow down, to pare back. I was able to express to her that God had been saying the same thing to me, and that I’d actually been learning about the need for better balance for a few years. I’ve started on that journey…but I know I still have lots to learn.
Jesus was clearly able to step back from the urgent demands and in so doing discerned clearly His priorities, which in this case meant moving on to somewhere new, leaving needy people behind. We might find that really difficult to do, so what can we learn from Him?
It seems that Jesus learned the difference between the urgent and the important. One extreme example from his life was when he purposefully delayed going to see His dying friend Lazarus (after receiving an urgent plea from his sisters) to do what was God’s will – raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11).
While we may never have such a dramatic choice to make, we still need God’s wisdom to help us prioritise our time. Too often we take up many hours of our days spending ourselves on what may seem urgent, but they are, in fact, not the most important tasks God has for us.
Reflection: Carve out some time with God today to evaluate what is most important in your life and honestly assess the proportion of time you are devoting to those things. Ask Him to show you any ‘urgent’ demands that are not actually yours to meet. Then ask Him what changes you may need to make to your daily routines.
‘And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”’ (3:17)
We can learn much from Jesus about His use of time. There were three important truths that helped Him as He started His ministry:
1.Jesus knew who He was. Even before He had done anything, God publicly affirmed Him (v17). But straight after that amazing experience, He went into the wilderness and faced huge temptations. The truth of knowing His identity anchored Him, so when the devil tried to drop doubts in His mind to manipulate Him, such as: ‘If you are the Son of God… ’ Jesus didn’t entertain them. Instead, He countered Satan’s words with scripture
2. Jesus knew He was deeply loved and that God was pleased with Him. The verses cited about here publicly stated that, but He also said it Himself at other times (see, for example, John 8:29).
3. Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit (we read about the Spirit descending upon Him in verse 16). He also remained in close contact with His Father, only doing what He saw Him doing (John 5:19).
Jesus was purposeful with His use of time, even when He was surrounded by urgent demands. He made sure He took time to rest and offered that same rest to others (Matthew 11:28–30).
We, too, can use our time wisely and fruitfully by learning from Jesus. By reminding ourselves that we are secure in who we are in God, and that we are totally loved by Him, we can resist the lure of people pleasing or comparing ourselves to others and feeling we come up short. And when we learn to ask for the Holy Spirit’s fresh infilling each day, we can rest assured that we are being empowered to face whatever we will with His guidance.
Prayer: Lord help me to learn from You, and be secure in the knowledge that I am deeply loved. Help me to remember to seek a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit each day too. Amen.
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ (v.28)
I don’t know whether you are like me – seemingly always busy, rushing around with a huge ‘to do’ list of tasks both for work but also outside of work (mainly for church). I can get to the end of a day frazzled and exhausted. It seems that our culture celebrates being busy; that somehow it is looked down upon if we leave work at a reasonable time, and plan in plenty of break times in order to be refreshed throughout the day.
But that is not the way that God wants us to live. In fact, He commanded Sabbath rest for our good (see Deuteronomy 5:12–15 – God gave the Israelites permission to take a Sabbath, to rest – which would have taken some getting used to as they were used to a slave taskmaster.
In order to make sure that they rested on the Sabbath, God even provided a double portion of manna for them the day before (see Exodus 16). For many of us, our so-called ‘Sabbath’ day – often the day we join with God’s people in our local church – is actually just as busy (or more so) than other days of the week. Do we believe God can intervene supernaturally to help prepare us and give us the time of rest that we need, just as He did with the manna?
For reflection: Take time to honestly assess whether you take a proper Sabbath or if this is something that hasn’t happened for a while. Perhaps you need to repent before God, and ask Him to help you set aside time to rest in Him each week…
Penelope Swithinbank has just had a week-long official blog tour to launch her new book Walking Back to Happiness. I am thrilled that she agreed to guest blog here to talk about what it was like to write the book…
“Good artists copy; great artists steal” Picasso.
Austin Kleon, the young American writer and artist, uses Picasso’s line to illustrate how we ‘steal’ ideas from everything around us, and advises us to focus on how to transform, remake, improve, thus unlocking our creativity. And, he warns, ‘computers have robbed us of the feeling that we are making things’ (steallikeanartist.com). Simply using pen and paper can help us to be more creative.
