Category: Devotionals

A right response

Reflections based on Psalm 96:1–13.

This psalm may well have been written by David, as it sounds similar to a hymn of praise he wrote in 1 Chronicles. It is a call to the people of Israel to declare the majesty and wonder of God to all the nations surrounding them. It is all about worshipping God because of ‘the splendour of his holiness’ (v9). As in previous passages, we see various attributes of God listed, such as His glory, splendour and majesty. What is interesting is how the psalmist tells the earth to ‘tremble before him’ in verse 9. This is another aspect of God’s holiness: it should cause us to honour Him with a reverential awe.

God’s holiness is absolute – and His wrath, or judgement, comes out of His desire to preserve that holiness in the world. However, this sort of language is not fashionable these days; we don’t often talk about wrath, judgement and awe very much, do we? And yet, even back in the 1960s, AW Tozer recognised that when we allow human trends and opinion to colour our understanding, then we lose something of our understanding of holiness/God. In his book The Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer said: ‘The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men… With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence.’

How fully we worship God is based on our knowledge and understanding of Him – we are called in today’s reading to reflect on how awesome God is and to ‘ascribe’ or give Him the kind of worship that He deserves. Why not give over some time to do this today?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me that I don’t always seek to understand Your character more fully. I see how it informs my worship. Help me to take the time to learn more about You. Amen.

Acknowledging God’s greatness

Reflections based on Exodus 15:1–19.

The song in Exodus 15 was written after God miraculously delivered His people from the Egyptians by parting the Red Sea for them and then allowing the water to gush back over those pursuing them. Moses begins by worshipping God for what He has done, describing how He ‘hurled’ Pharaoh’s army into the sea. But he goes on to talk about what it is in God’s character that caused Him to act as Israel’s salvation. He is saying through this that God’s mighty acts reveal His majesty, power and holiness. Look, for example, at verse 7: ‘In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you.’ The language that Moses uses reveals how incredible his God is – that with a simple blast of His nostrils the water was parted. Verse 11 states that there is no one – no god – like God, and later verses talk about how the surrounding nations will hear of what God has done and tremble. Interestingly, Moses also affirms the belief that God will lead His people to His ‘holy place’ (see v13).

God’s holiness can be seen reflected throughout the passage: in His destruction of Pharaoh, His hatred of sin and His wrath against those who refuse to turn from it and His faithfulness in rescuing His people.

This song was written for the whole of Israel to sing. It was a way of honouring God for His rescue – a way of giving thanks for His glory. Israel’s God-fearing leaders often led the people into offering God a holy, consecrated song or prayer. Even today, home-grown worship songs and prayers can help local congregations to thank God for the specific ways He has revealed His holiness to them.

Prayer: Thank You Lord that all Your actions reveal Your holiness. Help me to take the time to recall how You rescue and keep me, and then give You praise and thanks for doing so. Amen.

 

A vision of our holy God

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

Reflections based on Revelation 4:1–11.

These verses in Revelation were given as a vision of heaven’s throne room to John. The rich, descriptive language gives us a sense of opulence and majesty. Much has been made of the symbolism; for example, the 24 elders are said to represent all of God’s redeemed people (as there were 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and 12 disciples in the New Testament). The four living creatures are symbols of God’s character. Before the throne is ‘a sea of glass’. Commentators speak of how rare glass was in New Testament times so this highlights the magnificence of God. 

Whatever can be deduced from the symbolism, what is clear is that the vision is depicting God’s awesomeness and holiness. The living creatures are constantly declaring His holiness; the phrase they use repeats the word ‘holy’ not just twice but three times. The Hebrew word ‘holy’ (qadosh) means ‘separate’ or ‘set apart’ and was used to describe the ‘otherness’ of God. I think the repetition shows us how vital an understanding of His holiness is. When we think of Him, it is not another attribute, such as love, compassion or gentleness – all the ones that we find safe and familiar – but holiness that should be uppermost in our minds.

The elders’ words remind us of how His holiness is partnered with glory, honour, power and authority. They recognise that all that is created has only been done so because it was His will. His power and authority are different to ours – infinitely greater. The elders are wearing crowns, so have the signs of authority themselves, but lay their crowns before the one that they know has an authority that far surpasses theirs. What a vision!

Prayer: Holy God, the elders and living creatures all responded to Your holiness with never ending worship. As I learn more about Your holiness, may that be my response too. Amen.

Holiness

I am delighted to finally be resurrecting my devotional blog. I hope to do it weekly as before – let’s just see if I manage that!

Reflections based on 1 Peter 1:13–16.

I am excited to be exploring the theme of holiness with you for this next devotional series. I think it can often be a theme that is somewhat overlooked these days, but I believe it is very important to have a clear understanding of it, as it helps us to lead our lives well. Of course, the starting place for such a study has to be God.

