 
# MY LITTLE CHATS WITH GOD

## Bible Meditations For Daily Life

## \- Revised and Expanded -

## by Lynn B. Fowler

Published by Lynn B. Fowler at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is © Lynn Fowler 2009 and 2015. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Edition published in 2009 by Lulu

Revised and expanded edition published 2015

Digital edition published 2015

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The World English Bible (Public Domain) on <http://ebible.org/>

Quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

### DEDICATION

This book is dedicated

to the King of the Universe

who allows His child

to climb up on His knee

and chatter away.

### A SPECIAL REQUEST

If you enjoy reading this book and think it has value for the Body of Christ, please help more people to find it by writing a review on your favourite online book store.

#### SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

If you are an Australian pastor or group leader and would like Lynn Fowler to speak at your church or group, please contact her through her web site, http://lynnbfowler.com

#### OTHER EDITIONS

To learn about other editions of this book visit the book's website, http://mylittlechatswithgod.lynnbfowler.com

#### AUDIO MESSAGE

Scan the QR Code below to hear a message from the author.

#### ALSO BY LYNN B. FOWLER

Real, Radical and Revolutionary - Building Kingdom Relationships with God, with Each Other and with the World

Called to Battle

### CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Joshua 1:8

BIND UP THE BROKENHEARTED

Isaiah 61:1

QUIT GRIZZLING!

Philippians 2:14

CHILD'S PLAY

Matthew 18:3

DON'T BE GREEDY

Luke 12:15

DON'T LIE TO ME!

Proverbs 12:22

FOLLOW ME

1 Corinthians 11:1

FOOLISH THINGS

1 Corinthians 1:27

GET OVER IT!

Isaiah 43:18

GIVE US COMFORTABLE GODS

Exodus 32:1

GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS

Lamentations 3:23-24

GREED

Isaiah 5:8

HOW BIG IS LOVE?

1John 4:10

I'LL KILL HER!

Matthew 5:21-22

I'M LISTENING

I Samuel 3:10

IT'S SO SIMPLE

John 6:28-29

IT'S WORKING FOR GOOD

Romans 8:28

I WANT A WORD WITH YOU, LORD

Jeremiah 12:1

### CONTENTS continued

JUST BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

Deuteronomy 7:7-8a

JUST DO IT!

John 2:5

JUST KEEP ON PLODDIN'

Isaiah 40:31

LET IT RAIN

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

Isaiah 53:7

LIVING FAITH

James 2:26

LIVING STREAMS

John 7:38

LOVE AND DISCIPLINE

Proverbs 13:24

MORE THAN CONQUERORS

Romans 8:36

WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP

Romans 12:15

NO DISCRIMINATION

Psalm 36:7

NO FEAR

Isaiah 43:1

ONCE DOWN, TWICE UP

Micah 7:8

RAINBOWS

Genesis 9:13

REJOICE?

Philippians 4:4

REMIND ME, LORD

John 14:26

ROAD KILL

Matthew 10:29-31

STRENGTH IN GOD

1 Samuel 30: 6

### CONTENTS continued

STRESSED OUT

2 Corinthians 1:8

TESTED BY PRAISE

Proverbs 27:21

THANKFULNESS

Psalm 95:2a

THANK YOU FOR TOES, LORD

1Corinthians 12:22

THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART

Psalm 37:4

THE HEAVENS DECLARE

Psalm 19:1

THE LIVING DEAD

Revelation 3:1b

THE LORD NEEDS IT

Luke 19:30-31

A LUKEWARM SHOWER

Revelation 3:15-16

A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS

Isaiah 6:5

A QUIET PLACE

Mark 6:31

ARROGANT, OVERFED AND UNCONCERNED

Ezekiel 16:49

SUNSHINE FOR ALL

Matthew 5:45

BREAK UP THE FALLOW GROUND

Hosea 10:12

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Daniel 12:4

CHOOSE LIFE

Deuteronomy 30:19

CLAY POTS

2 Corinthians 4:7

COSTLY OFFERINGS

2 Samuel 24:24

### CONTENTS continued

FORGET THE HORSES!

Jeremiah 12:5

GIVE ME THAT FUN-TIME RELIGION

Micah 2:11

HOPE FOR BRUISED REEDS

Isaiah 42:3a

IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

John 4:24

THE FOOD POLICE

Matthew 15:11

THE OWNER'S STAMP

Matthew 22:20-21

WHO? ME?

Judges 6:12

ABIDING IN THE VINE

John 15:5

HOW GREAT THOU ART

Psalm 8:3-4

A NEW DAY

Psalm 118:24

WASTED ON JESUS

Mark 14:4-5

HE AIN'T HEAVY ...

Galatians 6:2

WHAT GOES ROUND, COMES ROUND

Proverbs 11: 25

WHEN A BLESSING IS A CURSE

Proverbs 27:14

WHO HEALS ALL YOUR DISEASES

Psalm 103:3

CONTENTMENT

1 Timothy 6:6

TEST GOD?

Malachai 3:10

LIFT, DON'T KNOCK

1 Thessalonians 5:11

### CONTENTS continued

WALKING BY LAMPLIGHT

Psalm 119:105

SAFETY ZONE

Joel 3:16

WHATEVER IS LOVELY

Philippians 4:8

UNFINISHED PROJECTS

Ecclesiastes 7:8

WALK HUMBLY

Micah 6:8

NOT ASHAMED

Romans 1:16

THIRSTING FOR GOD

Psalm 42:1

WRATH AND MERCY

Habakkuk 3:2

STILL STANDING

Ephesians 6:13

DON'T PRAY!

Jeremiah 11:14

SEEKING GOD'S FACE

Psalm 27:8

DON'T BUTT IN!

Proverbs 18:13

THE CHEER SQUAD

Hebrews 12:1

A SECURE FUTURE

Psalm 31:15

SHARP WORDS

Proverbs 12:18

BREAKING THE DROUGHT

Isaiah 44:3

A PEP TALK

Psalm 42:11

LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

Proverbs 3:3-4

### CONTENTS continued

A WORD OR A BEATING

Proverbs 17:10

TIME FLIES

Psalm 144:4

ALL IN THE SAME BOAT

Jeremiah 45:4-5

SELF DECEPTION

Proverbs 16:2

WHERE'S YOUR TRUST?

Psalm 20:7

IF YOU SAY SO

Lamentations 3:37

CYNICISM OR DISCERNMENT?

Proverbs 14:6

THE CONTEMPT OF COMFORT

Job 12:5

JESUS WEPT

John 11:35.

NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

2 Kings 5: 13

BEAUTIFUL FEET

Isaiah 52:7

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Mark 10:51

DIFFERENT WAYS

Isaiah 55:8

SHOW ME THE WAY

Proverbs 3:6

HOPE AGAINST HOPE

Romans 4:18

FRIENDSHIP

I Sam 18:1

TRIALS AND JOY

James 1:2

TWO EARS, ONE MOUTH

James 1:19

### CONTENTS continued

BLINDED BY PRIDE

John 8:33

DIVIDED LOYALTIES

1 Samuel 23:17

HOW MANY DOES GOD NEED?

1 Sam 14:6 (b)

THE ETERNAL WORD

Ps 119:89

NAGGING GOD

Isaiah 62: 6b-7

NO SHARED GLORY

Isaiah 42:8

THINK AS I THINK

Phil. 2:5

MEET THE AUTHOR

SNEAK PEEK \- CALLED TO BATTLE

###  INTRODUCTION

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night ...

Joshua 1:8

One of the most important spiritual disciplines we can develop in our Christian walk is that of Bible meditation. Quite different from New Age meditation, which seeks to make the mind blank, Bible meditation takes a verse of Scripture and "chews" upon it, seeking to draw out as much of the message it contains as possible.

A good way to do that is to talk about it, to ask questions, to seek insights. Of course, you could do this with other people in a group, or just by yourself in private. To me, it makes sense, if one is asking questions about a book and the author is present, to address those questions to the author. So, the questions and conversation in this book are addressed to the Lord.

The language of this book is deliberately informal. It is not intended to be an academic study, but rather a personal journey. I have chosen to picture God sitting just across the breakfast table from me, a cup of coffee in one hand and a slice of toast in the other, as I chat to Him about the issues of ordinary, day-to-day life and their relationship to His Word.

I do not presume to speak for God, but I believe that His Spirit has led me to the conclusions I have drawn. Those conclusions are often challenging, confronting the areas that I see in my own life and in the Body of Christ that maybe don't quite line up with the Word.

These meditations are only brief, but don't rush through them. To get the most out of this book, sit down with a pen and paper and record your own thoughts about each meditation. Does the situation to which it speaks apply in your own life? What conclusions does the Holy Spirit bring to you from this verse? How can you apply it?

I pray that this book will be a blessing to you, and will draw you into your own "little chats with God" allowing the Word to shed its light on your own life and experiences.

###  BIND UP THE BROKENHEARTED

The Lord Yahweh's Spirit is on me; ...

He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted

Isaiah 61:1

There's a tree down the back of our block that groans terribly in the wind, Lord. It got damaged in a storm a year ago - split vertically half way down its trunk. Now whenever there's a reasonably strong wind, the broken bit sways back and forth, pulling away from the remaining tree then swinging back to it, ever so slowly extending the crack further down its length. One of these days there will be an almighty crack and crash, and that will be the end of it. Meanwhile, it groans: a most horrible, mournful sound, like a wounded animal.

That tree reminds me of some people, Lord. They have been so badly wounded that it is as if they are split from themselves, and they sway in the wind, all the while making their misery known to anyone who has ears to listen. One day, everyone around them knows, they will crack completely. Meanwhile they suffer, and not in silence.

Yet it occurred to me, Lord, that if it were possible for someone to get up that tree and somehow bind the broken bit back to the remaining trunk, then in time the tree would grow new layers covering both sections and binding them together. There would probably be a scar where it happened, but the tree would be essentially whole.

It seems to me such a good illustration of what You were talking about when You said that You came to bind up the broken-hearted If we will allow You, You bring the broken pieces of our lives back together and wrap them up in Your Spirit until they are knitted back into a whole. Yes, there will probably be a scar from the process, a reminder of where we have been and how Your grace has brought us through, but we end up as whole people.

Thank You, Lord, that You do that for us. But Lord, we are Your Body. If You, the Head, were anointed to bind up the broken-hearted, then surely Your Body is, too.

Help me, Lord, to be one who would bind the cords of Your love around the wounds of others, so that they too may heal and become strong, whole people.

### QUIT GRIZZLING!

Do all things without murmurings and disputes...

Philippians 2:14

How great it would be if everyone followed this word, Lord! Sometimes it seems that no matter what people are asked to do -- and no matter how much it fits within their job description -- there is always a grizzle about it. It's too hard, or it's silly, or they're too busy at the moment, or it really should be done some other way ... On and on it goes. Often you feel it would be easier simply to do the job yourself!

Then there are the shop assistants who don't complain or argue: they simply ignore you. They are far too busy talking on the phone, or stacking shelves, or reading a magazine, to take time out to attend to those pesky customers!

Of course, You get it all the time, don't You Lord. Throughout history, most of the time when You have told Your people to do something they have grumbled and griped and carried on like a pork chop in a synagogue. Even when they do finally obey You, You must wonder sometimes whether the whole process is really worth it.

The same applies on a personal level. You tell us individually to do something, and so often You have to drag us kicking and screaming all the way to actually get it done. Even when we don't blatantly resist You, we put it off; we pretend we haven't heard; we find excuses. Why You persist in trying to work with us, I really don't know.

And, being honest, I have to say that I am pretty much like everyone else. But, Lord, I really don't want to be like that. When You speak, I want to respond willingly and without complaint. Change my heart, Lord.

###  CHILD'S PLAY

... unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matthew 18:3

Lord, I can't imagine that when You spoke these words You were suggesting that immaturity is something to be desired. Or that it is good to be uneducated. Or that we should all go back to playing with cars in the dirt.

And I'm sure You weren't so naive as to suggest that children are perfect little angels. You, who know all things, surely knew that every child has within him the capacity to be an obnoxious little brat (usually at precisely the time when his parents are trying to impress somebody.) You would have known that no child has to be taught to be naughty: rather, they have to be trained to conform to the standards of Your Word, their parents, and society at large.

So what were You getting at, Lord? What do kids have that is so important that the lack of it could keep someone from entering Your kingdom?

When I think of all the qualities that kids have, the one that seems to fit best is their trust. If a grown-up tells them something, they simply accept it. Or at least they do up to a certain age (which sadly is becoming younger and younger!) Up to that certain age they also believe that big people are invincible. That as long as Mummy and Daddy are around, they are safe. And that "my Daddy can beat your Daddy."

I guess that's how You want us to come to You. Simply trusting that what You say is right. Trusting that You are invincible, that in You we are safe, and that You not only can beat anything that attacks us, but already have.

###  DON'T BE GREEDY

He said to them, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses."

Luke 12:15

They had a DVD sale at the department store today, Lord. I picked up a movie that I had seen and loved. Then I thought, "This is ridiculous. I have DVDs at home that I never watch. If I buy this, it will be just for the sake of having it. I really don't need it." So I put it back. I was so proud of myself, Lord!

It did make me think, though. How often do we buy something just because it's there? I've always thought of myself as not particularly materialistic - I can quite happily survive without a great deal of "stuff" - yet I still fall into this trap.

How easy it is to get caught up with things! Sometimes we are just like little kids let loose in a candy shop - we just want to grab and grab and grab.

Not that I believe it's Your purpose for people to live in poverty, Lord. I see too much in Your Word that says You want to supply all our needs, and to do so not in a just-barely-scrape-by sort of way, but abundantly.

On the other hand, I have seen far too much of people who don't have a choice but to live in poverty - children begging in streets; families crowded into bamboo and rice sack homes smaller than my bedroom; people spending their lives using a household hammer to chip big rocks into gravel, and earning less than $2 per day for their effort - to ever be able to justify extravagance for myself.

I think of Paul, who said that he had learned to be content with either plenty or lack. His focus was on You, Lord. I guess that's what it's all about. The possessions are nice when we have them, as long as we can remember to share what we have and not hold anything too tightly. But there is no need for us to keep accumulating "stuff" just for the sake of having it. If we do, then there is the danger that the "stuff" could become central, instead of You.

On the other hand, even if we lose all the "stuff," as long as we have You we are rich.

###  DON'T LIE TO ME!

Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh,

but those who do the truth are his delight.

Proverbs 12:22

Lord, I'm really ticked off! I just quit from one of the volunteer organisations in which I had been involved. Very simply, they lied to me - or at least, the leader did.

I'm sure he did it because he thought he was "protecting me" from a truth that may have been a bit hurtful, but it was totally unnecessary, not to mention insulting. I'm a big girl, and perfectly capable of looking after my own feelings. By "protecting me" he was saying that he thought I was too weak and pathetic to be able to handle the situation. By his lies he prevented me from having an input into the decision, and offering an alternative which could have been acceptable to all concerned.

Why is it, Lord, that people sometimes have such an aversion to the truth? Surely they know that sooner or later the lie is bound to be found out? Do they imagine that people will not care that they have lied? Do they like it when other people lie to them? It wouldn't be so bad if the lie were about something important - protecting secrets of state or the like - but most of the time when people lie it is about things which, if the truth were told, would be easily remedied satisfactorily.

Then I think about the times we try to lie to You, Lord. We make promises to You that we know we are never going to keep. We make excuses that we know are not really valid. We try to convince ourselves, as if by convincing ourselves we will also convince You. Boy, is that ever dumb! How can we imagine that You, who know all things, will not know the truth of our hearts?

But how does it make You feel, Lord? Do you get as ticked off when we lie to You as I did when this guy lied to me? I guess even more so, huh? After all, I'm only a human, with the same weaknesses as the guy who lied, but You are Truth.

Help me to walk in Your truth, Lord, both in my words and my lifestyle. Most of all, help me to be honest in my relationship with You.

###  FOLLOW ME

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1

Boy, Paul was really sticking his neck out here, Lord. I mean, it's one thing to tell people that they should follow You. Of course they should: You're perfect. No-one could ever possibly go wrong following You.

Telling them to follow us is a different kettle of fish all together! We fail so often. Even when we are not actively sinning, we miss the mark. We get things upside down and inside out. We recognise an error in one direction, and in our reaction against it we go to the opposite extreme, and fall into an equal or greater error. Do You really want to trust us to tell people to follow us?

But then, I guess that was always Your plan, wasn't it? For reasons best known to Yourself (and certainly waaaaay beyond the comprehension of my tiny mind) You have always chosen to use people.