You often don’t know what you think of something until you write it down and describe it. I discovered that as I sat and wrote my journal each evening after completing the daily steps of a long walk. We were backpacking across France, my husband and me, from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, partly to celebrate our retirement and partly in an attempt to heal the pain of a broken marriage.
Each evening, after a shower and change of clothes, and hopefully, tea or something stronger, I used a good pen and a beautiful journal to record the day’s experiences – places, people, conversations, thoughts, feelings. Someone once said that genius can write on the back of an envelope but mere talent requires a fountain pen and excellent paper. It certainly helps.
Margot Asquith, a well-known hostess and socialite, as well as wife to a prime minister, published a work in the early 1920s, based on her extensive diaries. When complimented on it, she is said to have replied, ‘Keep a diary, my dear and later on, perhaps, the diary will keep you.’
It was not in my mind to keep a diary in order to write a book about the 330-mile walk. But when the God-given prompt came, the daily accounts were there to be enlarged and rewritten. And for the most part, I wrote it chronologically – it was, after all, an account of getting from A to B.
Chronological seems easy and straightforward; but it can come over as dull and predictable. Sometimes it’s good to ask if there is some other way to write a memoir. For example, Penelope Lively’s autobiography, A House Unlocked, has the ‘umbrella’ of her grandparents’ house in Somerset, but her life story is told using different objects in the house. Rather than the ‘cradle to the grave’ autobiography, she has a more kaleidoscopic approach to time. In Moon Tiger Lively has Claudia say, ‘Chronology irritates me. Shake the tube and see what comes out.’ So there are some flashbacks in my book, and some pointers to what has gone before.
I tried to remember to ‘show not tell’. Significant sounds or smells, or the response of the body – the ‘sand between the toes’ image where you make the reader actually feel what your words are bringing to mind. Or describing the colour as if to a visually impaired person, and the sound to the deaf.Margaret Forster, writing about Daphne du Maurier’s father in Daphne du Maurier draws the reader in with noting that at a certain theatre, ‘Gerald du Maurier was scoring an immense success, the night his new daughter was born, in a light comedy entitled Brewster’s Millions.’ Much more interesting than merely ‘Daphne’s father was an actor.’
So I was noticing what had happened each day; I used the senses; I used the weather. I used people, conversations, a sense of time and place. I used my own reactions and feelings, because this is memoir, after all. And later, when I was writing the book, when there was a danger of it all becoming too serious, I added humour to lighten the touch.
Morning by early morning, I sat up in bed, writing desk across my knees, and I typed my story. I made myself do it for a couple of hours every weekday for several months. Until it was done, and I’d reached nearly 60,000 words, and the story had reached the Atlantic. Then I sent it to my beta readers – a few good friends, some acquaintances who would be honest, my (grown-up) children – and a professional editor.
It cost £100 for that edit (www.thebooklab.co.uk). And it was worth every penny! The editor divided the story into ‘blog size’ sections within chapters of different lengths. People have short attention spans, he said; people are busy. A short section can be read quickly without the need to concentrate for too long.
Then he took out all my erudite words. He told me it read like something from Brideshead Revisited, the book I had been reading while in France. I took that as a compliment! But he reminded me that the majority of people are not going to plough through that style of writing. I had to remember my target audience, their likely preferred writing styles, their vocabulary. This was for the normal market, not professors of literature. Fewer adverbs, plain English, making every word earn its place. And he removed all the descriptive speech words, such as ’retorted’ or ‘cried’, and put back the basic ‘said’ or ‘says’.
Lytton Strachey, a great biographer of the early 20th century, advised the writer to ‘aim at a brevity which excludes everything which is redundant and nothing that is significant’. That much at least has not changed!
Eventually came the final edit. I found it helpful to print it in a different font and different colour, to trick the brain into being more objective. And then, I went to a writing day organised by the Association of Christian Writers, something I’d booked several months earlier, never guessing I would have a manuscript waiting to be revealed. The editor had recommended a particular publisher; to my surprise, the co-publisher was one of the speakers that day and I was able to talk with her, whereupon she asked me to send her my manuscript immediately. The rest, as they say (and you should never use clichés, of course) is history. And an answer to prayer.
