These reflections on relying on ourselves are based on Galatians 3:1–14.
‘After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?’ (v3)
Paul wrote to the Galatian church because he could see how they were being seduced by false teachers. The main thrust of the Judaisers’ teaching was that Gentiles had to become Jews in order to be saved. But Paul was at great pains (in vv6–9) to remind them that it is faith that saves. He used the example of Abraham and his children to do this. He then explored how those who rely on the law to save them end up being condemned.
WORKING HARD FOR A FREE GIFT!
This passage highlights a trait that can still be found among Christians today. We accept Jesus’ salvation through the gift of faith (given to us by the Holy Spirit), but then work hard for that very same salvation through what we do for God after we are saved.
It’s as if we originally believed Jesus saved us, but have since fallen back to relying on ourselves. We need to be aware of this trap, as it is one that can be dangled in front of us. And somehow it looks so respectable and plausible. Yes, it is important that we read God’s Word and talk to Him daily. But, while those habits help us to grow in our understanding of God and also in the process of becoming more holy, they are not the means of our salvation. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction, rather than our own efforts – as we are so less reliable!
It is actually really freeing to know that there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. We can learn to bask in the amazing transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Prayer: Thank You Lord for the reminder not to rely on myself. I admit that I am unreliable compared to You. Please Holy Spirit guide me today. Amen.
I am delighted to welcome Pen Wilcock to my blog today. Her latest book, Into the Heart of Advent, welcomes the reader to join her as she chats to Jesus about all sorts of subjects that perplex her, including homelessness and hospitality, mental health and the challenges of neuro-diversity, as well as poverty. Here she shares with us the first conversation from that book.
I stand in the shop looking indecisively at the cards on display, slowly twirling the revolving rack. I’ve chosen the ones I like, with deer and robins and snow, but I think in all truth I ought to pick out at least a few showing the infant Jesus and his mother. Because that’s what Christmas is all about, right? The nativity, and at the heart of it the Holy Family. The problem is, I don’t like them. Mary looks either demure or mournful, and the baby Jesus stares out reproachfully at our fallen world, raising two fingers in blessing like a miniature boy scout or the youngest member of an extremely secret society.
Someone is standing next to me. I glance over my shoulder not wanting to put pressure upon the patience of another customer ticking off Christmas obligations early. And then I do a double take — “Jesus! Where did you come from? I mean…Hello.” And just like that, there he is again. Himself, who I haven’t seen in ages.
“Stick with the robins,” he suggests. “Those are awful.”
“But, shouldn’t I have at least some nativity ones? Christmas — it’s all about family, isn’t it? Especially your family.”
“My family…” says Jesus: “Look, shall we get out of this shop?”
I pay for the few packs I’m sure I want, shove them into my bag with the TV guide and the oranges, and hurry outside to find him. Then, just like old times, we stroll along the seafront in the wind.
“This unbreakable connection between family and Christmas comes back to haunt me every year,” I tell him. “I’m divorced, I have a difficult relationship with my step family, and my family of origin — ha! Don’t even go there! There’s nothing like Christmas to rub it all in, that all too familiar ambiance of utter despair. And there are the cards with you as a baby, cradled in Mary’s arms while Joseph stands protectingly beside her.”
Jesus says nothing for a moment, and I glance at him to see his reaction. He grins at me. “Are you even thinking what you’re saying? My mother… reckless prophetess writing protest songs and trying to steer me into her idea of who I should be. My mother conscripting my brothers into getting me sectioned. Joseph thinking best to divorce her before they even began, and introducing his betrothed to his relatives on the night she was due to drop an embarrassingly early baby. Awkward.”
I consider this in silence.
“If there’s one useful take-away from looking at my family,” he adds, “it’s that you just get the hand life deals you. It’s the part you can’t plan, even if you try. Joseph chose cautiously, carefully; he well knew how important it is to find a good wife. He was after a godly woman. But then he got a really godly woman, and that shook his world! Dreams and visions, angels and journeys, soldiers with swords in their hands. He had no idea what he was taking on when he asked Mary to be his wife.”