You chose Noah, the only good egg in a world full of evil - who celebrated his deliverance by getting drunk.

You chose Abraham, the father of faith who didn't trust You enough to protect him from those who might kill him to take his beautiful wife.

You chose Moses, who first tried to deliver the people of Israel in his own strength, and then forty years later when You wanted to send him to do the job told You he couldn't speak well enough.

You chose Peter, who found it impossible to remember for twenty four hours his promise to follow You unto death.

Excuse me, Lord, but either You're a really lousy judge of character (something which I can't believe) or there's something else going on here. Are our very character flaws part of the whole deal? Is it about the fact that, even when we fall, fail, and miss it totally, by Your grace we can still pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and point in the direction of Your purposes again?

Perhaps, if we only had Your perfection to follow, we could too easily give up after the first fall. When we are following someone as weak and imperfect as we are, we learn that each fall is only a learning station along the way.

Lord, help me to live in such a way that people can follow You by following me. And when I fail, help me to be transparent enough for others to see Your grace through my failure.

###  FOOLISH THINGS

... but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise.

1 Corinthians 1:27 (NIV)

You know, Lord, there are times when I feel very weak and foolish. Others have achieved far more than I have in their Christian lives. They are more recognised, and have greater influence. Everything about them says that they are "significant" and "influential." They are the "greats," the "superstars" of the Christian world.

Me, I'm just ordinary, Lord. I sometimes wonder whatever prompted You to call me to Your service. I certainly didn't have a lot to bring with me: just a whole heap of problems that You have gradually worked on and put right over the years we have walked together. Oh, and a few that you are still working on.

Yes, I am a very different person now to when we first met, thanks to the power of Your Spirit. But I'm still ordinary.

I think of all the great, talented, sophisticated, special people You could have called: but You called me. Did You get confused, Lord? Did You accidentally point at the wrong person? Did You get me mixed up with somebody else - someone who would have had far more to offer?

Then I think of the people I have hired in my secular work at times. Sometimes the ones with the best credentials - the ones who, on paper, looked like a definite first choice – turned out to be the ones with whom I had the greatest problems. They had their own agendas, and their pride would not allow them to properly listen to and follow instructions. They always knew better.

The ones that looked like plodders – well, they plodded; but they plodded faithfully and diligently, and came out way ahead of the "superstars."

I guess it works the same way in Your Kingdom, Lord. The dazzling superstars sometimes burn out, or are too busy doing their own thing. We ordinary ones, we know we are totally dependent on You, and since You are the only One who can make this life work, that puts us right at the front.

###  GET OVER IT!

Don't remember the former things, and don't consider the things of old.

Isaiah 43:18

For some reason I found myself thinking of Mrs Jones this morning, Lord. You remember that lady in the nursing home where I used to minister 40 years ago. She was a sad case: every time I saw her she would go over and over the things that her family had done to her 50 years before. She had never forgiven them, and was adamant that she never would. She just couldn't see that it was her own bitter, tormented soul that was suffering. Her family had moved on; she never had.

People like her make me sad, Lord, because I know that You said that our receiving forgiveness from You is linked to our extending forgiveness to others. Did Mrs J. die, still bitter and unforgiving? If she did, did she forfeit her salvation because of it? What a horrible price to pay, Lord, for the questionable pleasure of holding a grudge.

Yet, Lord, I know that it's not only through unforgiveness that we can hold on to the past and so miss out on the great new things that You want to do in our lives. Just when we are ready to move forward into something new, the failures of the past can jump up and grab us round the ankles, hissing at us that we failed before and we will fail again.

Even the successes of the past can sometimes pop up in front of us, boldly insisting that "It'll never be that good again, so don't even try."

Help me, Lord, to remember that You are the "I AM" not the "I WAS." You are the God of now. Help me to learn the lessons of the past so that I don't repeat the mistakes, and to use the victories of the past to give me courage and motivation for the victories of today. Help me to leave everything else of the past, in the past, and move on.

###  GIVE US COMFORTABLE GODS

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us..."

Exodus 32:1

There are times when I really don't understand Your people, Lord. I mean, I can understand sin - You well know, I've done enough of it in my time! Any sin is dumb, really, when you think about the consequences. But I know the kind of crazy thinking (or not thinking) that leads us into it.

What I can't understand is things like this. There You were, shaking the mountain and putting on an incredible show with thunder and lightening and the like. The people had been so scared by the whole scene that they pushed for Moses to go up and meet with You, whilst they remained in safety down on the plain. Surely it must have been absolutely impossible for any of them to deny Your reality.

Yet in the middle of it they come to Aaron and say, "Make us gods!"

Excuse me, didn't any of you guys notice the One shaking the mountain? Can you have gotten so used to it in less than six weeks that you can ignore the fireworks going on in the background? Have you already forgotten the stark terror that caused you to push Moses forward while you retreated at an unseemly gallop?

You know, Lord, I think there was something else going on. They wanted Aaron to make gods for them not because they didn't believe in You, but because they were so aware of Your reality.

Simply, You were too big for them. They wanted gods that they could manage, gods who would go ahead of them - to where they wanted to go. Obviously, that was not You. They knew there was no way they could control You: the only thing they could do with You was to obey. And if You were going to lead, it would be where You wanted, not where they wanted.

So they chose to pretend that the lightening and thunder wasn't happening, that You didn't exist. "Aaron, just make us some comfortable gods...." But their comfortable gods were powerless and uncaring. Lord, keep me from comfortable gods!

###  GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS

It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Great is Your faithfulness! We say it. We pray it. We sing it. Yet I wonder, Lord, if we ever even begin to really see the depth of it.

Faithfulness implies a commitment. When Your Word talks about Your faithfulness, it means that You have made a commitment to us. To me. A commitment sealed with the blood of Jesus shed at Calvary. You have brought me into covenant with Yourself - a contract so binding that no force in heaven or earth can break it. That's awesome, Lord!

That covenant faithfulness means that You will never let go of me. When things go wrong in my life, You don't cut and run. When I make wrong - or just plain, downright stupid - choices, You don't turn Your back on me. Even when I really spit the dummy and am totally unlovable, You don't walk away from the relationship. You just keep pursuing. Wooing. Drawing. Convicting. Challenging. Occasionally even clipping me over the ear to get my attention - but even when You do that, it isn't out of a desire to hurt me, but to turn me back to Yourself.

People are different, Lord. People have deserted me when I have offended them, even though I didn't mean to. People have broken the relationship because I wouldn't allow them to control me. People have pulled away when I didn't meet their standards - even when they themselves didn't meet their own standards.

But then, I guess there have been times when I have done all those things, and worse, to others.

Lord, I'm so glad that You are different from people. I'm so glad that You are different from me. Your faithfulness is based on Your character, not on mine or those of other people. You never change. Therefore Your faithfulness is rock solid. You never back down on Your commitment to me.

Thank You Lord.

### GREED

Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!

Isaiah 5:8

Lord, who would have thought that Your Word would have something to say to the corporate giants of the twenty-first century? We see it all the time - takeovers and more takeovers, all the time trying to do exactly what this verse says: to become the only one in the land.

Of course, we all know that if one of them does achieve monopoly, without competition prices will go through the roof and service will go down the gurgler.

Yet it seems to me that You are speaking here of a principle that applies on a much wider spectrum. Most of us will never be heading up huge corporations, yet greed can be a problem even for the least of us. So often we are not satisfied with enough, we want more than enough. We want not only our own share, but the share of everyone around us.

Sometimes Christians even refer to You as "the God of more than enough." That's true, in the sense that You are not tight-fisted in Your dealings with us. You are a God of abundance, as demonstrated by the great, abundant universe You have created. And that's great, as long as the "more" is being used for Your kingdom.

So often, though, it's simply more for us. We have a home, but we want a holiday house as well. We have one car, but we want another. Adding, always adding. Expanding, ever expanding. The more we have, the more we want. Enough is never enough for us.

We strive and struggle to get more. We put time and effort that could be better spent into accumulating more than we need. Sometimes we even ride roughshod over others to expand our possessions.

Lord, teach us to be content with enough.

###  HOW BIG IS LOVE?

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1John 4:10

Lord, I love You. I know those words are easy to say, but I really, really mean them. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with love for You, I just want to pour out everything I am before You. Sometimes I love You so much it hurts. My love for You seems so big.

Then I think about how I express my love for You, Lord. You said that if we love You, we will obey You. I think of how often I fall short of Your standards, and how far.

You said that if we love You, we will love one another. I think of the people to whom I am less than loving: the know-it-all who pushes my buttons so easily; the ones I have labelled as stupid or selfish or contemptible. So many of them, Lord.

You said that if we cannot love our brothers and sisters whom we can see, then we do not love You whom we cannot see. By that standard, Lord, my love for You seems so small.

Your love is different. Your love is consistent. Your love is not just words or feelings: You backed Your love with Your actions, and continue to do so.

If my salvation depended on my love, Lord, I wouldn't have a snowflake's hope in hell. My love is too small, too shallow, too vacillating.

Only Your love is deep and wide and strong and steadfast enough to bring me through.

Thank You that Your love has gone before me. Thank You that as Your love works in my soul and spirit, my love can begin to grow into the footprints You have set for it.

###  I'LL KILL HER!

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, 'You shall not murder;' and 'Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgement.' But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgement ...

Matthew 5:21-22

I am so mad at that woman, Lord! She's one of my team in my secular work, and as a staff member she is a dead loss. Not only did she not do what she should have done in the first place, even when I brought it to her attention last week - a week after it should have been done - she still didn't do it. Then she covered up and told me she had done it, leaving me with egg on my face when my boss wanted to know why it hadn't been done. And then, just to make things worse, she disappears off the face of the planet for a day, not answering either her home phone or her mobile.

Shooting is too quick and easy. I want to boil her in oil!

It didn't help at all that I was so cranky when I went to bed last night that I ended up only getting about four hours sleep - and those four hours were filled with dreams of murder and mayhem.

Of course, I wouldn't really harm her physically - and I have been very civil in my dealing with her, even whilst making it very clear that I am not at all happy. Still, I almost certainly will fire her. Firing her is totally justified, even though it will be a pain in the neck for me and even worse for the poor soul who has to take over her workload.

Nonetheless, I need to address my responses, don't I Lord? This whole situation was so infuriating - and it isn't the first time she has let me down. But my anger has not shown forth Your glory. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sure You would have handled this situation very differently. The problem is not the responses that she has seen, but my reactions in myself. I don't normally get angry like this, You know that, Lord. The force of my reaction to this has shown me something rather ugly about myself.

Next time, Lord, help me to react out of Your peace. Help me to confront the problem, not the person. If I do get angry, let it be the kind of anger that does not move into sin.

Lord, I really don't want to have to face You on a charge of murder, even if it is only in my heart.

###  I'M LISTENING

Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak; for your servant hears."

I Samuel 3:10

I love this story, Lord. Here's this young kid, Samuel. He's the answer to his mothers prayers, literally, so she hands him over to the service of the Temple from a very early age. He's known nothing in his short life but Your service, yet really he knows very little of You. So little, that when You first speak to him he thinks that it's old Eli the priest.

Yet once Eli sets him straight, and tells him that the voice calling him is You, he responds so readily: "Speak, for Your servant is listening."

It's not just words to him; not just some kind of glib formula to rattle off when you don't really know what else to say. He means it. He really is listening. He really is ready not only to hear, but to do.

There's so much we can learn from Samuel, Lord. Your word from beginning to end makes it very clear that You desire to communicate with people. You were doing it all the time, either directly as You did with Samuel and the other prophets, or indirectly through the prophets to others. Your Word itself is part of Your ongoing effort to communicate with Your people, and so is Your Spirit Who, under the New Covenant, You have given to live inside of every one who is truly Yours.

All that being the case, people should be hearing from You left, right and centre. But they're not. And it's not Your fault, it's ours. It's mine.

How often have You been trying to speak to me, but I have been too busy to hear. Too busy doing. Too busy talking. Too busy thinking.

Lord, help me to become still enough to hear You, and available enough to respond to You.

Help me, like Samuel, to say and mean, "Speak, for Your servant is listening."

###  IT'S SO SIMPLE

They said therefore to him, "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

John 6:28-29

Lord, why is it that some people want to make knowing You so complicated? It seems they have a million different hoops they want people to jump through: do this, don't do that; dress this way; talk this way; worship in this building.

Even all that wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't all insist that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

I guess it was the same when you were on earth, Jesus. The Pharisees saying that people had to obey all their petty little regulations, the Saducees insisting that it was all about the Temple and the sacrificial system, and the Zealots who just wanted someone to rise up and lead Israel to throw off the rule of Rome. All of them insisting that theirs was "the work of God."

So I guess when someone asked this question, they all had fingers crossed that You would come down on the side of their particular works program. You must have really shattered them when You effectively told them that they were all wrong, and that what God requires first and foremost is that we believe in You.

Of course, elsewhere in Your Word, You make it clear that "belief" is not mere intellectual assent. It encompasses trust, surrender and obedience. After all, if we believe that You are Lord, then it makes sense that we should act accordingly.

What we need to remember, Lord - what I need You to constantly remind me - is that faith comes first, works follow. When I try to turn it the other way round, I end up not doing Your works, but my own.

###  IT'S WORKING FOR GOOD

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Lord, I remember when You first made this verse so very real to me.

It was a time in my life when some really horrible stuff was happening, and I had just learned that it was about to get a whole heap worse. Then, suddenly, there it was: Your peace filling my heart, and this verse filling my mind.

Things did get worse, much worse. In fact, the months that followed were without question the hardest in my entire life (and You know, Lord, that they've had some pretty stiff competition!)

The thing was, the situation hadn't changed, but I had. Years later, friends told me that they drew strength for their own crises from the way You kept me through that time.

As it turned out, You did indeed work all things for good in that situation. A life which had been heading rapidly in the wrong direction was picked up and turned around. The person concerned paid a high price for his choices, but it could have been so much worse.

So, Lord, I know with all my being that this verse is truth. Why is it, then, that I lose sight of it so easily when things go wrong? How can I so quickly let go of what is so real and personal to me? How can I let the situations of life overwhelm me, when I have known what it is to walk through the very worst of them in Your perfect peace?

It seems I ask it so often, Lord: remind me! Remind me of Your truth. Remind me of Your peace. Remind me that there is absolutely nothing in this world so horrible that it cannot be transformed into good by Your grace.

###  I WANT A WORD WITH YOU, LORD

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

Jeremiah 12:1

Like Jeremiah, Lord, I would like a word with You about the state of Your world today.

Every night on the television news, every morning in the newspapers, I see stories of war, violence and mayhem. It seems like there is not a part of the world where somebody isn't trying to blow up somebody else.

Now this wouldn't seem so bad if it were just the protagonists fighting each other. At least they could say that they had chosen their own fate. I remember old Mrs Murphy, our music teacher in high school who used to say that instead of having wars, we should round up the king or prime minister of all the combatant countries, put them out in the middle of a paddock, and let them fight it out together, whilst the rest of us stood around the fence line and watched. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me, Lord. Then it would only be those who chose to fight that would get killed or wounded. But it's not, Lord. It's the women and kids, the ordinary folk who only want to go about their business and let others go about theirs.

And what about all the injustices, Lord? What about all the people who are denied their rights by unjust governments, or those that have their life savings ripped off by scumbag crooks? What about the crooks that prosper in everything they do, living the high life on other people's hard-earned money? You are a God of Justice. Why don't you bring justice in Your world and stop people behaving this way?

Hmmm.... but then, I guess You don't stop me behaving badly when I choose to, either, do You? And You certainly don't always give me the punishment I deserve for my behaviour!

Whooooops! I guess I'd better back off here, or I could get myself in a whole heap of trouble, couldn't I? But does that mean that we just have to put up with the way the world is? To grin and bear it, and do nothing?

Hold on, Your Word tells me that the problems aren't really people, but the demonic realm. It tells me that You have given us, Your people, authority over them.

Have I missed something? Have I been demanding You to do something, when in fact You have been waiting for me to use the authority that You have already given Me?

Sorry, Lord. Help me to stand for You and be a force for change in my world.

###  JUST BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: but because Yahweh loves you ...

Deuteronomy 7:7-8a

You do realise that this is not a terribly logical statement, don't You, Lord? "Why do I love you? Because I love you." Surely You could have come up with something more informative than that!

Yet, when I think about it, why did You love Your people Israel? Why do You love Your Church today? Why, for that matter, do You love me?

Certainly none of us can lay claim to any qualities that would make us worthy of Your love.

