Tag: time

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…