Category: Discipleship

God’s eleventh hour timing

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Reflections based on Acts 12:1–19.

‘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.

Always aware…

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Reflections on 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24.

‘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.

Learning to ignore the ‘urgent’

Reflections based on Mark 1:29–39; Luke 5:12–16.

‘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. 

Learning from Jesus

Reflections based on Matthew 3:13–4:11.

‘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.

Learning to rest

Reflections based on Matthew 11:28–30.

‘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…

A life well lived…

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.

God’s timing in our times

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.

Reflections based on Psalm 31:1–9,14–24.

‘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.

In good company

Happy New Year! I have taken a break over Christmas and New Year from work – if I’d realised we were actually at the last of our reflections on hope I may have squeezed it in before the end of 2019 😉 Never mind – it’s good to start 2020 reminding ourselves of where our hope lies.

Reflections based on Hebrews 11:1–12; 32–40.

‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’ (v.1)

This is the famous passage about faith, but take a look at the first verse – shown above. Hope is an integral part of our faith as Christians. Indeed Romans 4:18 makes this connection between the faith and hope that one of the characters in our passage had: ‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”’

As I said in a previous post, John Piper described hope as ‘faith in the future tense’. And what is so notable about all the people commended in this passage, of which we are told there are so many that not all are named, is that they never entered into the fullness of everything they had been promised during their lifetime. We are told they welcomed it from a distance, so they had a glimpse of it but never actually lived in it. Wow – I’m not sure I would have been so faithful (although I can think of some modern-day heroes close to my heart that inspire me by holding firmly on to their faith even when they don’t see what they are hoping for).

Take a look at verses 32–39 again and look at the huge trials those mentioned in Hebrews 11 had to face: battles, torture, ridicule, flogging, chains, prison, persecution. It makes for sobering reading doesn’t it? Those ‘giants’ of faith really did face severe testing and struggles. Often exercising faith means hanging on to the hope of our future glory in the midst of our own struggles. But we can be reassured that, as we do so, our walk with God is maturing.

Aren’t God’s plans incomprehensible and above our own? Just reflect on what the final verses reveal – that those we read about can only be made perfect with us. It is when we are all together with Him that we can fully enter into the glorious hope made possible through our Saviour. What a mind-blowing truth!

For prayer and reflection: Ask God to fire up your hope afresh as you read about these heroes of faith one more time. Allow their example to motivate you to carry on in your own walk of faith this year.

Renewing our strength

Reflections based on Isaiah 40:10–31.

The last line of this passage describes a deep, inner strength, one that I have experienced even in the midst of draining times. We joined the church that my husband is now pastor of when it was first ‘planted’ from another church. There was just a tiny handful of us, so everything that needed doing was down to us. Staying within the leadership has meant that has continued to a certain degree – many other willing hands have joined but life can still be fraught. I certainly don’t always feel like I am soaring, but I notice such a difference when I bring all my everyday tasks before God and ask Him for inspiration, strength and concentration. 

I love this chapter from Isaiah as it seems to encompass so much of what we’ve looked at during our study of hope: God’s total sovereignty and power but also His deep care for us. While we may not understand everything He does, by placing our hope in Him we can indeed be renewed in our spirits.

Spend some time hidden away with Him today, allowing Him to minister to those areas you are beginning to feel weary in. And, as we enter the joyous season of Christmas, I recognise that for many it can be stressful and over busy, and for others painfully difficult. So may I leave you with a quote from our passage to dwell on. I love the image of His tender care:

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
    He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart.

Optional further reading: Psalm 62; Proverbs 23:17–18 and 24:14–20.

Wearing the hope of salvation

Reflections based on 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 and Ephesians 6:10–18.

‘since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

I know the armour of God passage in Ephesians really well. I’ve done studies on it, and I make a huge effort to put on the armour of God each day so that I am equipped for the battle of life as a Christian – and I encourage others to do the same.

But, when I first started researching instances of hope in the Bible for this series, I was really struck by the Thessalonians passage. I don’t think I’d ever noticed the imagery used before: faith and love being the breastplate, and the hope of salvation our helmet. It really brought the armour to life for me in a new way.

The breastplate is called the breastplate of righteousness in the Ephesians passage. The plate covers our hearts, protecting what is the seat of our emotions, our sense of self-worth, trust etc. Faith and love being the ingredients that make up that breastplate makes so much sense!

The helmet of salvation protects our head – our mind – from the seeds of doubt that the enemy wants to place in it. He wants us to doubt our salvation as it makes us so ineffective. Putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation speaks to me of actively ensuring our hope is in the right place,. By putting it on we are reminding ourselves of the fact that we have a future hope in the saving work of Jesus Christ. 

Both these passages talk about the need to be alert and active. None of us know when Jesus will return and we need to live with an attitude of expectation. Wearing the armour, including the helmet of hope, is so important. As is being self-controlled and supportive of one another.

For prayer and reflection: Reflect on 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 1:5. I love this quote from Mick Brooks: ‘Love may be the greatest quality we can possess, but both love and faith depend upon hope’.