Israel defied You again and again, making false gods even while Moses was up the mountain with You receiving Your commandments, and from then on continually chasing after the false gods of their pagan neighbours. They flouted Your laws at every turn, and when You sent prophets to call them back to Yourself, as often as not they killed those prophets.

Your Church hasn't done much better. Rather than preach the pure Gospel, it fell into syncretism, "christianizing" the false gods. It lost sight of Your grace, lost sight of Your love, lost sight of Your holiness, lost sight of Your power. And even as some of those things have been restored, we are still far short of Your ideal for us.

And me? You know me, Lord! Your Word says that we have all sinned and fallen short of Your glory. To me, that's not just theology, it's reality. I know that You created me in Your image, and that even though I destroyed that image through sin, You have restored me in Christ, and Your purpose for me is that I be conformed to His image. But when I look at myself, I see myself so far short of that. I certainly know that there is nothing in me that deserves Your love.

So I guess, if Your love can find no source - no reason for being - in us, then its only source can be You. So we come back to, You love us... because You love us.

Thank You, Lord, that You have chosen to love me, in spite of me.

###  JUST DO IT!

His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he says to you, do it."

John 2:5

Lord, how easy life would be if we simply took Your mother's advice. Not just when we feel like it. Not just when it seems like a good idea. Not just when it's comfortable. But all the time. And without arguing, disputing, grumbling or throwing a tantrum.

I know that You don't just flap Your mouth around for the fun of it. I know that when You say for us to do something, it is because that is the thing that will bring the best outcome for us. I know that Your wisdom is infinitely above ours, and that You can see consequences and outcomes that we can't even imagine. And I know that to do what You say in any situation is just plain common sense.

So why do I not do it? Sure, I obey You in the big things of life. Yet in the little things, so often I don't even stop to listen to what You're saying, much less follow it. Surely that was the point here. What was at stake was not some great thing. It was not about somebody's salvation, or even their healing. It was just about saving the embarrassment of some poor guy who had run out of wine for his daughter's wedding. Maybe he was slack in the preparation, or maybe the budget had just been stretched as far as it would go.

Either way, even though it surely was embarrassing - even humiliating - and uncomfortable for the host, it would not have even registered on the Richter scale of earth-shattering importance. Even more so for the stewards. They were only there to do a job - it was no skin off their noses if the host was embarrassed. Yet even in that small, unimportant thing: "Just do as He says."

Lord, what would have happened if the stewards had not listened to You? If they had said, "this is stupid!" and gone off in a huff? The world would not have stopped. No-one would have gone to hell because of it. But the host would have suffered. The stewards would have missed the joy and wonder of being part of a miracle. And the guests would have missed out on some really good wine!

Lord, help me to listen for Your voice, even in the little stuff.

And when I hear what You are saying, help me not to quibble, but just to do it.

### JUST KEEP ON PLODDIN'

But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Soaring on wings like eagles sure sounds good to me, Lord. I used to watch the eagles when I lived up on the mountain. Sometimes I see them here, too. They just glide so effortlessly on the wind currents. Life for them is, quite literally, a breeze.

I could really do with that, Lord: to so easily soar above all the dramas and hassles of life, not moved by anything that happens on the earth.

Right now, though, I'm just running. It seems like I've been running for a long, long time, trying madly to keep up with my life, which seems to have taken on a life of its own and always stays several steps ahead of me. I'd like to say that I run and am not weary, Lord, but I would be kidding myself. I'm exhausted. I just want to stop.

Then there are those other times. It's not running, not pressure - but it certainly isn't soaring, either. More like plodding. Just keep putting one foot after the other. Doing the things that have to be done. Trying to keep pointing in the direction of the goal, even though the goal has disappeared into oblivion and I'm no longer certain that it was really there in the first place. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination.

Those times are even harder than the running, Lord. At least when I'm running, the adrenalin keeps me moving. When I'm plodding on there is no adrenalin, no motivation, no rhyme nor reason. Just one foot after the other. Plod on.

Yet this verse tells me that You can be in all those situations, Lord. You can cause us to soar freely when it is time to soar. When we're running, You can give us a strength that, unlike adrenalin, will not run out. And when we're just plodding on, You can motivate us, make the goals clear to us again, and keep us focused so that we don't drop off.

I read somewhere that the word "hope" here is better translated as "entwine." That sounds good to me, Lord. I need to learn to entwine myself with You, so that You carry me, whether I am soaring, running, or just plodding on.

###  LET IT RAIN

... if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

Deuteronomy 11:13-14

Lord, You know that much of Australia has been in the grip of drought for a long time. Your people have cried out to You, and there has been a little relief, but nothing near what is needed.

When I read this verse, it seems like You are giving the reason. Surely, if You say that You will send the rains if we obey You and love and serve You, then if You are withholding the rain it must be because we are not doing those things.

It would be easy for us as Your people to simply write that off as the state of the nation. There are many in this country who don't know You, and who don't want to know You. They are far too comfortable, and undoubtedly need to be shaken out of that comfort zone.

Yet when You spoke these words, You were not talking to the people of the nations, to those who did not know You. You were talking to Your own people, those who were in covenant relationship with You, who had the Law, the priesthood and the prophets.

So I guess that means that in our current situation, it is Your people who need to get our act together. It is Your people who need to turn back to You and repent of our lack of obedience, love and willing service to You.

If we do that, then surely You will send the rain we so desperately need. Even more importantly, You will send the spiritual rain that will refresh and renew this spiritually barren land.

Lord, You have always taught me that whatever I pray for has to begin with me. So, Lord, help me to begin today to love You more passionately, serve You more faithfully, and obey You more readily.

###  LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn't open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:7

Jesus, the Gospels tell me that this prophecy was fulfilled when You stood before Pilate. Even though people were bringing all these ridiculous, trumped-up charges against You, You said nothing.

I don't get it, Lord. I know You had to die to pay the penalty for my sins, as well as those of all the rest of the world, but that mob was determined to kill You no matter what You said.

At least You could have gone out shouting, "I'm innocent!" You would have still died, but You would at least have died as One who was innocent, rather than as a "guilty" criminal.

But hold on.... I guess if You had done that, You would have died as a martyr, but not as a substitute. When You stood before that mockery of a trial, You weren't standing there as You, were You? You were standing there as me – and I was certainly guilty.

What a dilemma that must have been for You: on the one hand knowing Your personal innocence, yet on the other so fully identifying with my sin that You could not deny guilt, or that identification would be destroyed. Wow! You became guilty in the eyes of man's law, so that I could become innocent in the eyes of God's law.

But what about me, Lord? It seems to me that there are times when I should stand up and defend myself, but others when, like you, I should stand in silence and bear the false accusations for the sake of someone else.

Help me, Lord, to know the difference.

###  LIVING FAITH

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:26

Sometimes Your Word seems to say things that are quite contradictory, Lord. For the greatest part of the New Testament, Paul is telling us that salvation is by grace alone, that there is nothing that we could ever do to deserve Your mercy, that it is "not by works, lest any man should boast," and that the only way to receive Your grace is through faith.

Then along comes James, and says that our works are so important that without them faith means nothing. So which is it, Lord? Faith or works? Or is it both?

On the other hand, is James really not talking about works and faith as two separate things - not even as opposite sides of the same coin. Is he really saying that the kind of faith needed to be able to take hold of Your grace is the faith that expresses itself through works? After all, the apparent contradiction is not between grace and works, but between faith and works.

That makes a bit more sense, especially since further down James talks about the kind of faith that only believes, and points out how inadequate it is - he says even the devil has that kind of faith! So it seems that what You are saying through him here is that the kind of faith You honour is the kind of faith that not only believes, but acts.

That kind of faith takes the things we believe, and lives accordingly. We believe You are a God of justice, so we live justly. We believe You are a holy God, so we live in holiness. We believe You are a God of love, so we live in love. We believe You are a God of mercy and forgiveness, so we accept Your mercy and forgiveness for ourselves and extend it to others.

Lord, help me to have the kind of faith that not only believes, but acts accordingly.

###  LIVING STREAMS

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.

John 7:38

Sometimes, Lord, it is so easy to get focused on our own needs, particularly when those needs are pressing. Financial concerns, family problems, difficulties at work – a whole host of major problems, not to mention the little ones that niggle away, like the dripping tap wearing away the stone – all can cause us to turn inward. So often I find myself praying for my own concerns, so caught up in them that I forget about the prayer needs all around me.

I was doing that again the other day, Lord, when You pulled me up with a start. You reminded me that just as being generous with our finances clears the way for financial blessing to flow back to us, so we need to be generous with our prayers, thus clearing the way so that the answers to prayer can flow back to us. I'd never really thought of it like that before, Lord, but it sure makes sense to me.

So I come to this Scripture. In the verse immediately before it, You invited anyone who was thirsty to come to You and drink. That's talking about their needs, and having those needs met in You. But immediately You changed tack, speaking of the thirst-quenching supply flowing out from the believer, rather than in to him. It seems to me there's a cycle here: those who come to You will be so filled that it will flow out from them, but it has to flow out for them to continue to be filled.

I guess a lake that has no outflow soon becomes stagnant, no matter how much water is flowing in to it. I don't want to become like that, Lord. Help me to focus on the needs of others, to be generous in my praying, knowing that in doing so I am clearing the way for Your living water to flow to me and through me.

###  LOVE AND DISCIPLINE

One who spares the rod hates his son, but one who loves him is careful to discipline him.

Proverbs 13:24

They're at it again, Lord. Some fringe group wants the government to bring in laws making it illegal for parents to smack their children. Why do people have such difficulty understanding the difference between abuse and discipline? And why can they not understand that the withholding of discipline is in itself a form of abuse?

They say that it's not right to punish children physically - that somehow their little egos will be damaged. Seems to me that my generation got its fair share of the strap (and in some cases a whole heap more than its fair share!) yet most of us have come through as reasonably together adults. I somehow doubt that the same will be true of a generation that grows up having been "spared the rod."

Those who push this line of thinking forget that the adult world does inflict physical punishment. We may not have the lash any more, but if those children who have been brought up without discipline do not toe the line when they reach adulthood, the adult system may well take their physical bodies and put them in a physical prison, denying them physical freedom and requiring them to do physical work which they may not like. All of that is physical punishment, and a lot more destructive to life and ego than a few sharp smacks on the rear end as a child.

Sorry, Lord. I'm up on my soapbox. This kind of stupidity really gets up my nose. You made it so clear in Your Word that part of loving a child, part of raising a child effectively so that he becomes a mature adult and a useful member of society, is discipline.

The same way, You make it clear that part of Your bringing us to maturity is discipline. As we grow in You, You no longer let us get away with the things we did when we were baby Christians. If You did, You would be leaving us in immaturity, and that would not be loving.

Thank You, Lord, that You are not a modern parent. Thank You that You love us enough to discipline us, even though we may not like it very much at the time.

###  MORE THAN CONQUERORS

No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

I like the idea of being a conqueror, Lord. I can see myself mounted on my white steed, sword held high in triumph, all my problems lying vanquished in a pile of rubble behind me. Sounds good to me!

Trouble is, so often my experience is just the opposite. Have you noticed, Lord, that problems are bullies? They never attack you one at a time. Oh no, that would be far too easy! Instead they form gangs. One attacks, and while you're trying to get back on your feet from that another comes from a different angle. While you're down a couple more jump on top of you. Then, even when you've shaken them all off and are back on your feet but still winded from the experience, another will crash-tackle you. It's a long way from the triumphant conqueror on the white steed!

So why is my experience - and that of just about every Christian I know - so far from Your Word?

Or is it? When I look at the verse before, You talk about some pretty heavy stuff: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Boy, if ever there were troubles forming a gang, that lot would have to be it!

So You're not saying that troubles won't attack us. But You do say what they can't do: they can't separate us from Your love. Is that the victory You're talking about, Lord? That no troubles - no matter how bad or how many, or how much they gang up on us - can separate us from You, unless we choose to allow them to do so? Are the troubles actually part of the victory?

You know, Lord, I have to be honest and say I would prefer the easy ride on the white steed. Yet somehow something inside me knows that Your way will taste better and be more satisfying in the long run.

###  WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP

Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:15

I'm sad tonight, Lord. I had an e-mail this morning from our representative in India, saying that there have been major floods in the past week. Thousands of people have been left homeless, thousands of acres of crops destroyed. Many have lost all their possessions, which were meagre enough to start out with. I want to cry for them, Lord. I feel so helpless in the face of such a tragedy.

To make it worse, such things seem to be happening more and more. Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, tsunamis – not long ago most people would not have even known what a tsunami was!

It seems to me I can remember a time when such events were rare enough to be news; but now they just seem to be following each other with pounding, monotonous regularity and ever-increasing frequency. They are now so regular that only the very worst even rate a mention on the news.

I hear people talk about "compassion fatigue," Lord – the idea that people get so used to tragedies that they are no longer moved, no longer willing to give support. I don't understand that, Lord. How can people not be moved? My heart breaks when I think of all those lives that are wrecked in India, not only the Christians but the others as well.

When I read the Gospels, I see that You were often moved with compassion. It was the driving force behind many of Your miracles. Surely You are also moved with compassion for the people of India? Surely You desire to move to help them? Surely Your compassion doesn't get "fatigued"?

I guess Your physical presence in the world now is through us, Your people. Give us Your heart towards those who are experiencing tragedy.

###  NO DISCRIMINATION

How priceless is Your unfailing love. Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

Psalms 36:7 (NIV)

Lord, I'm so pleased that You don't discriminate the way people do. So often people look down on others who are not so well off, or who come from a lower level of society, or who work in a less glamorous job. It's as if a person's value is set by all those external things.

Then there are the people who say they don't discriminate, but you don't have to be long in a conversation with them before you realise that they actually discriminate more than most people. They just do it more subtly.

You're not like that, Lord. You not only say that You don't discriminate, but You make it clear in Your Word that You really don't.

That's pretty obvious when I look at some of the people You used in Your service: Moses, the son of slaves who became the leader of Your people. Rahab, the prostitute who gave Your spies shelter. Ruth, the foreigner who became the grandmother of King David. David, the shepherd boy who became king.

And that's even before we get into the New Testament, where You called prostitutes, fishermen and tax collectors, and earned for Yourself the name of "friend of sinners" because of the people with whom You chose to associate.

I guess the thing is that You see a person's value as intrinsic, not external. You value them because You made them in Your own image. You value them because You paid the ultimate price of Calvary for their redemption.

So Lord, next time I find myself looking at somebody and seeing them as less - next time I assess someone's worth by the externals of their life - remind me that You see them differently. Help me to see them through Your eyes, and to value them as You do.

### NO FEAR

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: "Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine."

Isaiah 43:1

Lord, I've always wondered about those people who drive round in cars with stickers on the back saying "No Fear." Seems to me that there is a level of fear that is healthy, and some of the hoons on our roads - the ones most likely to be sporting the "No Fear" stickers - could do with a smidgen of it.

On the other hand, there are times when fear is definitely not healthy, nor helpful. Times when it paralyses us and prevents us from moving in to our destiny. Times when it trips us up, and keeps us from doing what we know to be right, because of the possible reactions of others. Times when it throws a blanket of doubt over our faith and stops us from taking hold of all that You offer us.

When we look with natural eyes, fear seems normal and natural. When it's all boiled down, we are very small creatures in a very large universe. There are so many forces that are bigger than us: the forces of nature in storm, fire, earthquake or tsunami; the forces of man's corporate stupidity in wars and uprisings; the forces of corrupt society in crime, injustice and greed. When we look at any one of them - much less the lot at once - it is easy to feel overwhelmed and afraid. And that's before we even begin to think about the spiritual forces behind it all!

Yet when we change our focus, everything changes. You say in Your Word that You have called us, set us apart for Yourself, and that we are Your treasured possession. You are for us. When we see things from that perspective, fear is not only totally abnormal and unnatural, it is downright stupid. If the God Who created and sustains the universe is for me, how can I be afraid of what anything that is in that universe can throw at me?

Lord, help me to change my focus. Instead of looking at how big all the forces that could come against me are, help me to keep my eyes on how big You are.

### ONCE DOWN, TWICE UP

Don't rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise.

Micah 7:8

This is one of those verses, Lord. Because it was once put to music and sung regularly as a chorus, I find that every time I read it I start to sing the chorus. That's good in one way, because it helps us to remember Your Word, but because it becomes so familiar it's easy to miss the depth of what the words are saying.