I stop, turn to face him, pulling my coat closer around me because the wind is so cold. “Then, what — if you could pick out one thing — what would you say Christmas is all about?”
“Me? My point of view?” He looks at me. “I’d say Christmas is about saying ‘yes’. That’s the one thing Mary and Joseph and I all had in common. Mary said ‘yes’ to the angel, and Joseph — against his own inclination — said ‘yes’ to marrying Mary after all, and I said ‘yes’ to… well, to everything it meant as things unfolded. ‘Yes’ to being here, ‘yes’ to pouring out all my strength to bring healing and hope, ‘yes’ to offering a template for living that’s actually going to work. We said ‘yes’, and that was the thing that brought us together.”
I nod, slowly, taking this in. “That’s what made you family — saying ‘yes’.”
Jesus is never impatient, but I do detect just a tad of frustration in the movement of his hand. “Can we get something clear?” he says. “My family is everyone who says ‘yes’ to life and love. My family isn’t frozen in time back in Nazareth. Anyone who wants can join my family. You are my family, if you want to be. Just bear in mind, when you trace the way things went for Mary and Joseph and me, there is a cost. But isn’t there always, to loving?”
Pen Wilcock writes Christian theology both in the form of fiction and non-fiction. She has worked in hospice, school and prison chaplaincy contexts, and pastored a number of congregations. Her particular focus is Gospel simplicity. She lives very quietly and reclusively in Hastings on England’s south coast. She blogs at Kindred of the Quiet Way.
These reflections on learning to recognise self-centredness in our own behaviour are based on Romans 2:1–11.
‘But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.’ (v8)
Here we have a very stark warning to the self-centred and self-seeking: they will incur God’s wrath and anger.
This passage from Romans invites reflection. It was written to the church in Rome and, in the previous chapter, Paul described the practises of sinful people. The church might have been feeling smug at this point. In chapter 2, however, he told them not to judge others, as it is only through Jesus’ sacrifice that we can be made right before God. The good news is that by choosing to accept Jesus as Lord we no longer ‘reject the truth’. We still can, of course, have a tendency to slip back into our old ways. That is why we need to learn to be more self-aware.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HONESTY
One of our elders recently mentioned in a preach that God has been teaching him how self-centred he can be. I think it was so brave but hugely beneficial for the congregation to hear him be so honest, as we can have a tendency to hide our faults from others. But God wants us to live together in community, encouraging one another towards holiness. Part of that is through being honest about our struggles (and yes that includes our struggles with self-centredness!).
BEING OPEN TO BEING CHALLENGED
Often it is as we draw closer to God that He begins to point out those things that He wants to change in our character. It is really helpful to ask God, and close friends too, to point out anything they feel could be a blind spot in our lives. This helps us to become more aware of the state of our souls.
Self-centredness is often applauded in our culture. Advertising, for example, is full of messages telling us to do what we want, when we want – and that we are worth it! However, God’s way of living is the complete opposite to that. Recognising the selfish traits we have is the first step to doing something about them.
Reflection: 1 Corinthians 13 paints a wonderful picture of selflessness. It points out how love is not self-seeking. Read and reflect on it, then turn to prayer.
These reflections, based on Colossians 3:1–14, look at how we are to take off our old, sinful self and put on the new self we have in Christ.
‘since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self’ (vv9–10)
In recent devotional posts we have focused on the fact that we are new creations in Christ and, as such, can find our identity in Him. We can rest assured that we are accepted and loved by God as His children. However, this passage instructs us that, because we have now been ‘raised with Christ’ we need to ‘Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things’ (v3).
STARTING THE PROCESS
There is a process in our journey with God. We need to learn to ‘take off’ our old, sinful self, and ‘put on’ the new self we have in Christ. I love how direct these verses (in a similar passage) in Ephesians are about this: ‘You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.’ (Eph. 4:22–24).
The rest of this devotional series will look at what we need to take off, and then what attributes we are to clothe ourselves in.
CLOTHING OURSELVES WELL
I find the active imagery in Colossians 3 extremely useful. While we know we are new creations in Christ, we can have a tendency to slip the clothing from our old nature back on. Here we are being reminded to purposefully clothe ourselves with the virtues of our new nature.
