God is in the business of celebrating life… since the
beginning of creation; God marvelled at his creation and saw that it was good.
He also saw man as his ultimate creation… We were made in his image, and with
the breath of the Holy Spirit, we were born to be in relationship and unity
with God and with each other.
We should be joyful of our place in creation… We were
birthed in love, and are parented in love. Jesus is the author and perfector of
our faith. As we learn to put our trust in him we begin to experience changes
in our lives by first recognising the things in our character that need to be
refined. When we see these areas, it is important for us to place it at the
cross. If we confess our sin, Jesus is faithful to forgive us our sins and will
purify us from all the wrong we do (1 John 9).
So how big is our God? Is he capable of dealing with all of
the things hidden away that we want to keep separate from our conscious
thought? Some of this stuff is areas of our lives that perhaps we are ashamed
of. The pain of past hurts; the damage done by well intentioned people who
misunderstood our needs and gave poor advice; selfish people who have used and
abused us; constantly giving of ourselves without acknowledgment for the service we offer... there are endless combinations aren't there?
The stuff that seems to be cemented within the core of our
very being like a heavy weight; the times when we are by ourselves, when our
soul tends to shudder; when we think about that time when... Well God wants to
be in that too. Some stuff is repetitive. Areas of our lives that we keep
returning to again and again almost like a default programme – we suddenly find
ourselves in the place we hate being in, having missed all the signals that
pushed us down the cul-de-sac in the first place.
We have the things that are done to us and the things that
are done by us. With God there are no blind-eye’s as Admiral Nelson is famous
for (pretending not to see something in plain sight – in Nelson’s case he chose
to NOT see a flag to withdraw from battle); choosing to ignore. Making a choice
is being in a state of rebellion. When we choose how we want to behave against
the established protocols or etiquette of life; or fighting against Gods order.
Our souls have been born into a state of rebellion since the fall – we make
poor choices.
When presented with the gospel, we heard that there was a
new way to live. Jesus made a number of statements about himself that those who
are in rebellion with God, and those warring with their internal conscience over
the scars they have picked up on life’s journey, can find hope. Jesus said that
he was the way, the truth and the life… He said that all who are weary and
heavy laden should come to him and find rest… Jesus said that he whoever drinks the water I
give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life. In Jesus there is no shame
in bringing to him our internal battles and leaving them.
We do this through prayerful contemplation in who we are, in
what we have become, and in what we hope for in the future. We recognise that
there are areas in our lives we need God for! As we grow in faith, we are
willing to give to God that bit of our life we are willing to surrender to him.
Pride is not a modern phenomenon but is often a root in why we won’t give up
our buried past… it’s too painful isn’t it. We try to survive as best we can.
Our sometimes random behaviour, bouts of depression of self doubt, low esteem
and anxiety are all natural emotional states that can be dealt with positively.
We cannot do this alone – but we try to.
God doesn’t want us to be this way. He wants us to have life
in all of its fullness. Sometimes it is healthy to feel anxious when involved
in a perilous activity like parachuting. We need the adrenalin rush to cope
with the anxiety… we need the security of the parachute to quell our fear and
an object in which we can place our trust, the law of gravity, and the toggles
that act as the rudder to guide us to the safe landing point.
Taking the leap of faith with God is the same anxiety we
experience when we give up harmful behaviours, negative emotions and the
baggage of life that we pick up, or are put on us. Faith helps us to give up
that thing in our lives that harms us – were dealing with our emotions it is going
to be painful. Does our emotional pain and our response to that pain define who
we are and what we would become?
God doesn’t want to be just the parachute; he isn’t some
psychological crutch; he wants to be the air in which we fall through! The
abandon of free falling without feeling restricted by sin is the climate that
God wants us to be in. There are boundaries to the journey (gravity and
direction of travel) that God has written throughout his word that instruct,
encourage and empower our choices. God places us into a carefully constructed
safe haven described by Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your mind, and with all your soul… And love your neighbour as yourself. If
we are doing this on our journey, then we are on the right track!
We can grow in our love for God because we see him at work
in our lives. We see him at work in our life by offering to him those things we
have already mentioned and leave them in his hands. Sometimes the change is
instant. We still see today God’s miraculous intervention in the lives of the
people…
Prayer is where we meet with God in our most vulnerable
times… What, you don’t hear God when you pray…? How long did you wait in his
presence to hear what he has to say? On a superficial level we might pray for a
car park space… But if we want to see more of God at work, how often do you
seek God in prayer… we need to trust him with our intimate thoughts. A place we
can put down our mask(s) before God who like any parent, already
instinctively knows of our need before we ask. This is both an emotionally
scary and profound moment because we are giving of our selves… Jesus talked
about dying to self – Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
God gives us free will to disclose
what we are prepared to offer of our selves. God is ALWAYS knocking on our door
(Rev 3:20) – He really does want us to live a fulfilled life, whatever our
circumstances, however life is treating us… we have to open the door
prayerfully and with hope. We cannot stay in the same place forever if we wish
to remain healthy. God honours our integrity by not interfering – he knows how
much we can bear but at the same time, longs for us to reach out to him in
faith. Prayer calls down heaven to earth… as we petition God with our requests,
we enter into a relationship; a dialogue. We use our understanding of the truth
of scripture and the promise’s God has made to his people to trust that he will
work through all things for good.
Our desire should be to turn to God
no matter what. We need to develop sensitivity to what we need and what God’s
will is for our lives. If we can tune these two in to each other, then we can
endure; we can learn to become resilient; not just survive and get blown from
pillar to post; to live abundant lives, enjoying every moment.
Jesus says in a parable that you
don’t put new wine into old wine skins… We can’t keep asking God to fill up our
old nature with his spirit so we can survive another day. Rather we should seek
to be born again by the renewing of our hearts and minds through the anointing
of the Holy Spirit. He is our comfort in time of need; our counsellor in times
of confession; and the power by which we live.
None of this is easy to do… life is
hard! We believe in a supernatural God who has won us for himself through the
actions of his son Jesus. We have to learn to live a naturally supernatural
life – depending on God to help us in the every day. Jesus led by example. He
got out of bed early to wrestle in prayer; he observed what his father was
doing and followed his lead; he was filled with the Spirit, yet understood the
need for dialogue with his father.
We, like Jesus are designed to tune
into God. Spending time with our father as Jesus did, keeps our souls in check.
Spending time with our father builds relationship with him and helps us to
develop understanding. Learning to listen helps us to hear God’s voice during
the day. It makes it easier for us to hear the guidance he offers to us. It makes
it easier for us to process what we hear, and it prepares our hearts and minds
to respond to God’s call for our life. So start slowly and work up. Bringing
the small things to him, will then make it easier to bring the larger things to
him because our faith will have been grown by seeing answer’s to prayer. So
start today.
The X and P are greek letters for the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ
In English, this word translates as Christ - I rather like it.
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