Firstly there is honesty. The prophet (in this case as a representative of Your people Israel) says, "I have fallen." Lord, I love it that Your Word is honest - that it presents things warts and all. So often people try to whitewash things, to pretend that they - or at the very least those they see as religious leaders - are perfect, never doing anything wrong, never deserving criticism.

Others pretend that nothing ever goes wrong for them. They see it as almost sinful for a Christian to say that he is sick, or in trouble, or having financial difficulties or problems in his relationships. That's lack of faith, and we must always speak out the positive, they say.

Your Word is different - it tells it like it is. Your people - even the greatest of Your servants - fall into sin. Your people get sick. Your people face problems. This is reality.

Then there is hope: I will arise. Seems to me, Lord, that often the people who don't get into the "always speak positive and never admit a problem" teaching sometimes get so caught up in honestly facing the problems that they never move beyond them. Yet Your Word, holds the promise that in You we can rise up again, no matter how great the problems surrounding us may be. If we will allow You, You will lift us above the circumstances and set us on our feet once more.

There is also commitment. I will arise. You always give us a choice, don't You Lord. If we choose to continue to wallow in the problems, You will allow us to do so. If we choose to continue in the rebellion that led to the problems in the first place, You will allow that, too - at least in this life. If we want to arise, we have to deal with the problems that brought us down, then take hold of the hope You offer and choose to get back up.

Lord, I really would rather not fall in the first place. But because I am a sin-touched human being, it is probable I will. Lord, grant that no matter how often I fall, I will get up once more often than I go down.

### RAINBOWS

I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13

What a miserable day it was, Lord – cold and wet, thoroughly unpleasant. Then, right toward the end of the day, I looked up to see the most magnificent rainbow arching right across the sky. A perfect half-circle, dazzling in its beauty and defiant in its radiance, it seemed to be declaring to anyone who cared to look, "I will not be overcome by clouds and gloom! I will triumph, no matter what!"

I love rainbows, Lord. Apart from the fact that they are so beautiful, they remind me of Your covenant, Your commitment to mankind and to the earth in general, and to Your people specifically. They remind me that You always choose to extend grace and hope, no matter how bleak the situation may be.

I mean, it can't have been much fun for poor old Noah, Lord – locked away for a year with a boat full of animals, probably at least half of them sea-sick. No fresh air. No fresh food. Very little light. It wasn't exactly a pleasure cruise, was it? By the time he finally got to open the doors, he must have been just about stir-crazy.

I guess seeing that very first rainbow must have been a pretty wonderful experience for him, Lord. Not only was it a splash of startling beauty in the midst of ruin (not to mention the smell!) but it held that wonderful promise of hope.

I'm sure that You understand, Lord, that there are times when life is bleaker and gloomier than the rainiest of days. In those times, I need rainbows, Lord. I know there can't always be a physical rainbow just for my benefit, but I need those splashes of hope in the greyness of life.

Please give me eyes that are able to see them when they come.

### REJOICE?

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, "Rejoice!"

Philippians 4:4

You gotta be joking, Lord! My life is a pressure cooker that feels like it's about to blow; I'm so tired I can barely put one foot in front of the other; people I care about are hurting and I don't know how to help them; even the weather is bleak and cold and miserable. And in the middle of it, You say, "Rejoice!" You're kidding, right?

Sure, there are times when it is easy to rejoice. Those rare, sun-filled days when I am actually ahead of my workload and "Murphy's Law" has gone into hibernation for five minutes. The times when everything runs smoothly and all the bits fit together the way they're supposed to. Those times it is easy to rejoice. But right now, I'm too busy, tired, despondent, and cold to even think about rejoicing.

Yet when I look at Your Word again, Lord, it doesn't look like You were suggesting this as an optional extra. In fact, it doesn't read like a suggestion at all, but like a command.

The command would have been easier to brush aside if it had been written by someone enjoying a trouble-free period of bliss and sunshine in his life. Instead, just to make it more annoying, You caused it to be written by Paul whilst he was in prison. That's not fair, Lord! How can I complain about my lot in life, when I look at the things Paul endured? I guess You thought about that at the time You caused him to write it.

I can't even fall back on saying that Paul had something I don't. All he had was You: Your salvation for his life, and Your Spirit living within him. Everything he had, I have.

So why do I find it so hard to rejoice in the situation? On the other hand, did Paul find it any easier? Or was it simply that he made a conscious choice, followed through moment by moment, to focus on You instead of on the circumstances?

Hmmm..... perhaps I could do that, too.

### REMIND ME, LORD

But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.

John 14:26

Writing coaches say we should keep a notebook, Lord. You know I don't do notebooks. Notebooks work fine for those who have perfect vision, or those who wear glasses but don't have to change them to read. For those who need glasses to read, and equally need to remove them when we are not reading so that we don't fall over our feet, there is a whole other dimension.

Before we can use the notebook, we have to find the glasses. By the time we have done that, the original thought that we wanted to record has disappeared under a mountain of "where did I put them this time?"

So, Lord, it's easier for me to just keep the thought in my memory till I'm sitting down with my glasses on my face and a pen in my hand or a computer keyboard under my fingers. I guess I just have to trust You to hold the thoughts there for me that long.

Of course, Lord, there are far more important things about which I need Your reminders than the random thoughts that come to my mind, and which may or may not some day land on paper and morph into a literary masterpiece.

I need You to remind me of Your Word. Even though I read it every day (well, most days) I forget so easily. When the pressure is on and I am getting anxious, I so easily forget that Your Word tells me to be anxious about nothing, but to simply make my requests known to You. When someone really gets up my nose, I so easily forget that Your Word tells me to love my enemies and do good to those who treat me badly. When life gets on top of me, I so easily forget that Your Word tells me that I am more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus.

At those times, Lord, I don't always have time to find my glasses, look up the concordance for the right passage, and read it in my Bible. I need Your Spirit to remind me.

But then, I guess we can only be reminded of what we have already learned, so I have my part to do,too. I need to keep putting Your Word in, don't I Lord, so that when I need it, it's there ready to pull out.

Remind me of that, too, Lord. When life gets so busy with a million different demands, remind me that the most important thing I can do today is to come before Your throne in prayer, and to listen to You speak to me through Your Word.

### ROAD KILL

Aren't two sparrows sold for an assarion coin?Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father's will, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don't be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

There was a dead wombat on the side of the road as I drove past this morning, Lord. It's really rather sad.

One of the lovely things about living out here in the country is having all the critters around. We often see kangaroos and wallabies, sometimes wombats, and from time to time even the odd echidna or koala. And parrots - heaps and heaps of gorgeous parrots. That's great.

The downside is how often they end up as road kill. That makes me sad. It's even worse when I'm the killer. Not that I ever intend to be, but a couple of times I've had kamikaze parrots swoop straight in front of my car.

Because it bothers me to see these animals killed, it's really good to know that You care about it, too. It's nice to know that there is no part of Your creation that is too small to have Your attention and Your care.

It's also nice to know that even something so apparently insignificant as the death of a small bird - just a plain old sparrow, not even one of my pretty parrots - cannot happen without Your permission. It's good to know that You really are in charge of the universe. There is no other being in existence that could be trusted with that charge.

That tells me that I can really be secure in my own life. The devil may attack me, people may come against me, circumstances may be unfavourable, but nothing can touch me that You do not allow. And since I know that You love me, everything You allow in my life is, in one way or another, for my good.

### STRENGTH IN GOD

... but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

1 Samuel 30: 6

This must have been a pretty awful time for David, Lord. For over a year he had been fighting the enemies of Your people, while all the time pretending to his heathen host that he was fighting against Israel. Then, just at the time when things looked like they might get a little bit easier, he comes home to find that a raiding party has attacked his town and carried off everything of value, including the women and kids, then burned the place to the ground.

How could You have let this happen, Lord? Wasn't life hard enough for David as it was? Then, just to add to his misery, his troops were so ticked off that they started talking about stoning him. A lot of people would have quit at that point - You know that, don't You, Lord.

But I guess You also knew that David was not a quitter. That's probably one of the reasons You chose him for the job. You knew that when things started getting really tough, he would just dig deeper into You.

By that stage I guess the only thing David could do was find strength in You. He certainly didn't have any strength of his own left. He was about as battle-weary and knocked down as it was possible to get. Yet in the midst of it, he knew that You were the source of the strength that he needed.

How did he do it, Lord? Did he pull out the hand-written scroll of his psalms, things going back to when he was just a bit of a kid, and read what he himself had written about Your greatness and power to deliver? Did he trundle down memory lane to look again at his battle with Goliath? Or did he just draw into Your presence, knowing that there he would find everything he needed?

You know, Lord, it would be kinda nice if You had caused some of this stuff to be written in Your Word. It would give us some ideas about what to do next time we need the strength that can only be found in You.

But then, You're not into formulas, are You? I guess when we rely on formulas, it is too easy to lose sight of You, and so miss the very thing we are looking for.

Help me, Lord, when I need strength that I don't have, to come to You, not as a formula, but as my living Source.

### STRESSED OUT

For we don't desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.

2 Corinthians 1:8

Lord, I'm so glad You caused Paul to write these words. So many Christian leaders today think that their lives must seem to be perfect all the time. They can never be seen to have weakness, or to be going through difficulties, much less to be so stressed that they wonder whether they are ever going to get through it.

That's not really very helpful to those of us who do struggle, who do have to battle our way through marauding hordes of problems, and who do feel at times as if the load may just crush us into oblivion.

I'm so glad Your Word is different. It doesn't cover things up: it presents life in all its rawness, and people in all their weak humanity. It's comforting to know that even the man who was arguably the greatest apostle of all had times when he felt that life was on top of him, rather than him being on top of life. It's encouraging to know that the one who wrote of us being "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" also knew what it was to have his feet on ground that was far from heavenly.

Because Paul says that they were "under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure," and yet they did endure, it tells me that he found a resource outside of himself. Your upholding power was for him not just a theory; something he philosophised about around the dinner table; a nice thought to frame and hang on the study wall. It was real. Nitty-gritty. Where the rubber meets the road. And if it was real for Paul, then it is real for me.

Lord, at those times when life presses me from all sides, help me to take hold of Your strength.

### TESTED BY PRAISE

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.

Proverbs 27:21 (NIV)

We don't often think about praise as a means of testing us, Lord. Criticism, now that tests us! When people start attacking us, pulling us down, throwing ice water on all our shining dreams and plans, it can be so hard to look at them through Your eyes. It's hard not to retaliate in kind. It's hard not to throw up our hands and just give up. It's nice when somebody actually recognises our efforts and throws a little bit of praise and appreciation in our direction.

Yet here You say praise also tests us. That's hard, Lord. Surely it is natural to want someone to acknowledge that we have done a good job, or that we have gone out of our way to help someone else, or that we're just nice people. What can possibly be wrong in that, Lord? Are we supposed to cringe in some kind of false humility and deny our efforts and our achievements?

Then again, I think back to the days long ago when I used to work in television. There were a couple of "personalities" in the studio who had a reputation for "believing their own publicity." They were arrogant, thought they were above the rest of us. The adulation heaped upon them by the fans had certainly gone to their heads!

I guess that's what You're talking about here, Lord. Praise is nice, but if we listen to it too much we can so easily get an inflated opinion of ourselves – which of course is only really showing up the ego that was always there on the inside. On the other hand, if we do the false humility bit, that shows something about us too: the insecurity and self-doubt that are locked away inside.

Seems to me, Lord, that the answer to both praise and criticism is the same: to be secure in who we are in You, and unmoved by other people's opinion.

I remember a wise old saint early in my Christian life who said, "No matter what people throw at you, duck and let it go to Jesus. If they throw criticism, duck and let it go to Jesus. If they throw praise, duck and let it go to Jesus."

All these years later, that still seems pretty sensible advice to me.

### THANKFULNESS

Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving.

Psalms 95:2a

Boy, Lord, do I ever need to be reminded of this often! It is so easy to get caught up in life and forget just how blessed I am. So easy, even, to begin grumbling about the things I don't have, instead of rejoicing in the things I do have and praising You for them.

I read something just recently that said it is impossible to be grateful and miserable at the same time. When I think about it, that is so true, Lord.

I also read a little while ago about a guy who, every morning when he wakes up, thanks You that he is on the earth and not under it! What a great idea! We take life itself so much for granted, it's good to stop regularly and thank You for the breath we breathe and the beating of our heart.

As I write this, there is a bird singing somewhere outside. Thank You, Lord, for the beauty of his song.

Clouds are hanging heavily in the sky. Thank You for the rain that You send to water the earth.

I am sitting at my computer. Thank You that I live in an age when there are such wonderful tools available for us, and for giving people the intelligence to invent them.

I'll be knocking off shortly to have my lunch. Thank You for food - not only that You provide the food I need, but for the very idea of food. You could have created us to absorb nutrients from the air, but how boring would that have been! Thank You for the taste, texture and appearance of food - all the things that make eating not just a necessary routine for maintaining life, but one of life's pleasures.

Lord, when I think about it, Your goodness is extended to me in so many ways that I could spend all day every day thanking You. So why don't I?

Lord, keep reminding me. Even though it's a corny old expression, help me to develop an attitude of gratitude.

### THANK YOU FOR TOES, LORD

No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

1 Corinthians 12:22

Thank You for toes, Lord. The feet get all the credit, but really it's the toes that do the work. They're what makes it possible for me to walk and run, to climb and to balance. Without toes I would just stomp around all over the place.

The best part is, toes are not just functional; they are fun.

Toes can snuggle luxuriously into a warm sheepskin rug on a bleak wintry morning.

Toes can dig into wet sand on a summer beach.

Toes can squish into mud with that delicious gooey feeling that none of us grown up people like to admit enjoying, but we really do.

If you train them properly, toes can even pick up things from the floor, saving the necessity of bending over on those days when the back decides that it is waaaaaaay the other side of "grown up."

I think toes were really one of Your very best ideas, Lord.

Your Word tells me that Your Church is like a body, with all different parts in it to do different things. I think I know some people who are "toes" in the Body of Christ. They don't get a lot of credit for the things they do, but they're always there, making it possible for the people who do get the credit to function efficiently.

Sometimes they are also the people who make life in the body really fun. They bring comfort, refreshing, and playfulness into the body.

Often they do work that they really weren't designed to do, but they rise to the task so that others can have a break.

I think those people were some of Your very best ideas, too, Lord. Thank You for the "toes" in the Body of Christ.

### THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART

Also delight yourself in Yahweh,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalms 37:4

This is a tricky one, Lord. At a surface reading it sounds like You will give us anything we want, but I know You well enough by now to know that isn't what You are saying.

I also know myself well enough to know that it would not be wise for You to do so. Like a child demanding things which would not be good for her, I know that my natural instinct would often be to ask for things which would be unhelpful to me – indeed, which may even be downright dangerous.

I understand, too, Lord, that desires like that do not really come from my heart. They come from my emotions, or my body – the desire to be indulged and comfortable. They do not come from that place deep within me where the real me lives.

Yet there are desires that come out of that deep place. They are not desires that have come out of my own understanding or my natural mind, but ones that have grown out of my relationship with You. My passion that people would come to know You and the breadth of the salvation You offer. My passion that Your Church would rise up and be all that You have called it to be. The vision that You have given me for my life and ministry.

All of these, and so many more desires, have come from You, the result of my relationship with You.

So I guess what You're really saying here, Lord, is that as we draw near to You, as we focus on how great and wonderful and beautiful You are, You take Your desires for our lives and place them in our hearts.

That being the case, how could those desires possibly not come to pass, since they are not just ours, but Yours?

### THE HEAVENS DECLARE

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork.

Psalms 19:1

Every time I watch a sunset blazing across the sky, I find myself thinking what a great artist You are, Lord. When I look at the azaleas outside my window, or the banksias down the block, I think the same thing.

When I see the kangaroos down on the flat, or watch the many different parrots that come by, I think what a great job You did in creation.

Even more so when I look out at the night sky, and contemplate the vastness of the universe: yet it is only small to You. The Bible tells me that You hold all creation - not just what we can see, but the whole enormous expanse of the universe that we will never see - in the palm of Your hand. Amazing!

Your Word says that there is enough in Your creation that anyone who looks with open eyes should be able to recognise Your greatness and power. Certainly I know this is true.

Yet there are so many people who are stupid enough to think that it all just happened. Once there was nothing, then one day nothing decided it was tired of being nothing, so it became something. Then something exploded and became everything. Somehow, by a zillion mistakes of nature, we went from gases to man, with all the vast extent of nature in between. Yeah, right!