God once told our church to stop putting our old, filthy rags back on. He reminded us that He has provided each one of us with a dazzling white garment. While we may find that old clothing comfortable and ‘easy’ to wear, it is dirty and unhealthy for us.
It is really challenging to think about these characteristics as if they are clothing. I am sure you take time to decide what to wear each day. Do you take the same amount of care over clothing yourself in kindness, gentleness and patience?
Prayer I am sorry Lord when I choose to wear clothing from my old nature. Teach me how to actively put on my new self daily. Amen.
We are the body of Christ and we need each other! These reflections on our need for unity and encouragement from one another are based on 1 Corinthians 12:12–27.
‘Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.’ (v27)
While I originally wrote these notes some time ago, I don’t think it is a coincidence that we have arrived at this passage on the first day of England’s second lockdown. Now, more than ever, we need to remember that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We may have to wait to socialise with others for at least another month but we are still a part of God’s wider body – and we still need each other.
DO NOT DISQUALIFY YOURSELF
While we might be isolated from one another, we each play a vital role in God’s kingdom. Each one of us is significant in our own right, chosen and loved by God, but we should never compare ourselves to another person, and the role that they have, and think that we are less important as a result. I love the graphic picture Paul paints for us in this passage – imagine a foot saying that it can’t be part of the body because it isn’t a hand! And yet, so often, we can disqualify ourselves using the very same logic.
Remember: God never disqualifies us. I know that lockdown can cause some of us to feel that we aren’t needed – being on our own can cause those sorts of messages to fill our brains. We need to fight against them with the truth from this passage: each of us fulfils a particular purpose that God has created, and uniquely equipped, us for. Without us, the body would be lacking.
PRESERVE UNITY AT ALL COSTS
The text also talks about honour. We should never look down on anyone else because they are different from us, or because they have a role that we think is less than ours. We should go to great lengths in order to preserve the unity of the body of Christ.
Verse 13 says that we now ‘form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free’. That is certainly a truth that the world in 2020 needs to be reminded of. As does the Church. We have seen so much racial unrest, and awful acts of violence this year. It seems almost unthinkable that we have got to this place. Yet so many people have lived with the reality of being discriminated against simply by being born looking a particular way or into a certain set of circumstances.
CELEBRATE DIVERSITY
Church we need to do better! We need to focus on what it is that unites us: our faith in Jesus Christ. We should also celebrate the diversity that we find in the Church. I always wonder: where else could you find a group of like-minded yet so different people, of all ages and backgrounds, that, when interacting as they should, work together so well?
The Church is an amazing reflection of God’s grace and creativity. As individuals we should be proud and honoured to be part of God’s body. We should also actively cultivate ‘equal concern’ for those in the body that we interact with regularly. Can I challenge you to think honestly about how you respond to others in the church a) that are being honoured and b) are suffering?
LOOK OUT FOR OTHERS
One of the ways we can show our unity, particularly in this time of enforced separation, is by checking in on each other. Those within your church (and your local community) still need you in their lives. What that looks like needs to be a bit different right now. So who can you message/arrange to go on a walk with/set up a video call with/drop an unexpected gift to/ring? It’s time to ask God for some creativity. Hopefully you will be on the receiving end of some wonderful acts of care and concern too.
Prayer: Lord thank You that I am a vital part of Your body, the Church. Help me to set aside any feelings of jealousy or apathy towards others today. And help me to show those around me that I am still thinking of them. Amen.
Let’s start with the amazing truth that we are new creations in Christ. There may well be things we are ashamed of from our past, but God is saying that it is time to let go. Once we have asked for forgiveness 1 John 1:9 says that ‘he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’. He doesn’t keep remembering our past.
FROM THE INSIDE OUT
He has made us new creations, from the inside out. As we saw in the first of this devotional series, He is most concerned with our hearts. When we accept Jesus as our Lord, He places His light into our hearts, which reorders everything – our beliefs, feelings, actions, wills. This includes a new perspective on others, which is why Paul says to ‘regard no one from a worldly point of view’ (v1). Wow that’s certainly a challenge right there isn’t it? But God has changed us for a reason – to be His ambassadors. We are to be made into the righteousness of Christ in order to reconcile others to Him too.