Too often when we think of holiness our minds immediately turn to all the things we think we should be doing and know we aren’t. And yet, while that is where the 1 Peter passage starts, it all stems from the fact that God is holiness itself. Yes He does call us to be holy, and we do need to remember and not belittle that, but He does so because He is.

So let’s start by looking at the majestic holiness of God, as it is only when we truly understand His holiness that His call for holiness from us makes sense. His holiness far surpasses what human holiness can achieve because, in essence, it is the fact that He is God. What is incredible is that God Himself chose to find ways in which He could commune with His people – and offers us ways in which to partake of holiness for ourselves.

Prayer idea Take some time to thank God for choosing to come close to you and ask Him to reveal more about holiness as you engage with this new weekly blog series.

Thanking God for ALL experiences

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A reflection and response…

As we looked at previously, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 talks about the fact that we need to learn to ‘give thanks in all circumstances’. Certainly the apostle Paul was a great example of this, praising God even while in chains. However, when we think about thanksgiving we don’t often turn to those situations that we find difficult or painful. And yet that is precisely the place God wants us to get to – being able to love and thank Him whatever is going on around (and to) us.

I find the hymn I’ve put below interesting because it does just that. Rather than only focusing on thanking God for the good times the writer has juxtaposed the positive with the negative: pleasant weather – and life experiences – with stormy, comfort with pain, roses with thorns.

Think back: how often have you thanked God for the difficulties in your life, as well as the easy times?

Read through this hymn, really reflecting on the individual images it contains. Try and place yourself in the hymn, and make yourself the protagonist. For example, what memories do you want to bring up and remember? What tears that you thought were now forgotten have brimmed up again? What storms have you weathered? When did you feel His comfort amongst the despair? What requests are you glad He denied? In what ways have you felt His hope?

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,

Thanks for all Thou dost provide!

Thanks for times now but a memory,

Thanks for Jesus by my side!

Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,

Thanks for dark and stormy fall!

Thanks for tears by now forgotten,

Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,

Thanks for what Thou dost deny!

Thanks for storms that I have weathered,

Thanks for all Thou dost supply!

Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,

Thanks for comfort in despair!

Thanks for grace that none can measure,

Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,

Thanks for thorns their stems contain!

Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,

Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!

Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,

Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!

Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,

Thanks through all eternity!

(Written in 1891 by August Ludvig Storm, of the Swedish Salvation Army. Translated in 1931 by Carl E. Backstrom and set to music by Swedish composer Johannes Alfred Hultman.)

Take some time to ask God to reveal to you experiences that are still locked away that you’ve never thanked Him for precisely because they were difficult. Ask for His revelation about them, so that you can see them through His eyes. Wait, seek His wisdom and then speak out a prayer of thanks, acknowledging the part they have played in shaping you. If there is pain or hurt that needs dealing with sit before your Father and ask Him to pour His healing balm on you, opening yourself up to His love and care.

You might like to try writing or drawing a juxtaposing poem or image yourself, picking up on both the good and not so easy things you want to thank God for. Keep whatever you create near you for the rest of the week so that you can use it as a starting point for reflective prayer.

Thankful for the cross

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Today we are going to focus specifically on thanking God for the cross. You might find it helpful to get hold of either a picture of a cross or a small physical cross that you can place in front of you to concentrate your thoughts.

Meditation: Start by simply looking at the cross and then think about what Jesus dying on that cross has done for you, for your life, for your everyday ‘going about’. Speak out a few of your thoughts slowly, mulling over the words and truly allowing them to sink in and impact you.

Here are some thoughts you may like to utilise (and personalise) during your meditation:

Whether good, bad, enemies or friends, we each deserved to die as we cannot stand before God in our own righteousness.

And yet, through Christ’s death we are transformed – given a new identity and new standing before God.

We are dressed in Christ’s royal robes rather than our filthy rags.

And we are now free! Free from the clutches of sin and death, free from our enemy’s hold on us.

We can now choose to walk in that close relationship with our loving heavenly Father each moment of every day.

Finish your time of meditation by turning some of the thoughts you had into prayers of thanks to God.

Showing thankfulness to others

First off, let me say Happy National Writing Day to those of you in the UK! When I heard it was today, I decided I absolutely had to get round to posting my next blog in the thankfulness series. It has taken me until late afternoon, but I have been writing during the rest of the day too! (And sorry these posts haven’t been as regular as usual – work on my books has been filling my time – more writing! 😉 )

This post encourages you to do some writing of your own…

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1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us to ‘encourage one another and build each other up’. A great way of doing this is looking out for ways to show someone else how thankful you are that they are in your life. Perhaps you could cook them a meal, buy them a small gift or, what I’m suggesting here, find a way to tell them exactly what they mean to you. This will do wonders for their inner spirit – and you’ll also find you are uplifted through doing it.