Get real! Not one of them would think of looking at a Rembrandt and saying it just happened, or listening to a Beethoven symphony and suggesting that the notes just accidentally came together on the page. Yet they can say that of Your creation which, with due respect to Rembrandt and Beethoven and every other creative mind in human history, is vastly greater than the works of all of them put together.

Your Word says that believing themselves to be wise, they became fools. You got that one right, Lord!

As for me, I'll stick with the simplicity of looking at Your creation and allowing it to move me to worship the Creator.

### THE LIVING DEAD

I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

Revelation 3:1b

Lord, what a shock it must have been to the church in Sardis to read those words. No doubt they thought they really had it all together, until You told them otherwise through Your servant John. In fact, it seems that not only they thought they had it all together, those around them thought so too.

It reminds me, Lord, of how different Your evaluation of the situation can be from ours. Of course, this is far from the only place in Your Word that You tell us that Your ways are not our ways, and that You look at the heart whilst we look at the external appearances.

It also makes me wonder how many of today's "alive" churches You would look at and say, "You are dead!"

So often our measure of "aliveness" is the professionalism of the music and the preaching, the décor of the church sanctuary, the amount of activity that is happening in the church's calendar, and the amount of noise they make in the worship service.

Yet if you scrape just beneath the surface, you find that there is nothing there. No real passion for you; no real zeal to change the world. Just an enjoyment of being entertained by such an "alive" church.

It seems to me that Your measure of aliveness is all about how passionate we are about You, and about reaching out to those who need You. A tiny, poor church meeting in a tin shed may be more alive by Your measure than some of the mega-churches with all their glitz and glamour.

On the other hand, it doesn't automatically follow that a small church is alive and a big one dead, does it? There are dead small churches and live big ones. But what makes them dead or alive is not their size, or their wealth, or their social standing, or their professionalism - or their lack of any of those things - but their commitment.

Lord, stir up all Your church to real life - the small congregations, but the big ones as well.

Your Word in proverbs says that a live dog is better than a dead lion. But I guess a live lion would be better still!

### THE LORD NEEDS IT

Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, which no man had ever sat upon. Untie it, and bring it. If anyone asks you, "Why are you untying it?" say to him: "The Lord needs it."

Luke 19:30-31

I often wonder, Lord, what went through the minds of the people in Your Word when these events were happening. When You gave them this instruction, I kind of imagine Your disciples looking at each other and going, "Yeah. Right. We're just going to walk up and say the 'Lord needs it,' and they're going to give it to us. Sure. Better get ready for a fight, boys."

Of course, what happened was exactly that. When they were questioned about untying the colt, they simply said that You needed it, and that was the end of the story. No fight. No hassle. The owner didn't object that he needed the animal right now, and couldn't the disciples wait for a better time. He didn't suggest that maybe there were others who could possibly more afford to give an animal for the Lord's cause. He simply let them take it. Could it be that the colt's owner, who appears not to have been Your follower, had more of a clue than Your disciples did?

This unnamed Jew understood that You had a claim on him, and on everything that was his. So, when You wanted to call in a small part of that claim, he had no argument. He readily yielded to you the thing You required.

How different His attitude was to so many of Your people, who seem to resent it when You make a claim on their time, or their energy - or, worst of all, on their money!

So often Your modern followers seem to think that it is their part to require, and Your part to yield. They think they should be able to demand from You whatever they want, and You will give it instantly and without question. But You should not ask anything from them. Not ever. And certainly not at a time when it might possibly be a little inconvenient.

Lord, how we have turned things around! Help us find our way back to knowing Who is God and who is the servant.

### A LUKEWARM SHOWER

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Revelation 3:15-16

My hot water system was playing up this morning, Lord. No matter what I tried, the best it could manage was lukewarm. Yuk! I like my showers either so hot that they cook my tail feathers, or (in summer) icy cold. Lukewarm just doesn't cut it.

It made me think of this verse, and how lukewarm people are so revolting to You. You know, Lord, there are a lot of people in this world who take the attitude,"A little bit of religion is ok, particularly in times of crisis, but let's not go overboard."

Even within Your Church, many talk about doing all things "decently and in order" - which of course comes from Your Word, but they distort it to mean "don't get too enthusiastic about the things of God." They seem to have set "lukewarm" as the desirable standard.

Yet these verses make it very clear that as far as You are concerned, "lukewarm," far from being the desirable standard, is worse than stone cold. It seems to me that You would far rather have someone honestly say that he doesn't want anything to do with You, than have him puddle around with "a little bit of religion," just using You when he wants and ignoring You the rest of the time. Claiming the name of Christian but being about as excited about it as they would be about a sack of dead mice really doesn't seem to cut it with You, either.

On the other hand, it seems Your definite preference is for passion. The people You used in Your Word were all passionate for You. No compromise. No half measures. No holds barred.

I've never really been able to understand how people can be passionate about a football game or a rock singer, but blah about a relationship with the Creator of the universe.

But then, when I look at my own passion for You, it sure ain't what it used to be! Is it familiarity? Is it weariness? Is it a few too many knocks and bruises along the way? I don't know. But I do know that I don't want You to feel about me the way I felt about my shower this morning.

Lord, stir me to passion again.

### A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS

Then I said, "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!"

Isaiah 6:5

Hold on, Lord. This wasn't some terrible sinner saying this. It wasn't even an ordinary bloke-in-the-street. This was Isaiah, Your prophet, the guy You had called, commissioned and anointed to take Your word to the nation. Here he is, in the Temple, watching this awesome vision unfold before him of You on Your throne, and the seraphim around You, and the whole scene is shaking with Your power. Now suddenly, right in the middle of it all, he starts blabbering on about how his lips are unclean, and so are those of everybody around him. Honestly, Lord! Did this bloke need to do a self-esteem course or something?

What was going on here, Lord? I can understand that coming face-to-face with You in Your glory had to be a bit startling. Enough to shake even a saint like Isaiah right down to his leather sandals. But wasn't this a bit of overkill? I mean, from what I read in Your Word it looks like just about everybody else around at the time was off worshipping idols, denying justice to the poor, and getting into all kinds of mischief. That's why You sent Isaiah and the other prophets in the first place, isn't it? So, compared to that lot, Isaiah really had to look pretty good.

But then, I guess if Your people don't look pretty good compared with the world, then there is something very wrong with us, isn't there? Maybe that's the point. It should be easy to look good when we compare ourselves with others, but Your standard for us is not those around us, but Yourself. No matter how good we may look in comparison with others, I guess there is not one of us that would look good in the light of Your holiness.

Maybe that's what brought Isaiah undone: the recognition that the difference between him and those around him was infinitesimal compared with the difference between him and You.

Lord, help me always to hold You, and not those around me, as my only standard.

### A QUIET PLACE

He said to them, "You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

Mark 6:31

Boy, does that ever sound good to me, Lord! Lately the pace of life seems to have stepped up at least a dozen notches. I'm surrounded by people, all of whom want something from me. And dramas! Murphy's Law is a teddy bears' picnic compared to my life at the moment. I know what a balloon feels like – I feel like I'm stretched to breaking point, and any moment now I'm going to pop.

The thought of a quiet place is so nice. Just give me a nice shady palm tree on a white-sand beach on a deserted island, with nobody within at least a thousand kilometre radius of me; and let me sleep for at least a month.

But I really don't get it, Lord. Instead of a quiet place where they could rest, when the disciples arrived at the other side of the lake, they found themselves in the middle of wall-to-wall people, all of them desperate for food, both the natural kind and the spiritual.

What happened there, Jesus? Was Your omniscience not working that day? Surely You knew what awaited them when You invited them to come away and rest? Surely You knew that they were not going to a palm tree on a beach, but to more people and more demands. Were You just teasing them? Surely not! - I know You're just not like that. So what was Your point?

You promised them a place of quiet and rest, and You don't make promises you don't intend to keep. So I guess You must have been thinking of something other than the physical place where they were going to land. Were You talking about somewhere inside of them, a place that's always quiet and peaceful no matter how many dramas and demands are milling about on the outside?

You know, Lord, that sounds even better than a palm tree on a deserted beach. Help me to find that quiet place inside with You.

###  ARROGANT, OVERFED AND UNCONCERNED

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned: they did not help the poor and needy.

Ezekiel 16:49 (NIV)

You know, Lord, I always thought that the sin of Sodom was moral depravity. Certainly there was plenty of that going on, as Your Word makes abundantly clear. But it really blew me out when I read this verse. Here You are saying that there was something else that You hated about Sodom, something even worse than the moral depravity, something You considered so bad that You describe it, rather than the other, as 'the' sin of Sodom.

What's worse, Lord, what You call the sin of Sodom seems to me to be a pretty good description of much of our society – and even much of the church – today. In fact, as I look around at the conservative churches and the conservative political parties – the ones who make the most noise about the decaying morals in our society – it seems that they are the very ones who are most overfed and unconcerned, and least moved by the needs of the weakest members of society.

Why has there come such a dichotomy, Lord? Surely it is possible to have both high moral standards and a concern for the needs of the poor? Why have Your people abdicated 'welfare' to the left-wingers and radicals?

As I read through Your Word, it certainly seems that You had a special concern for the needy. You made provision for them to be able to gather food by gleaning after the harvest, and You made it clear that they were not to be ripped off by exorbitant interest charges. And here in this verse You suggest that You see a lack of concern for the poor as being worse than the worst form of moral depravity.

So how do you see the Church today, Lord? Are we, in Your eyes, even worse than Sodom? Do we need to repent and re-evaluate our priorities?

More to the point, Lord, do I?

### SUNSHINE FOR ALL

...For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

Matthew 5:45

It's a glorious day today, Lord: blue sky with just a few wisps of cloud, and sunshine that promises to actually hold some warmth. After the cold of winter, days like this make you feel good. It feels like You are smiling on the world.

Yet I know, Lord, that there are many things going on in the world that You do not smile on at all. Injustice, poverty, sickness, moral decline, idolatry.... the list goes on and on.

Then there are the people: the ones who hate You, or who deny You, or who live in flagrant rebellion against You. Those who deny justice to the exploited, and who prey upon the poor, weak and needy. The ones who raise themselves up to be gods in their own little worlds. I know You are not pleased with them. Your Word makes it clear that unless they repent, they will one day face Your judgement.

For now, though, You treat them with kindness. You allow them to enjoy the warmth of spring sunshine, and the reassurance of knowing that the rain will bring new life to the earth. You give to them the same natural blessings that You extend to the most faithful of Your own people.

Far more than that, You extend to them the offer of total forgiveness, reconciliation with You and a new life with You because of Jesus' death, if only they will repent and turn to You.

Lord, help me also to extend the sunshine of Your love, not only to those I like and who are nice to me, but also to those who despise me, ignore me, or treat me badly.

###  BREAK UP THE FALLOW GROUND

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

Lord, I remember reading somewhere that the word translated "fallow" here does not mean ground that has never been ploughed, but that which was once cultivated but has been allowed to lie fallow. What was once fruitful has become hard and overrun with weeds.

It seems to me, Lord, that there are areas in my life that are like that. Things which were once a normal part of my walk with You, but seem to have gone AWOL. Things that I really would like to be part of my Christian experience again.

But it's so hard to go back, Lord. Time, hurts, disappointments, have conspired together to harden the soil of my heart. Now bad habits grow like weeds, and the fruitfulness for Your Kingdom in those areas has been choked out.

I know I need to revisit those areas, Lord. To break up the ground again. To allow the rain of Your Spirit to soften me again. To rip out the weeds, and allow Your Spirit to again plant the seeds of Your Kingdom. I know it, Lord. It's doing it that's the hard bit.

I guess there's a lot of others in the same place, Lord. We need you to do what the last part of this verse says. We need You to come and shower righteousness upon us. We need You to strengthen and encourage us, so that we can again take up the plough, and again become fruitful for You.

### BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many will run back and forth, and knowledge will be increased.

Daniel 12:4

Boy, Daniel sure heard that one right, Lord! It would be hard to think of a more succinct description of our world today, particularly in the West. Everyone seems to be running most of the time, never quite catching up with the mountain of things that need to be done. In the world of my childhood, most people spent their lives in and around the town where they lived, but today we are here, there, and everywhere - sometimes trying to be everywhere at once.

And knowledge? Lord, that has increased beyond belief! Twenty years ago I got my first computer, which had to be booted from floppy disk. It had all of 80 kb of memory! My second computer had 80 Mb, my current one has 800 Gb. If I ever have enough money to replace this one before You return, will it have 800 Tb?

Yet for all that computer power (which was supposed to usher in the paperless society!) paper keeps coming toward us at an increasing rate of knots. If you open a bank account, you get handed half a ream of paper telling you all about it. No matter what you do, it's the same. Information - often totally unnecessary information - just keeps coming.

The worst thing is, Lord, that so often Your people get caught up in this spirit of the age. So many churches think that they have a duty to fill every night of the week with something, and often every day as well. Your people sometimes seem to be trying to out-busy the world. I read once of one of Your servants who, when he travels by plane, continues to work till everybody else is off the plane before he gets up to exit. He sees it as efficient. I see it as dumb.

Lord, I wonder what Your lifestyle would have been like if You were on earth in the twenty-first century instead of the first? Somehow, I can't imagine You being caught up in the busyness. I think that, just as then, You would simply go about doing what You saw the Father doing, not rushed or pressured, but calmly efficient and effective.

Lord, help me to live the same way.

### CHOOSE LIFE

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants.

Deuteronomy 30:19

Pardon my saying so, Lord, but sometimes Your Word does state the obvious! Given the choice between life and death, of course anyone is going to choose life. Even more obviously, the reason for their doing so is that they want to live...

Yet it seems to me that the choice between life and death is presented to us every day, many times a day. Trouble is, it is rarely presented as bluntly and obviously as it was by Moses to the people of Israel on that long-ago day.

Every lifestyle choice we make each day is a choice between health and sickness, therefore ultimately between physical life and death. But that extra slice of choccy cake doesn't look like death - and it sure doesn't taste like death - so we make the choice and don't even stop to think of the consequences.

Far more importantly, the choices we make are often between spiritual life and death, but because we fail to see the consequences of our actions we don't even think that we are choosing death.

Go to the footy instead of church? Can't hurt, can it? Yet every time we choose something else rather than our relationship with You, we distance ourselves from You. It may be only a little bit, but the little bits add up.

A little white lie here and there to avoid embarrassment? Can't hurt, surely? Yet every sin makes it easier for us to sin again. Sooner or later, our choice for things other than You becomes automatic, and our relationship with You is down the gurgler.

Lord, help me to see past what's in front of my nose. Help my to see every choice in the blunt terms of "life or death." Help me to choose life.

### CLAY POTS

But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:7

A clay pot! Sounds like a pretty good description of me, Lord. I have a couple at home, mementoes of a time of ministry in Papua New Guinea. They are a bit rough, not quite symmetrical. Uncoloured and unglazed, their only decoration is patterns carved into the wet clay before they were placed in an open cooking fire for firing. They are not fancy in any way. Yeah, sure sounds like me.

I've just read a newsletter from a fellow minister about his recent trip to Africa. Five star all the way! VIP lounges, grand receptions, and huge meetings.

Lord, is this really the same Africa I know? The Africa of dust and flies, of pot-holes big enough to swallow cars and piles of garbage higher than a man? The Africa of struggle and poverty and AIDS? I'm sure my brother is sincere, and according to his newsletter You moved powerfully through his ministry, but when I read it I see not a clay pot but a very expensive bone-china vase.

Of course, he is much more well known than I am. He has position and power. I guess it is natural that someone in his position should expect and receive the red carpet treatment. Yet his newsletter disturbed my spirit. More than that, it grieved my spirit.

Lord, I have sat with pastors in little backwater churches and heard the cry of their hearts that nobody ever takes the trouble to visit them. I have stayed in their homes and seen their struggles. Lord, they don't want or need bone-china vases. They want and need clay pots that will carry Your glory and Your mercy even unto them.

Lord, no matter how far You take me in this ministry, help me to remain a clay pot.

### COSTLY OFFERINGS

The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

2 Samuel 24:24

Lord, I'm a little confused here. I can understand where David was coming from. He was the one who had sinned and brought Your judgement on the nation. If he had just accepted the threshing floor and the oxen and the wood from Araunah, the offering would not have been his but Araunah's.

Yet when we come into the New Testament, that is exactly what You did for us - You gave Yourself as the offering on our behalf. And You make it very clear that the only way we can come to You is by accepting that offering, and not trying to pay the cost ourselves.

So why the change, Lord? Why was it right for David to pay the price for Your mercy, but not right for us?