AN INCREDIBLE TRADE
Isaiah 61:10 reminds us that being clothed in righteousness is a reason to rejoice in God: ‘I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness’.
Just think about the trade that God did in order for us to be righteous: our worthless, ugly sin for His righteousness, which is of immeasurable worth. In the parable of the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45–46) Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for a great pearl – when he found it he was willing to give up everything else in order to buy it. That is how great a treasure becoming new creations in Christ is for us.
Prayer: Lord may I never lose the wonder of how You transformed me from wretched sinner to beloved child. Today I choose to delight in being a new creation. Amen.
I have the huge pleasure of introducing Sarah Grace to my blog. I know her as a confident and caring publisher – it wasn’t until she wrote this guest piece that I discovered she lives with dyslexia. Here, she describes how she manages to do so, and the tools she believes will help us all understand and manage our mental wellbeing more successfully.Before I hand over to her, I just want to remind you that last year for World Mental Health Day I highlighted some other writers who look at mental health in their work, in case you’d like to take another look at that article.
I think it’s wonderful that right in the middle of Dyslexia Awareness Week is World Mental Health Day, because there is such a link between the two. As I talk about in my book, Journey with Grace, dyslexia can lead to extreme anxiety and even suicidal thoughts.
Recognising our strengths and limitations
Often dyslexia can be undiagnosed and understated. Dyslexics can often feel like we can be tripped up at any hurdle. It is not just ‘b’s’ and ‘d’s’ getting muddled; there are many unseen aspects to it. We may be able to tackle a task one day yet the very next day that same task seems difficult or even impossible. However, when we are honest with ourselves and others about the effects of dyslexia we are able to manage better. Rather than an excuse, owning, recognising and understanding both our limitations and our strengths helps us day to day.
For example, on difficult days I try not to compare myself to how I am on better days. I have learned to go with what is happening on that day. So, if I am struggling with numbers, I will leave my accounts alone that day if I can, and wait to tackle them on a better day. I might find spelling difficult one day so I will delay writing an important email until I am less tired and see if it comes more easily at another time.
Capturing our thoughts
I have learned not to sweat the small stuff, to slow down and be kinder to myself. I try to see the bigger picture of life. Competing with ourselves and others can make life incredibly hard. We need to ask ourselves: is it thoughts in our head or is there really a competition going on? Making sense of this and letting go of the mental battle can be such a relief, as it is exhausting to keep it going with no resolve.
I have learned how important it is to recognise the conversations that we have in our minds. We can capture the thoughts by speaking them out, perhaps to a counsellor, or through journaling, in order to see them for what they are and make sense of them. It can be hugely valuable to make ourselves this vulnerable, as it helps us to recognise and acknowledge how damaging the mental battles can be. It also helps us to move away from them.
Slowing down in order to learn more
Alongside my book, I am publishing a journal called Journal with Grace in order to encourage readers to write down their feelings and emotional reactions in order to see the connections. I have learned that when we take time for ourselves, by slowing down and taking a step back from the business of life, we can see what is actually happening. We are then able to notice our own behaviour, our emotions, reactions, stresses, dreams and desires.
During lockdown many of us had a chance to slow down, but when life started to open up again anxiety may have crept in. Making time each day to slow down, and be more aware of ourselves, our responses and the particular challenges we are facing that day, helps us to face the fear and understand what is behind it. We can also learn to break down the tasks that feel overwhelming into smaller steps. It is truly a privilege to give ourselves time to know ourselves, in order to face the fears and anxieties that stop us reaching our true selves and calling.
I do hope that Journey with Grace will help you take that time out, be inspired by the stories of transformation and find space to retreat, journal and discover how life can be enjoyed one day at a time.
Sarah Grace is an integrative psychotherapist in private practice and a director at Malcolm Down and Sarah Grace Publishing. Embracing her own life journey with dyslexia, she uses her counselling and coaching skills to work closely with clients, helping them lead a more fulfilling life.