Penelope Swithinbank is an avid walker and spends a lot of her time stomping in the hills and valleys near her home outside Bath. She is a chaplain at Bath Abbey and a spiritual therapist and counsellor for clergy (and some normal people too). Since becoming a vicar nearly 20 years ago, she has worked in churches in the UK and the USA, and has led pilgrimages in the UK and in Europe. She and her husband Kim have been married for more than 40 years and have three children and six grandchildren. Penelope rarely sits down, loathes gardening and relaxes by walking, reading, going to the theatre or playing the piano. She is the author of two books, Women by Design and Walking Back to Happiness and is currently working on her third, due out in 2020: Scent of Water, a devotional for times of spiritual bewilderment and grief, especially after bereavement. She also contributes to Bible reading notes for Scripture Union. https://penelopeswithinbank.com
Firstly, I must apologise for the break in the weekly blog/devotional series. I know we had just started a new series on timing, which seems a little ironic as my life was turned upside down literally the following week when I got a call to say that my mum was in the final stages of her earthly life.
We had been expecting such a call for a few years; my mum was a strong lady and defied all the experts by living much longer with her degenerative, chronic illnesses than they thought was possible. But a fall a few days previously caused her body to grow even weaker, and she never recovered.
I spent the next ten days or so sitting by her bedside, along with my dad, sister and nieces, reminiscing, reading to her, telling her how much we loved her – and playing a lot of card games! We laughed and cried, and held one another tightly as my mum made her final journey home to Jesus.
What seemed like terrible timing to me to begin with, began to reveal itself as a blessing in disguise; I was halfway through writing a devotional book on loss and disappointment. When I was first asked if I would write it, I had an inkling that God would walk me through this part of our family’s history and so much of me shrunk back from having to face that. But I knew, deep down, that He wanted me to write the book, and that He would help me do so whatever the circumstances.
I certainly look back now she has gone and wonder how I managed to write sitting beside her as she slipped away; I know I couldn’t face writing it now as grief’s waves keep engulfing me. But, at the time, it seemed like a fitting tribute to her. She was hugely creative, and enormously encouraging to me with my editing and writing. Her own spiritual wrestlings and insights often made their way into beautifully expressive poetry; she often said that she felt compelled to sit down and write and it was almost like God was giving her a direct download that she was simply the conduit of. The experience of writing the devotional was a little like that – very different from my usual writing method.
So, today I want to honour my mum – over the coming months I may well share some of her poetry with you; for now the purpose of this post was simply to update you and ask for your patience as I process our loss and try to support the rest of my family. The weekly devotionals may or may not make it up – I’ll do my best, but rest assured I am thinking and praying for you all and will be posting whenever I can.
I’m excited to share the first in a new series with you today! As we are still near the start of a new decade, it seems an appropriate time to focus on just that – time. Looking at how our times are in God’s hands – and that we can trust His timing, even when we don’t understand it.
‘But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands …’ (vv.14–15)
David was an unexpected choice for a future king. He was a shepherd boy, who was left out in the fields by his family when Samuel visited in order to anoint the future king (see 1 Samuel 16:1–13). But God’s choice is often the unexpected one.
After he was anointed by Samuel ‘the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power’ (v.13). Then a very long and difficult wait ensued, during which time David served the current king Saul well, but Saul became increasingly jealous of him and eventually he had to flee for his life.
Even during this confusing time, David trusted that his ‘times’ and life circumstances were in God’s hands. He insisted on waiting for God’s timing to become king, even when it looked like Saul had been delivered into his hands. David and his men were hiding from Saul when Saul appeared in the same cave there were in in order ‘to relieve himself’. David refused to kill Saul even though his men urged him to do so. He knew it was only right to wait for God’s timing (see 1 Samuel 24:1–22).
David is a wonderful example to us, and his story provides a great reminder that God’s timing is perfect – however irrational and perplexing that that timing might appear. I’m not sure that I can say the same, but that is how I long to be too.
Prayer: Lord help me to trust, as David did, that ‘my times’ are truly in Your hands. Help me to understand more of Your timing in my life. Amen.