But hold on - was that what David really did? Did his sacrifice change Your mind? It seems to me that Your response was to his repentant heart, not to the sacrifice. Without the repentant heart, David could have sacrificed a thousand oxen and Your judgement would not have changed the slightest fraction.

So I guess the sacrifice was more a matter of "putting his money where his mouth was." When I look at it that way, I realise that the same is true for us. Even though You offer us salvation freely based on the sacrifice of Calvary, and even though we could never in a zillion years be good enough to deserve Your mercy or rich enough to buy it, You still require us, like David, to put our money - in fact, our lives and our whole being - where our mouth is.

Help me, Lord, both to fully embrace Your free gift of salvation, but also to respond with the costly offering of my life.

### FORGET THE HORSES!

If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?

Jeremiah 12:5

It's been one of those days, Lord: just one problem after another. A government department giving us the run around, a bill that was considerably more than expected, people who haven't done what they were supposed to - You know the sort of thing, Lord. It's frustrating. It's tiring. It's draining. And sometimes I just wish they'd all go away and annoy each other, instead of annoying me.

Maybe I'm just getting crotchety as I get older, Lord. I never did suffer fools gladly, but now I'd prefer not to suffer them at all. Why is it that sometimes life feels like swimming through treacle?

Then, Lord, I read about some of Your people who live in countries where they are persecuted for their faith. Ones who have been thrown in jail for many years just for believing in You. Ones who have had their homes and churches burned. Ones who have been tortured and even killed just because they were Christians.

These aren't the saints of old who lived in the days of the Roman persecution. They are people living today. Some of them are younger than my kids. Some are even younger than my grandkids. They endure incredible pain, suffering and degradation because of their faith in You.

Yet here am I grizzling about government red tape and human inefficiency. My problems are minuscule compared with theirs.

It's just like You said to Jeremiah, Lord - it's like I'm competing against men on foot, and they are wearing me out, but I should be able to run against horses.

But right now, Lord, forget the horses. For today, just give me the strength to keep in front of the blokes on foot!

###  GIVE ME THAT FUN-TIME RELIGION

If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies:

" _I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink"; he would be the prophet of this people._

Micah 2:11

Lord, I really do wonder about Your people sometimes! In that book read recently the author talks about this young guy who decided that going to church was too hard. Instead, he was going to go water skiing. He collected a few mates to go out on the river for the day. I guess they felt that because it was Sunday, they had to do something "religious," so they read a couple of verses of Your Word, talked about it briefly, said a few prayers. Then they went off to worship their true god, fun. Soon others joined them in their church of fun. The writer makes the point that they shared the Gospel with these new recruits, and many of them accepted Jesus, and he sees this as an ideal example of the new way of "doing church."

Excuse me, Lord, am I missing something here? I seem to recall You saying something about people taking up their cross to follow You, not taking up their water skis. Somehow I thought that the commitment You require was a little deeper than a few verses of Scripture and a brief prayer (of course for the needs of the individuals concerned.)

Not that there is anything wrong with water skiing - or other pleasurable activities of this life - but when those things take the place of our commitment to You, I find it hard to draw any other conclusion than that they, rather than You, have become the object of worship.

Of course, this kind of Gospel would be really easy to spread. I mean, how difficult can it be to recruit people who are only interested in having fun? It makes Your words about counting the cost seem like so much codswallop.

If that's what Your Kingdom is all about, Lord, then why didn't You just throw a big party? Yet as I read the Gospels, it seems to me that pretty much the whole of Your ministry on earth was spent challenging people to deeper faith, deeper commitment, deeper preparedness to pay the price.

Lord, if You had been living on earth at the beginning of the 21st century, I can imagine You going water skiing with Your friends. I just can't see You doing it as a substitute for the deeper spiritual exercises of life.

### HOPE FOR BRUISED REEDS

He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a dimly burning wick.

Isaiah 42:3a

I watched a show on TV last night, Lord, about a young boy in one of the Nazi training schools. Any hint of weakness was met with harshness and humiliation in an effort to break the boys' wills and bring them into conformation to the system.

Of course, the Nazi regime is not the only place where such attitudes have been found. It is reflected in teachers who belittle their students; in the judges of TV talent shows who think that to make themselves look good they must humiliate the contestants; even in churches that look down on anyone who is struggling in his Christian walk.

I'm so glad You put this verse in Your Word, Lord, and that it assures us that You are not like that.

You are holy, righteous and just, yet You understand people's weakness. Even when people are at their lowest ebb - morally, socially or emotionally - You don't cut them off.

You called David back after he committed adultery and murder, and continued to bless his reign.

When Elijah hit the pits of despair, You assured him that he was not alone, but that there were many who served You.

You refused to judge the woman caught in adultery, but told her to go and sin no more.

After Peter denied You, You called him to feed Your sheep.

You picked up prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, the poor and the weak, and lifted them to a new level.

Lord, help me to be, like You, one who would bind up the bruised reeds, standing beside them till they are strong enough to stand for themselves, rather than one who would chop them down.

### IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

John 4:24

Lord, I'm so glad You put a balance in Your Word. As humans, it is so easy for us to go screaming off to one end of the spectrum or the other, when often the two extremes are simply the two sides of the one coin.

I know, Lord, that You are not like the gods that mankind chooses to make for itself. You are far too big to be represented truly by stone or wood, and whilst in the days of the Old Covenant You chose Jerusalem as the place on earth where Your presence would rest, there is no way that any temple, no matter how great or glorious, could ever contain You. You fill the universe.

When the Samaritan woman in this Scripture disputed whether the correct place for Your worship was Samaria or Jerusalem, she was completely missing the point of Your greatness.

But we do that so easily, don't we, Lord? Unable to come to terms with Your infinity, we try to put You in boxes: to say that You are here or there, that You must be worshipped this way or that. And of course, our place and our way is always the right one!

Help us to remember that You are spirit. The places, the rituals, the formulas of man just don't cut it - only spirit to spirit does.

Yet You also said that You must be worshipped in truth. We cannot invent a god of our own making, shaped in our image and likeness, and pretend that it is You. We cannot say that any of the gods of this world are just You under another name.

There is only one truth, and that is You, the eternal Father, who manifested Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by Me."

Help us always to worship You as Who You are, and to reject the claims of false gods which do not live up to the truth.

### THE FOOD POLICE

That which enters into the mouth doesn't defile the man; but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.

Matthew 15:11

The food police are at it again, Lord. Last night on the telly they were on about how we should not eat leftovers, they could be full of germs, blah, blah, blah! Honestly, I've been eating leftovers for more than sixty years, and they've never harmed me yet.

I often think of the poor old bloke I saw on a similar show years ago. That time the food police were on about chopping boards. Apparently, we should not use wooden ones because of the dreaded germs. This old fellow had one that he had made when he was a stripling, and had been using all these years. He was obviously quite proud of it. Now, because the food police said so, he was about to throw it in the bin. I wanted to grab him, shake him and say, "Excuse me, you've been using the thing for fifty or sixty years! If it hasn't made you sick yet, there's a pretty good chance it's not going to!"

The food police really get up my nose, Lord. Really, all they want is to make us buy extra stuff. I do find it somewhat amusing, though, to know that they were round in Your day, too. Of course, back then they didn't have the "scientific" backing that they do now. (Science, like statistics, can be made to say just about anything you want!) Instead, in Your day they called on that good old reliable standby, tradition. I really would have liked to be a fly on the wall as You put them in their place so effectively!

Then, as You so often did, you immediately turned it around from the superficial to the essential. It's not what goes into the mouth, but what comes out that counts, You said. At worst, the things we put into our mouths can harm us personally. The things that come out of our mouths can harm those around us, and bring discredit to You and Your Kingdom. As well as that, what comes out of our mouths shows what is inside of us.

Lord, deal with my heart, the source of everything that comes out of my mouth. Let what comes out of my mouth always be what will honour You, and encourage those around me.

### THE OWNER'S STAMP

He asked them, "Whose is this image and inscription?" They said to him, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Matthew 22:20-21

I love the way You handled this, Lord. These guys thought they really had You, yet You so quickly turned their scheme upside down. The coin bore Caesar's image, so of course it was rightfully his.

Somehow, though, I think they missed the fine print, Lord. It seems to me that You were saying something far more important than suggesting that they would be best to pay their tax.

I think You were trying to remind them of the image they bore. Your Word says that we were made in Your image and likeness. If the fact that a coin bears the likeness of a man means that man has a right to that coin, then surely the fact that we bear Your image means that You have a right to us.

I guess it's easy to miss, Lord. I have trouble getting my head around it, too. Sometimes I see myself as so much unlike You that it is hard to remember that I was made in Your image. You've sure got some major repair works to do here, Lord - Your image is pretty much obscured at times.

But then, You never said that the coin was in mint condition. Maybe it was a bit buckled, slightly chewed around the edges. Maybe the image was worn down, barely visible. It wouldn't have made any difference. The coin was made bearing Caesar's image, therefore Caesar had a right to it.

Likewise, no matter how much Your image in me has become defaced, You have a right to me: to everything I am, everything I have, everything I can ever be or dream of being. Even better, as I yield everything I am to You, You begin to polish, restore and renew Your image in me.

Thank You, Lord.

### WHO? ME?

Yahweh's angel appeared to him, and said to him, "Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valour!"

Judges 6:12

Every time I read this verse, Lord, I have a picture of Gideon jumping up, spinning around in fear to see which of his enemies has discovered him in the wine press, then turning back to the angel in stark disbelief and saying, "Who? Me? You're kidding!"

Certainly by all our human criteria, Gideon far better fitted the description "mighty worrier" than "mighty warrior." All that You had done for Your people in the past had become to him nothing more than a bunch of nice stories. He had never tasted Your power for himself, and he had gotten to the point where he was not at all sure that You even cared for Your people, let alone for him personally. He saw himself as nothing, and acted accordingly. No doubt all his countrymen - to say nothing of his enemies - saw him exactly the same way as he did.

What amazes me, though, Lord, is that You saw something entirely different. You looked at this snivelling, pathetic creature, hiding in a wine press to thresh his wheat so that his enemies wouldn't take it from him, not even entertaining the idea of fighting back against them, and You saw a warrior. I'm with Gideon, Lord: You gotta be kidding! Of course, history proved that Gideon and I were wrong, and You were right (surprise, surprise!) Gideon did indeed go on to be all that You said he was, and to deliver his people from the oppression of their enemies.

But it makes me think about myself, Lord. There have been so many times when I have said things like, "I can't do this" or "I can't go on any further." With all my being I have wanted You to either ease the situation or, for preference, lift me right out of it, but You haven't done so.

Could it be that, just as You saw a mighty warrior in Gideon the mighty worrier, You see something in me that is bigger, stronger and braver than anything I can see?

Lord, help me to see myself as You see me, and to live according to Your vision of me rather than my own.

### ABIDING IN THE VINE

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

The idea of bearing much fruit sounds good to me, Lord. It's no fun working your heart out, only to find that in the end it all turns to dust. That's what happens with our human efforts. I've seen it in others, I've experienced it for myself, and I really can do without it.

So, You're saying that the trick is to remain in You - to "abide" in You, as the old version says. I'm guessing that You mean something rather more than simply continuing to profess the Christian faith - there's heaps of people that do that, but without the slightest evidence of fruit in their lives.

It seems to me the branch is in a place of total dependence upon the vine. The vine is its only source of life. If it is cut off from the vine, it dies.

I guess we need to be in that kind of dependence upon You: not looking to other things or other people as our source of life, strength, happiness, peace, provision, health or anything else. It all has to come from You, even though You might deliver it through other means to get it to us.

At the same time, I see a constancy here. The branch doesn't toddle off and do its own thing, then just come back to the vine when it needs another feed of sap. It stays attached to the vine all the time. It receives from the vine in a constant flow.

That's the hard bit, Lord. Learning to stay constantly attached to You through all life's ups and downs and runnings around in small circles. It's all to easy to fall back to seeing prayer as a quick meal snatched between battles - and sometimes the battle gets so long and dragged out that it's easy to forget to pray at all.

Help me, Lord, to become so attached to You that Your life is able to constantly flow to me, and through me.

### HOW GREAT THOU ART

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; what is man, that you think of him?

What is the son of man, that you care for him?

Psalms 8:3-4

Lord, You know those verses have always spoken to me, as has that old hymn, "How Great Thou Art." Yet they seem so inadequate. Just how am I supposed to wrap words around Your greatness? You are far bigger than anything I can even begin to imagine. Your Word tells me that You measure the heavens with a span – in other words, You hold the universe in the palm of Your hand. That's way too big for me, Lord! Sometimes I think about the difference between an ant and me, but that's not even the tiniest fragment of the difference between me and You. And that's only Your size!

The thought of Your power leaves me totally speechless. I can't even begin to imagine the kind of power it took to bring this whole, vast, complex universe into being at a word. The kind of power that in the same nanosecond could craft the intricacies of the atom and the fathomless reaches of deep space.

I can't get my mind around the kind of wisdom and knowledge that could produce the almost endless array of life on this planet, fashioning not only each kind to be different from all the others, but every individual to be unique within its kind.

It blows my mind when I think that You know everything that has ever happened and will ever happen, every thought, word and action of every person who has ever lived, or will ever live – not to mention that You also know all the things that could have happened if at any given instant any individual had done something differently.

It's waaaay to big for me, Lord. There is no way my mind will ever be able to grasp it. Instead, I will simply bow in worship.

How great You are!

### A NEW DAY

This is the day that Yahweh has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!

Psalms 118:24

Thank You, Lord, for this brand new day. Thank You that You already know every second of this day that will be. You have known it from the foundation of the world. Even before that.

Thank You that there is nothing that is going to happen today that will take You by surprise. Nothing I think or say today will shock You. Nothing I do today will catch You off guard. No problem will arise today that You haven't known about forever.

Yet for me this day is new and fresh - "untouched by human hands." It's a clean page in the book of life, one that I haven't yet had a chance to scribble on, or blot, or otherwise make a mess of. And nobody else has, either. Thank You, Lord, for the fresh start, the new opportunities that this day brings.

As I walk into this day, Lord, help me to walk in the confidence that You have gone before me. Help me to know, at the deepest level of my being, that Your plans for me this day are for good and not for evil, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a future and a hope.

But help me also to walk into this day with awe. Whatever I write on this new page will be written in indelible ink, whether for good or for evil. Even if I sin and then receive Your forgiveness, the consequences of my words and actions will mark both my own life and the lives of others.

Lord, when I come to the end of this day, let me look back and see something that I am happy to know will stand for time and eternity.

### WASTED ON JESUS

But there were some who were indignant among themselves, saying, "Why has this ointment been wasted? For this might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." They grumbled against her.

Mark 14:4-5

I really don't understand the attitude of these guys, Lord. It's not as if they were falling over themselves to give to the poor normally. In fact, if Mary had given the bottle of perfume to them instead of pouring it on You, I'm betting they would have been hunting for an excuse to not spend it on the poor.

What got up their noses was that someone was lavish in her expression of love toward You - far more lavish than they were prepared to be.

Why is it that some people consider anything that is given unreservedly to You to be wasted? They think that a life spent in Your service is wasted; that time spent worshipping You is wasted; that money given for Your kingdom is wasted.

Yet, as she did when she sat at Your feet while Martha bustled around in the kitchen, Mary had very much chosen the better part. She wasn't indifferent to the needs around her, but she had determined that You were her first priority. It seems that, in every situation, she just couldn't get enough of You.

Make me like Mary of Bethany, Lord. Cause me to be so totally besotted with You that I will gladly pour out my time, my energy, my possessions, my life for You. Help me to be extravagant in my love for You, no matter how much others may gripe about the "waste."

### HE AIN'T HEAVY ...

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

Lord, I remember that "flower power" song of the 60s, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." For all the things that were wrong in that era, I guess we got a few things right. It seems the sentiment of that song was a reflection of Your Word in this verse.

It's so easy for us to get caught up in our own lives, Lord. Whether it's the day-to-day nitty-gritty stuff, or the major dramas, we get focused on ourselves and those who are closest to us, so much so that we can lose sight of the needs of others around us. And it seems that the further those needs are away from us, the more invisible they become. I read once that it takes one violent death in the immediate neighbourhood to make the news, but thousands on the other side of the world.

What's worse, when we do become aware of the needs of others, often we see that awareness as an unwelcome intrusion. Either we are too busy carrying our own burdens to be even remotely concerned about carrying someone else's, or we are comfortable in our own little cocoon where, for the moment at least, everything is sweet, and we don't want any negatives to upset our applecart.