I would suggest keeping a steady supply of nice notelets or paper and then write notes of thankfulness for the people in your life every so often. Today, pick those closest to you and spend some time pondering what you could say in a note to them. Using pen and paper rather than a computer forces you to slow down, giving you the chance to really stop and think about the person you are going to be writing to.

If you have a partner, or a flat mate, leave them a card letting them know why you thank God for them and why it is wonderful to share your home with them. If you have children, make it a priority to write them a little note and hide it somewhere for them to find later. I have a little tradition with my kids– I write a note each morning and put it in their lunchbox. I know that both of them, since being in full-time school, have found lunch times difficult as it reminds them they are away from home all day. I make a point of telling them how much they are loved. And on days I know they have a test or are worried about something in particular, I write a Bible verse or a little prayer that addresses that. I also try to write notes to them every so often pointing out particular characteristics in them that I really appreciate too…

Of course, you could extend this out to people you don’t know well. Saying, or writing, a quick phrase that lets them know you’ve noticed them, and how they make your day better, will be such a blessing to them. For example, do you have milk delivered? Leave your milkman/woman a note simply saying ‘I thank God for you every time I see fresh milk on my doorstep’ – and then say a prayer of thanks whenever you bring in the milk.

Encouraging thankfulness

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We were made to be thankful, to bow before our God in grateful worship. But sometimes it can be really difficult to do that. So we are now going to look at some of the ways in which the apostle who told us we need to be thankful (Paul!) encouraged thankfulness in others. He wrote many epistles to the early churches and often at the start of them gave greetings of grace and peace – and sometimes thanks. Let’s take a look at a few examples and see what they can teach us:

Read Colossians 1:3–8.

This letter to the church in Colossae reveals four things that Paul is thankful for. He begins by reminding them of who they should all be thankful to, centring the letter at the start on the source of everything: ‘We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’.

He moves on to being thankful for the faith that the members of the church had in God, and praising them for their genuine love of others: ‘we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people’. He then goes on to being thankful for the power of the gospel and the fact that it bears fruit if people believe. Finally, he thanks God for Epaphras in verse 7, a faithful minister who Paul refers to as ‘our dear fellow servant’ and who was looking after the people of Colossae.

This short passage in Colossians is packed full of the things we need to be thankful for. Of course, ultimately, it is praise to God that our hearts should be brimming over with, but we should also be thankful for other believers and those who are committed to teaching and caring for us week in week out.

Why not pause for a moment and thank God for those who lead your church?

Now read Ephesians 1:3–22.

Here Paul starts by praising God for all the blessings He has lavished upon us, including choosing us from the beginning of time: ‘In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’ (v.11).

Then, in a similar vein to Colossians, Paul thanks God for those he is writing to: ‘For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.’ (v.15–16).

Take another moment to read the first half of this passage and allow your heart to praise God for the amazing truth it contains about how God has chosen you and sealed you with the Holy Spirit.

You might also like to take some time to thank Him for those that reveal His love to you through the way they look after you and encourage you.

A thankfulness psalm

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This series on thankfulness is going to be a little different to the other blog series I have written, as I’ve prepared some creative ideas for us to utilise. Today’s focus is on spending time drawing out meaning from a range of scriptures that talk about showing thanksgiving towards God. I’ve put some scriptures below to get you started, but do take the opportunity to search the Bible for other verses you may like to use too. Try to become aware of your own personal response to the words as you read them, writing down how you feel and what bubbles up inside you as you read.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! Psalm 95:2

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:3

Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 4:4

Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples,
 proclaim that his name is exalted. Isaiah 12:4

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
1 Corinthians 15:57

I often find that writing my own ‘thankfulness psalm’ or song after I have been reading scripture really helps me to express my own personal response to God. If you want to, why not trying writing your own today? You could start from scratch, or put all the response sentences that you’ve written together to create it.

Cultivating a thankful heart

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Be honest. Does your heart brim over with thankfulness on a daily basis? No? Me neither. Not every … single … day. But that’s what Paul says it should do, whatever you are facing: ‘Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Ouch. It’s the ‘will of God’ for us to be thankful for, and in, everything. That’s quite a tough one isn’t it? Well in this new blog series on thankfulness we are going to take a look at some ideas that will challenge our hearts and minds, and start to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness within us.

Insecurity, frustration and anxiety, despair and hopelessness are rife amongst people of all ages, classes and races today. The anecdote? Learning to be thankful changes our perspective, and helps us become aware of possibilities around us. You will find that as you choose to cultivate a thankful heart, your spirit and body will become transformed. Indeed research has shown that being thankful boosts our feelings of well-being and our immune systems, makes our hearts function well and helps us to sleep better – so there are health benefits too!

Take time to thank God for five things today…