‘People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’ (v7)
As our children have just started a new term, I’ve decided it is a good time to start a new series of devotions (particularly after a bit of a break over the summer). So much has been shaken this year – including, for many of us, our sense of self. With much of our freedom limited for months, and many of us affected personally by Covid, we may feel quite different than we did at the start of the year. We listened to our son’s new headmaster give his ‘welcome back to school’ address last night; he recognised that the pupils will have been changed by lockdown – and that their personalities may be somewhat different too.
Whether we are going back to school or our workplace, starting a new school, as our son is, or simply trying to regain a sense of routine, embracing the challenges as well as the opportunities can be harder when we aren’t sure how to live out of a sense of who we truly are as Christians day by day. Too often we can live out of a warped sense of self, allowing those around us, or our circumstances, to influence who we are. We can struggle with our identity when, ultimately, it can only be found in Jesus.
Part of stepping into who we are is learning to walk into the freedom already won for us, but the other part is about discipline and learning to cultivate the positive qualities of our new selves along with the help of the Holy Spirit.
So where does our sense of self come from? What we do, from what those around us think of us? What we think of ourselves? How do we measure ourselves? Is our first port of call to go to God and His Word to see what He says about us – or do we rely on what society is telling us and what it says we should be like?
I love the reminder that 1 Samuel gives us. God had told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse, as he would find the next king of Israel there. But his expectation of what the king would look like caused God to remind him that what is most important is what is going on inside a person – not their outer appearance. As we start this study on ‘self’, let’s not forget that the way we judge ourselves is so often different to the way God judges. He is most concerned about our spiritual wellbeing and about us coming into the fullness of what it means to be ‘new creations’ in Jesus.
Prayer: Thank You Lord that to understand who I truly am, I need only look to You. Help me, through the coming days, to learn to see myself as You see me. Amen.
In all honesty, these last few weeks have been incredibly difficult. As I’ve said before, life in lockdown has been so much busier than usual, there have been some huge challenges with people and particular situations, and I have also had my first birthday without my mum. All of that has meant that I have reached way beyond my capacity – emotionally but also physically. Last week my body started fighting back, with a notable upsurge in the degree of pain my head and neck have been in and regular nosebleeds (frustratingly often when I was trying to get to bed).
As well as taking the emotional difficulties to God to work through daily, I started trying to get to bed early. But, even when I did, I couldn’t sleep. It was a very frustrating week! Thankfully, although emotionally quite painful, my birthday also included some lovely times of celebration with friends and family. It was so wonderful to host my family again for the first time in a number of years (although I said to my husband afterwards that I’d forgotten what hard work hosting is! Lockdown has obviously gone on for far too long!).
When this week started, I could sense something had shifted. I realised that I had become engulfed in swirling waves of depression and darkness: my responses to things were not usual and I was becoming very negative. But, on Monday, that fog began to lift. Yesterday, I even felt a bit of relief from the head and neck ache – although that was short-lived. However, the sense of hope was quickening within me again.
As I started pondering a short message I will be sending to a women’s group that I should have been speaking to in person next weekend, I was drawn to a couple of verses in Psalm 23. But, after he had given me what he wanted me to say to them, God then reminded me of what it says at the start of the Psalm. That he ‘makes me lie down’ and ‘leads me’. I was struck afresh by how active those descriptions are – the first sounds a tad aggressive even (well, authoritative is perhaps a better word). But then that may be in response to my own actions…
I know I started lockdown with all the best intentions – helping my husband with the huge learning curve of getting church online and producing content each week, supporting our kids not only with online learning but also their spiritual health, keeping the groups I’m involved with in church connected via different online meetings and special events and being in daily contact with my family as we had just lost our mum/wife, as well as dealing with a heavier (but enjoyable) workload (which included finishing the book on marriage my husband and I have written).
It wasn’t really a surprise that there was a physical and emotional cost to what I was doing. I should have read the warning signs earlier but, even when I had, there was little I could suddenly drop.