Yet, Lord, it seems to me that whether we like it or not, we are affected by the things that affect other people. The fact that there is poverty in the world makes us all poorer. The fact that there is injustice makes us all less free. The fact that there is crime and terrorism makes us all less secure. It is only the degree to which we are affected that is different.

That being so, it seems only reasonable that we should seek to make positive change in our world. The burden we carry for another today is the burden we will not need to carry for ourselves tomorrow.

Help me, Lord, to look beyond my own immediate interests, and where possible to help carry the burdens of others.

###  WHAT GOES ROUND, COMES ROUND

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

Proverbs 11: 25 (NIV)

When I think about it, Lord, it seems that this is one of the few laws of life that is almost universally accepted. It seems that every society on earth has some form of it: the Golden Rule, karma, what-goes-round-comes-round. No matter what it's called, the principle is the same: what you sow is what you will reap. Almost everyone accepts that.

So why is it, Lord, that just as it is almost universally accepted, it is also almost universally ignored? I mean, if everyone who says they believe this principle acted like they believe it, it would be almost heaven on earth. Everyone would be nice to other people, expecting others to be nice back to them. No-one would harm anyone else, recognising that to do so would be to invite harm back on themselves. Everyone would be helpful, courteous, respectful, kind, efficient and generous, believing that others would then display the same virtues toward them.

But it's not like that, Lord. People don't act like they believe the principle of sowing and reaping. They act as if they can sow whatever they please, and still reap a harvest of sweet smelling roses. Instead of people "doing to others as they would have others do to them" we have people "doing others before the others have a chance to do them." Most of the time, even when someone tries to sow kindness and helpfulness, those on the receiving end get suspicious and accuse them of only acting out of selfish motives.

Yet this law really is unbreakable. When you do something nice for someone - particularly if they weren't expecting it - you don't even have to wait for something nice to come back to you. Just the smile on their face is a reward, and even if they are grouchy and ungracious, there is a sort of internal self-hug that comes when you know you have done right.

Lord, help me to always be someone who encourages, builds up and helps others. Help me to be someone who doesn't just say I believe the principle of sowing and reaping, but who lives accordingly.

### WHEN A BLESSING IS A CURSE

If a man loudly blesses his neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.

Proverbs 27:14 (NIV)

Blokes really are dumb sometimes, Lord. My friend's husband woke her up at 3 o'clock this morning to wish her happy 36th wedding anniversary. He was lucky to live to see the sunrise of his 37th year!

Why is it, Lord, that so often when we try to do something nice for someone, what we end up doing is something that would be nice for us rather than something that would be nice for them? Like the bloke who buys his wife power tools for birthday presents, or the woman who thinks that a really great night out for hubby would be to take her to see a chic flick?

Then there's the "A type" personality who drags his friend through a 4-week holiday of non-stop action and adventure, when all his "C type" friend wants is to spend the whole 4 weeks quietly napping under a palm tree.

Of course, I have such incredible good taste that it would be impossible for anyone of equally good taste not to enjoy the things that I enjoy. But sadly, Lord, it seems You made us all different, and that there are lots of people out there who don't share my good taste. For that matter, I guess there are lots of people out there who would even question the "goodness" of my taste (though I can't for the life of me understand why, and of course they are wrong!)

Seriously, though, Lord, are we really so caught up in ourselves that we are not really interested in giving other people the things - or the experiences - that would be pleasing, interesting or exciting to them? Are we so self-centred that life always has to be about "us," even when we are pretending that it is about the other person?

More to the point, am I?

Lord, help me to look through other people's eyes, to see their needs but also their likes and tastes and desires. And when I come to give, whether it be material things, time, or experiences, help me to give to where they're at, not to where I am.

###  WHO HEALS ALL YOUR DISEASES

Praise Yahweh, my soul, and don't forget all his benefits; who forgives all your sins; who heals all your diseases;

Psalms 103:2-3

You know my friend's husband, Lord? The one with cancer? The one we have been praying for? He died. Now I'm sure You already know this, but what I would like to know is, why? So many people were praying for him. He was holding on to Your Word with all the faith he could muster, and so was his wife and his family and the members of his church, not to mention all his other friends. But he died. Why, Lord?

I know You are the healer. Jesus, Your Word tells me that when You walked on earth You healed everybody who came to You. You didn't heal everybody in town, but You did heal everyone who came, and everyone who was brought by somebody else. Even when they wrecked the roof of the house so that they could plop the bloke down at Your feet.

I've witnessed Your healing, too, Lord, as I've prayed for people. I've seen a woman's eye that was totally white with a cataract clear and become completely normal as I watched. I've seen a man's leg that was so badly bent that he needed a cane to walk, straightened in a moment. I know Your healing power is real, and no force in heaven or earth will ever convince me otherwise. It would almost be easier if I hadn't seen for myself, because then I could just write it off, but I can't.

So again I ask, why not this time? Why did this man, a man who loved and served You with all his heart, have to die?

I know that he is with You now, and that there is no sickness in heaven, so I guess in a sense You did heal him. Is that the total answer? Do I just need to get an eternal perspective on things, and not limit my understanding to the realities of this life? Or is there something more, something about this whole healing deal that I have yet to learn?

One thing I know, Lord. No matter how many "failures" I see, I know that You heal, and I will not stop praying and believing for healing, both for others and for myself.

### CONTENTMENT

But Godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6

It is interesting, Lord: there are times when everything just seems ok. Nothing is really different. The bills haven't gone away. The people with "sandpaper ministries" are still around. The daily challenges of life have not somehow magically disappeared. On the broader horizon, the world is still full of hunger and war and strife and suffering. Yet, somehow, there is a peace, a calmness, a sense that in spite of it all You are in control and know exactly what You are doing. In a word, contentment.

It's certainly not there all the time, and there seems to be nothing I can do to make it happen. When it does, it just kind of sneaks up on me, like the "aaahhh" of an afternoon breeze on a hot summer's day.

Yet somehow I don't think that's quite what You're talking about here. This seems to be something that is much more within the control of our will. More about us choosing to be content with what we have, rather than striving to keep up with the Joneses. More about us focusing on the positives in our lives instead of replaying the negatives over and over again. More about us learning to live in the present, and remembering that we cannot change the past, and we may not have the future. More about us rejoicing in the fact that You are daily working in our lives to transform us into Your image.

Then again, I guess if we could learn to live like that all the time, those summer-breeze moments of contentment would sneak up on us far more often. Maybe they would even become a permanent fixture in our lives.

### TEST GOD?

" _... and test me now in this," says Yahweh of Armies, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for."_

Malachai 3:10

You're going to have to explain this, Lord. In Matthew 4:7, when He was being tempted by the devil, Jesus told him that the Word says not to put the Lord to the test. Yet here You are specifically telling us to put You to the test. Which is it? Should we test You or not? Or are there some situations where we should, and some where we shouldn't? How are we supposed to know the difference.

I guess we should look at what was happening in these two situations. In Matthew, the devil was trying to con Jesus into throwing Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and backed up his argument with the Scripture that says You will send Your angels to protect us. But then, I guess You never did promise to protect us if we deliberately go out and do something totally dumb! I've noticed You don't display Your power just for the sake of sensationalism, either. Just like Jesus refused to perform a miracle for Herod simply to satisfy his curiosity.

So it seems that when You say not to put You to the test, You are talking about us challenging You to show Your power to back up our stupidity or satisfy our curiosity or our desire for the spectacular.

Malachi is different, isn't it? There You give us a command - You tell us to bring our tithes into Your storehouse. And attached to that command, You give a promise: if we are faithful to You in our obedience, You will be faithful to us in Your blessing. You are telling us to test Your faithfulness by our faithfulness. Of course, Your faithfulness is always infinitely beyond ours. Yet You give us a way to tap into Your faithfulness, to see how real and consistent and abundant it is.

Lord, help me never to test You by my stupidity or curiosity, but always to test You by my obedience and faithfulness.

### LIFT, DON'T KNOCK

Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Lord, I get so tired of knockers. You know the ones I mean - the people who are always negative about everything. No matter what you're doing, it's not good enough. No matter what your plans, they haven't got an ice cube's hope in hell of succeeding. And if you're feeling a bit down and say that you can't do something, they will agree with you quickly and wholeheartedly. Just being around people like that pulls you down.

How refreshing it is to meet someone who, instead of knocking, lifts others up. Instead of seeing the negatives, they focus on the positives. Problems become opportunities. They appreciate your efforts, and recognise your talent even if it is only latent. They encourage you to believe that all your dreams can come true, and build you up to see more in yourself than you ever could.

I guess, Lord, that to be like that we have to be able to see people as You see them. It always amazes me to know that You can look at a drunk in the gutter, or a drug addict, or an habitual criminal, and see beyond what they are to what You created. It's not that You are unaware of what people have done with their lives, or that You don't hold them accountable. But as well as the present You see the past - the fact that You created them in Your image. You see the potential future - what their lives could be, if they turn to You and accept Your grace.

Lord, help me to see people through Your eyes, and seeing their potential to lift and encourage them to fulfil that potential, rather than knocking them down.

### WALKING BY LAMPLIGHT

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.

Psalms 119:105

I had to write something about the church the other day, Lord, and I found myself using the old familiar statement of Evangelical faith: "We believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, and as such is our only rule of faith and conduct." It's true. It's solid. It's comfortable, and comforting.

Yet I wonder how many of us who subscribe to that truth actually live by it. Sure, we subscribe to it in the big issues: we really believe that You are the only God, and that we shouldn't go round killing people or jumping into bed with someone else's spouse. But when it comes to issues like not getting angry with someone, or not getting anxious about the provision for our lives, or keeping our thoughts focused on the things that are good and pure, then it seems to me that we often fall a long way short of following its rule.

The problem is, Lord, most of the time Your Word doesn't give us the big picture. So often we're looking for answers to "life, the universe and all" \- we want our lives tidily mapped out for us for the next ten years, at least. But all You want to talk to us about is today. Sometimes not even that - just this minute, right now. You leave the rest in darkness. You tell us to trust You for this minute, but You don't tell us where our foot is going to land with the next step.

I remember walking at night through a village in Vanuatu. It was pitch black, and all we had were these feeble little torches. They barely gave us enough light to see where the bloke in front was putting his feet. Yet that was enough: as long as he had walked there before, we knew we could safely follow.

I guess it's the same with You, Jesus. You've walked by Your Word. As long as I have enough light to see where You have put Your foot ahead of me, I can safely follow.

Lord, help me not just to know it, but to do it.

### SAFETY ZONE

... but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people ...

Joel 3:16

There are times, Lord, when life seems like a continual battle. One problem after another comes to try to hit us down. It's like the constant dripping that wears away the stone. We seem never to have time to recover from one problem before the next one hits.

Other times they don't even bother making an orderly queue - they just all attack at once!

When that happens, it's great to know that there is a place in You where we can find refuge. A place where even in the midst of the battle's noise, there is peace. A place where we can know that You have already won the battle for us. The difficult part for us is learning to move our focus away from the problems and into that place of quietness with You.

But here in this verse, You weren't just talking about all those "normal" attacks that make our day-to-day life challenging. You were taking in the context of Your judgement that will one day come upon the whole earth. When we read about Your judgement in the Old Testament prophetic books, or in the Book of Revelation, it can seem a frightening prospect.

Yet You say that even in the midst of all that, You will be a refuge - a safety zone - for Your people. Seems to me, if we have trouble drawing away from our day-to-day troubles and into Your safety zone now, it's going to be so much harder when the really bad stuff starts.

I guess it makes a lot of sense to practice drawing into Your refuge now!

### WHATEVER IS LOVELY

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honourable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

I watched something on the box last night, Lord. It was mind-numbingly stupid, but I was just too tired (or lazy) to be bothered turning it off. Now bits of it keep filtering through my mind, like some none-too-pleasant odour that you can't quite get rid of. I wish I hadn't watched it - I really could live without this garbage cluttering up my mind and getting in the way of my thought processes.

It really made me think of this principle written here in Your Word. If only I could remember to do it! I know that when I watch something beautiful it lifts me up, even way beyond the time that I'm actually looking at it. The reverse is true when I watch rubbish like last night.

Then I got to thinking, Lord. This principle doesn't just apply to the things we watch on telly or read or listen to. Even more, it applies to the way I think about other people. If I think about what's bad about them, the things they do that I don't like, or things that they say that hurt me, then very soon I start seeing them through a dark lens. Soon not only the things they do, but they themselves look bad to me. I decide that I really don't like them very much, and the relationship ends up down the gurgler.

On the other hand, when I think about the pleasant things about them, the things I enjoy about their company, the nice things they have said to me or done for me, then my vision of them is coloured by a much prettier shade. My liking for them grows, and the relationship blossoms and flourishes.

Help me, Lord, to learn to cherish all my relationships by focusing on the good, lovely, admirable things in the other person.

### UNFINISHED PROJECTS

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning.

Ecclesiastes 7:8

Lord, it seems a lot of us have unfinished projects lying around. We start something new with great enthusiasm, but then we find that it isn't really as interesting or enjoyable as we had hoped it would be. Or it's just plain too hard. Or we get so busy with other things (including a few new projects) that we just don't have time to finish what we started. So the original project is left languishing in some cupboard, only to eventually find its way to the rubbish tip, or perhaps be recycled into yet another new project.

Lord, I'm so glad that You are not like us. How would we be if You had made half the world, then got bored and given up?

What if, Jesus, You had got half way through the crucifixion then decided that it was just too hard and simply pulled out the nails from Your hands and feet and stepped down from the Cross? You could easily have done so, and it sure would have showed the people Who You were, but it would have been a dead loss (no pun intended) for our salvation.

What if, when it came to reaching me with the Gospel, You had tried once or twice then got too caught up with other things?

When we start something, it is easy for us to get all excited about how great it is going to be, and what a wonderful difference it will make in our lives and the lives of others.

Perhaps we should be putting that energy into actually getting the job done. Then, when we finish, we would be able to look back with the pride and satisfaction of a job well done.

Lord, help me to reflect the patience and persistence of Your character. Help me to stay with the things I start until I finish them.

### WALK HUMBLY

... walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Lord, when I listen to people talk to You and about you sometimes I have to wonder who they really see as God. So often it sounds like we are the boss, giving You orders, demanding that You meet our every request, and in extreme cases even firing You from the "job" of being God if You fail to do so.

Yet surely the first step of walking humbly with You is to acknowledge just Who is the Creator and who is the creation. Too often we reduce You to the level of the bloke next door, failing to grasp Your immensity. We so easily forget that You are the One Who spoke the universe into being, and likewise the One Who, should He for whatever reason ever choose to do so, could wipe it all out of existence with no more than a word.

When we finally get our minds around the fact that You are God, and that we are merely creatures of dust whose very existence is dependent upon Your grace, we find that we are able to come into a real relationship with You. Not demanding or giving orders, but trusting that You really do want the very best for us, and depending on You for everything we need, both the material things and the spiritual things.

Then, as we come to know You, we are able to come into the truth that in Christ You lift us up into the heavenly places and give us power and authority. You don't want us to be worms, grovelling in the dust. You want to establish us as part of Your royal family. But You don't want that to be a thing of pride in our lives, but simply the outflow of our humble, dependent and trusting relationship with You.

Lord, any time I get cross-eyed and start seeing myself as God and You as my servant, remind me of just Who You are and who I am.

### NOT ASHAMED

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ ...

Romans 1:16

Boy, does this verse ever challenge me, Lord! I think of all the times I have been slow to speak Your truth into situations, the times I have been embarrassed to stand against the prevailing opinion. The times I have been silent when I should have spoken up.

I would like to say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel, but I am so aware that many times my actions have said otherwise.

Yet it strikes me, Lord, that when I am embarrassed to share the truth of Your Word, I am actually showing myself to be ashamed of You. I am treating You like some not-quite-right backwoods country cousin, whom I may love very dearly in my heart, but whom I certainly don't want to parade publicly before my far-more-sophisticated friends and neighbours.

You did things quite differently. Even though You had every right - and every reason - to be ashamed of me, You freely took the worst of my ugliness upon Yourself and bore it publicly at Calvary.

You did say, though, that the time will come, if we deny You before men, that You will deny us before Your Father.

Lord, even though I do not deny You in the active sense, could it be that when I am embarrassed to share the Gospel I am in fact denying You in a passive sense?

Forgive me, Lord. I don't want to deny You in any sense. Help my words and my actions to line up with my heart.

### THIRSTING FOR GOD

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.

Psalms 42:1

I know just what the Psalmist was talking about, Lord. Having once experienced Your presence, life without it is a desert. No matter what else is going on, no matter how busy I am or how many other attractions there may be in life, nothing satisfies without You.