I did enjoy a wonderful online retreat, led by the amazing Sharon Brown, in which I had space to process grief but also hear from God about my need for rest. But, as sometimes happens, directly after that, there seemed to be a kick back – life was suddenly more challenging and I found my journal littered with questions for God about why he would tell me to rest, when he knew what was going to happen!
I know that all I need is found in God, and he is always with me, but there are times when circumstances can seem completely overwhelming, even when we are doing all the ‘right’ things, connecting with him regularly and looking to him for direction and guidance day by day.
Fast forward to this week. When I can actively see his hand at work. Many of the evening activities that we had planned got cancelled and, just yesterday, I turned to my husband and said: “Maybe we are supposed to just rest in the evenings this week.”
It certainly feels like God has suddenly stepped in and said: “Enough is enough. Just rest.” It doesn’t mean that everything has stopped; I still have lots of work to attend to, and my husband is planning a new preaching series, plus writing his own preach for this weekend. We are also constantly discussing the next steps for the church, now that lockdown is beginning to ease. But, in the midst of all that, it does feel like God is beckoning us to lie down in the green pastures he has prepared for us. That he has refreshment for our souls.
I am reminded that Jesus was busy, but never harassed. He had found those “unforced rhythms of grace” that I long forat times (Matthew 11:28–30, The Message). He could sleep in peace on a boat in the midst of a raging storm (Matthew 8:23–27). The outer circumstances that can so often cause stress did not faze him. He also knew how important it was to take time away with his Father to be refreshed.
These are all things I know, and try to practise purposefully in my own life. But I am glad to know that, when my own efforts fall short, I can rely on the Lord my shepherd to step in to look after me; to make me lie down in order to rest.
Reflection: What about you? Does this resonate with where you are at? Is God leading you beside quiet waters today? Make sure to follow wherever he leads…
This interaction between Peter and Jesus is one that always causes a heart response in me, because it beautifully reveals how God restores us.
This was the first time that Peter had spoken one on one with Jesus since the resurrection – and since that horrifying day when he had disowned him, and then watched him die an agonising death. Peter had been so sure of himself, so sure that he would stand by Jesus no matter what (see Mark 14) and yet Jesus knew that Peter would deny him three times.
How all of that must have played heavily on Peter’s mind, even after Jesus appeared, resurrected, to them all. He must have felt that he had blown it and yet what does Jesus do in this interaction between them? In a beautiful display of forgiveness and reinstatement, he asks Peter three times: ‘do you love me?’ By the third time, Peter was feeling hurt and yet, although tough at the time, those three questions were for the three denials. Jesus was bringing restoration. As I explain in my book Taking Off the Mask:
‘The first two times, the Greek word he [Jesus] uses for love is agape, which means self-sacrificial love. The first time it is in the context of the group; the second he is focusing on just Peter. The third time the word Jesus uses is phileis, from the word philos, which means beloved or friend. Here Jesus is talking about brotherly affection. I believe, through this process, he is asking Peter to both confront his past mistakes and look honestly at what his true feelings and motivations are. Jesus uses this to redeem Peter and charges him with the task of looking after the church: ‘feed my sheep’ (v.17)’
It may be that during this time of lockdown you have struggled in certain areas. Being in close quarters with family has certainly brought out the best, but also the worst, in all of us in my household, and I know we’ve had to learn to apologise to one another quickly. We have found, as time has gone on, that patience has worn thinner and we have been less gracious towards one another. We have had to recognise our mistakes and bring peace and restoration to our relationships.
One of the things I think God has been stirring in many of us is the necessity of looking at our usual priorities. Do our lives need recalibrating in any way? Are there practises that we need to discard, and new ones we need to put into place going forward?
And what about our motivations? We watched on in horror at the murder of George Floyd, but many of us have since been learning that not being racist is not enough – we must show that we are anti-racist and stand in unity with one another. We need to search our hearts for our own wrong attitudes and actions, and be quick to repentance.
How reassuring it is that we serve a God whose mercies are new every morning, who remains faithful and true – and who provides us with a fresh start when we need one.