It's not just something I enjoy. I enjoy classical music, but I can live if I don't have it. I enjoy Thai food, but I won't die if I never get to eat it. I enjoy my grandkids' cuddles, but since I've moved so far away from them I have learned that I can survive without them. But I can't live, I can't even survive, without Your presence.

Without Your presence it feels like I've been in a desert, Lord. My head tells me You're still there, because I know that You fill the universe. There is nowhere that you are not present, not on earth or even in the farthest reaches of outer space.

I know, too, that Your Word says that You will never leave me or forsake me. When I was born again, Your Spirit came to live within my spirit. You are literally closer to me than my breath or my heartbeat.

Yet if Your tangible presence is missing, I feel like I'm shrivelling up. I need a long, long drink from the water of Your Spirit.

Lord, bring me into that place where I can receive from You. Pour Your Spirit over me till I am saturated. Let me drink from the Stream of Life till I can drink no more.

I'm desperately thirsty for You, Lord.

### WRATH AND MERCY

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

Habakkuk 3:2

Lord, I guess Habakkuk was one of those blokes who put their mouth into motion before putting their brain into gear. He started out by telling You how terrible the world was - or at least, the people in it - and how You really should do something about it.

In reply, You told him that You were about to do something: You were going to bring judgement on Your people, in the form of the Babylonians. Suddenly, Habby realised just what that would mean. It's like he took a deep breath, gulped hard, and went, "Oh, whoops! What have I asked for?"

Suddenly he realised that this was not just a theory. Real people were involved. People he knew. Himself, even. Just two chapters after demanding Your judgement, he pleads for Your mercy.

At least he recognised that there are both sides to Your character. You are a God of mercy, Whose desire is always for the good of Your people, and Who wants to bless us. But You are also a righteous God, and a just God, and when Your righteousness and justice are offended You can be a God of judgement.

Unlike Habakkuk, many of us today recognise only one side of Your character. We are so used to Your mercy and grace extended to us in Christ that we forget Your righteousness, justice and judgement. Perhaps Your words to us today would be, "In mercy remember wrath."

Help me, Lord, to enjoy Your grace and mercy, but never forget the other side of Your character.

### STILL STANDING

... and, having done all, to stand.

Ephesians 6:13

Lord, it seems to me that there are times when just to be still on your feet at the end of the battle is in itself an enormous victory.

Standing isn't always easy. There are times when it feels like you're in the middle of a force 10 gale. All the "bits" of life are flying around you, and it's all you can do just to hold your ground. Any thought of taking even the smallest step forward is totally out of the question.

But then, Jesus, I guess You understand that. More than any other person in the course of history, You had the entire forces of hell aligned against You. You were under attack from the moment You were born till the moment You rose in victory over death.

In a sense, You have still been under attack ever since, as Your people (whom You call Your Body) have suffered persecution through the ages, and all kinds of false philosophies have sought to distort, dilute and destroy Your truth.

The thing is, You never backed down. You never yielded Your victory. Even at the Cross, where it looked like the enemy had won, You were still standing, still in control right up till the last moment when You yielded Your spirit to the Father.

So, Lord, when I'm in the middle of the storm, anchor me in Yourself. Even if, for the moment, I am not able to make progress, at least help me to be still on my feet at the end of the battle.

### DON'T PRAY!

Therefore don't pray for this people. Don't lift up cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

Jeremiah 11:14

Boy, You must have been really mad at Your people this time, Lord! I guess You had really had enough of them chasing after all the false gods of the nations around them, and at the same time behaving in a thoroughly immoral and unjust manner. After all, You had certainly given them plenty of warnings, sending prophet after prophet to tell them to get their act together and come back to You.

Yet, Lord, I can't help but wonder why You told Jeremiah not to pray. I mean, You could have simply let him go ahead but ignored him. You could have said "no." (One of my long-ago Bible college lecturers used to say that You always answer prayer. Sometimes You say "yes," sometimes You say "no," and sometimes You say "wait.")

At first take it almost seems that You are concerned that, if Jeremiah prays, You will be compelled to respond. Yet surely, as Lord of heaven and earth, no amount of prayer can force You to act if You have made up Your mind not to.

I guess it must be something else. Could it be that, had Jeremiah prayed, he would have been taking a stand with these wicked people? Could it be that there had come a time when Jeremiah needed to take a stand with You in Your righteousness and justice? Could it be that he needed to really see the sin of the people through Your eyes?

Lord, we don't always see things the way You do. Because of our own sinfulness, we can all too easily gloss over the sin around us. Help us to see through Your eyes.

### SEEKING GOD'S FACE

When you said, "Seek my face," my heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Yahweh."

Psalms 27:8

Lord, I love the things You give me. I am so grateful for Your gifts, both the spiritual ones and the natural ones. I love that I live in this wonderful country of Australia, and particularly in this beautiful spot in the country. I love that You provide for me. I love the friends and family that You have given me. Most of all, I love that through Jesus You have given me the free gift of salvation, that I can know with certainty that I will be spending eternity with You.

And Lord, I love that You use me. I love that when I preach people hear You speaking into their lives. I love that You use me to bring a more specific, personal word through prophecy. I love it when I pray for somebody and see them healed or set free. I love it when I can minister Your love personally to somebody through counselling or simply caring for them.

But, Lord, all those things are not enough. I don't just want the things You give, as wonderful as they are; or the things You do, even though they are awesome.

I want You. I want Your presence. I want to see Your face. There is nothing that can satisfy like Your manifest presence. I love the times when heaven breaks open and Your glory spills out over me, but there are not nearly enough of them.

So, Lord, I will keep seeking. I'll keep nagging till You show up. Your gifts aren't enough. I want Your face.

### DON'T BUTT IN!

He who gives answer before he hears, that is folly and shame to him.

Proverbs 18:13

I love the practicality of the book of Proverbs, Lord - and the fact that often there is a smile hiding just beneath the surface. This verse is like that.

You know, Lord, it's really frustrating when someone does this. You're trying to tell a story, and they butt in and finish it for you. Or you're trying to explain something, and they get half the message and go off and do it wrong, because they didn't listen to the whole thing. Or they just don't give you a chance to finish before they are off at a gallop, airing their own ideas and opinions.

I'm really glad You call this kind of behaviour what it is: folly. Just plain stupid. Why do people do it? It certainly doesn't endear them to the person speaking; and it does absolutely nothing to help develop the relationship.

I guess it's because they think that they are more important than the speaker, or that they know more or understand the situation better than the speaker does. Yet all they are really doing is demonstrating their ignorance and bad manners.

But then, I find myself asking, do we do the same thing to You? Do we grab a little bit of Your Word - maybe just a sentence or two - and run off without getting the whole story? Do we build doctrines around just one or two verses, ignoring the rest of what Your Word has to say on the subject?

Do we hear You when You are saying things we like, but become selectively deaf at other times? Do we allow You time to fully speak to us before we run off to do our own thing?

Lord, help me to really listen to You, and not to start blabbering till I've heard all that You have to say.

### THE CHEER SQUAD

Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us ...

Hebrews 12:1

Lord, I'm sure You know that there are times when life gets really lonely. It feels like there's no-one on your side, no-one who is for you, no-one who is willing to cheer you on. You feel as though you're all alone in the middle of the battle field, facing an army of giants.

I guess You felt that way many times, Lord. So often Your disciples just didn't get it. They thought they were with You, but in reality they were light years from where You were at. Then, of course, there were the times when they didn't even pretend to be with You!

For us, sometime that loneliness is based on reality - as it was with You, people are just nowhere near where we're coming from.

Other times, it's an illusion - people really are with us, but somehow we're not able to take hold of the truth of it. Either way, it's not a fun place to be.

So it's really good to know that, even when earthly supporters are nowhere to be found, we are surrounded by a heavenly cheer squad. What's more, it's made up of people who have been through it all before us - and in many cases have been through worse things than we will ever know. Even better still, they came through in victory, and cheer us on to the same victory.

Lord, at those times when I feel all alone, and the finish line seems a long way off, let me hear that heavenly cheer squad barracking for me.

### A SECURE FUTURE

My times are in Your hand ...

Psalms 31:15

Lord, it seems we spend a lot of time thinking about the future. On a personal level, we think about what the future holds, whether our jobs will remain secure, whether we will be able to pass exams or to live reasonably comfortably in our retirement. On a global level, we think about things like global warming, Middle-East peace (an oxymoron, if there ever was one!) and the nuclear threat. These days the global economic crisis is added to the mix.

Of course, not all our thinking about the future is worry. Sometimes we are simply planning ahead, casting visions and setting goals. Things that are good and necessary if we are going to achieve anything in life.

Sometimes we are simply anticipating the excitement of a future event like a birth, a wedding or a graduation. Even, perhaps, looking forward to retirement and the things we hope to be able to do once we are freed from the constraints of a job.

Yet all our visions, all our plans, cannot guarantee us anything. A disaster could sweep them all away in an instant. Not only can we not see tomorrow, we have no guarantee that we will ever see tomorrow. If fact, we are not even guaranteed our next breath.

So, Lord, it's good to know that even though the future is hidden from us, it is an open book to You. You have seen every one of our days. Nothing that happens tomorrow, next year, or a hundred years from now, will take you by surprise.

Even better, since nothing can happen without Your approval, everything that the future holds has already been filtered through Your love. Even the difficult times that will inevitably come, will come because You, in Your wisdom and mercy, have allowed them.

It's good to know that even though I make plans, my future security does not depend on my plans. My times are in Your hands. Thank You, Lord.

### SHARP WORDS

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 12:18 (NIV)

Lord, I remember when I was a kid being mercilessly taunted by other kids in the class because of my name. "Fowler" became "fowlhouse" and "chookpen."

Mum would often quote that old proverb, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never harm me."

It didn't make me feel any better, and when I tried quoting it to the other kids, all it achieved was to provoke them to taunt me even more.

The truth is, words can hurt us very much. Words spoken to us can "push our buttons" so that we respond out of past experiences, even ones we have long since forgotten. They can tear down our self esteem. They can rend the delicate fabric of a relationship.

Words spoken about us can give others a bad impression, destroy our reputation, and ruin the possibility of future relationships.

The worst thing about words is that they cannot be taken back. We can apologise, we can try to patch over the damage they have done, but still the words remain. It's as though they are somehow inscribed on the pages of life in indelible ink.

On the other hands, our words can also lift, encourage, soothe, comfort, heal. The words we speak about others can pave the way for future positive connections, or can help to mend past rifts.

Lord, help me to always remember to put my mind into gear before putting my mouth into motion. Help me to speak words that will lift people up rather than cutting them down.

### BREAKING THE DROUGHT

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground.

Isaiah 44:3

Lord, this country desperately needs rain. The drought has gone on for so long, and water supplies are at an all-time low. It's not just the country areas that are affected. The city people are also facing severe water restrictions.

There has been a little bit of rain here and there, but the ground is so thirsty that it just slurps it up and asks, "Where's the rest?" What little rain there has been seems to have had no long-term effect on either the water storage levels or the condition of the land.

Lord, Your people all over this country have been crying out to You for rain.

Yet, Lord, it seems that the physical drought is only a reflection of the spiritual condition of Your people. It seems that wherever I go, whomever I talk to, the story is the same.

People who have been long-time intercessors are struggling with prayer.

People who have seen Your power manifested in miraculous ways have lost the sense of Your presence.

People who have walked with You through the hard times, not just the good times, are feeling parched and dry.

Lord, it seems to me that, as much as this country needs the physical rain, it needs the rain of Your Spirit far more. Lord, pour out the streams of Living Water on our thirsty spirits. Then maybe we will be able to take hold of Your provision of natural water for our thirsty land.

### A PEP TALK

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalms 42:11

Lord, I love it that Your Word is so honest. It doesn't pretend that everyone who served You was up all the time. It records the down times, as well.

By the sound of this, the Psalmist was pretty down when he wrote it. He had been cut off from worship in the Temple, and feels as though You have cut him off. What's more, he had to deal with the taunts of those who saw his predicament as a sign that You didn't even exist, and that his faith in You was both unfounded and stupid.

All he could do was remember "the good old days," and how he had delighted in being in Your presence.

I know where he was coming from. Lord, it's really horrible when You go silent.

There are times when Your presence seems to have retreated to the farthest corner of the universe, and my prayers don't seem to even get as high as the ceiling. I beat myself up, trying to find what sin I have committed that has excluded me from Your presence. I feel forsaken, and I don't understand why. At those times, I really understand this psalm.

Yet even in the midst of it, the psalmist sees something else. He gives himself this pep talk, reminding himself that You are still his God and Saviour. It's like he's saying to himself, "Even if you can see nothing, even if you can feel nothing, even if you can understand nothing, reach out by faith and take hold of the truth you know."

Lord, my preference would be never to have to go through those dry times. But if I must go through them, help me, like the psalmist, to continue to put my hope in You.

### LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favour, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

Proverbs 3:3-4

Lord, this really cuts to the chase. It reminds me of when the Pharisees tried to trap You by asking what was the greatest commandment of the Law. Your response was "Love" - love God, love your neighbour. It really seems that one word is pivotal to everything in the Christian life.

"Love" is really easy to say, Lord, but not at all easy to do. I guess that's because we have corrupted and diluted the meaning of the word so much. To most people in the world today, "love" is all about getting someone else to gratify my needs. We "love" people who are good to us, or who make us feel good, or who accommodate our desires.

Your kind of love is so different. It's not about us at all, but about the other person. It's about seeing the potential that You have placed in them, the destiny to which You have called them, and seeking to draw forth that potential and help them to that destiny.

There's also the other aspect that these verses bring out: faithfulness. When I think about it, it seems that if we really loved with Your kind of love, faithfulness would not be an issue. It would follow naturally. If my love for someone is centred on them rather than on me, how could I possibly not be faithful to them?

Lord, I like it that You understand that we need to be reminded of these things constantly. "Bind them around your neck," You say - in other words, stick them right under your nose where you can't possibly miss or forget them!

Love and faithfulness should be their own reward - but it's a nice bonus that living that way brings favour both from man and from You!

### A WORD OR A BEATING

A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool.

Proverbs 17:10

Lord, when I read through the Bible it seems that You always did everything possible to call Your people back to Yourself. You spoke to them again and again through prophets, You used circumstances to nudge them in the right direction. When all else failed, You clobbered them, but that was always the last option.

For many of them, though, even the clobberings had little lasting effect. As soon as You restored them, they went right back to worshipping false gods, practising immorality and dealing unjustly with the needy.

For some, though, that was not the case. People like David needed only to hear Your rebuke, and they were ready to repent and get right with You.

I guess it really comes down to where our heart is at. When we are in a real relationship with You, the closer we are to You the less we want to see anything get in the way of that relationship. The mere thought of something keeping us from enjoying Your presence is enough to turn us away from that thing.

On the other hand, if our "relationship" with You is merely religion - tradition and obligation - then those things will not be hindered no matter what we do.

Lord, keep drawing me ever closer to Yourself. Keep me in a place where I don't want anything to interfere with that relationship. Let Your raised eyebrow be enough to stop me in my tracks if I start to get out of line.

### TIME FLIES

Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

Psalms 144:4

Lord, I don't know whether it's just that I'm getting older, but time seems to slip away so quickly these days. Days, weeks, months, years - they disappear before I even have time to look at them, till I find myself thinking, "Hey! Who stole the last six months?" (or, for that matter, the last six years?)

I read somewhere that time seems to go faster as you get older, because each year becomes a smaller fraction of the entire life you have lived thus far. So, when you were five, a year was 20% of your life \- quite a big chunk, so it seemed awfully long. When you get to 50, a year is only 2% of your life thus far - a much smaller chunk, so it disappears much more quickly.

Seems like a reasonable theory, but it leaves me wondering: if time goes this quickly for us in our fifties, what must it have been like for Your people of old, who measured their lifespans in hundreds of years? After all, at 500 a year would be only .2% of your life experience. Whoosh! There it goes! Don't blink, you'll miss it!

The Psalmist sure knew what he was talking about when he said that our days are like a fleeting shadow.

Yet that's only part of the story - the bit of the iceberg that we can see sticking out of the water. Life in this world is so short, but it is not all there is. You have created each of us for a life that will go on forever.

The question, of course, is what kind of life it will be. You have given us the choice of living that forever life with You or without You. Sadly, many people forget that if they choose to live forever without You, they are also choosing to live without all that You cause. Love, joy, peace, beauty, friendship, mercy, goodness, justice - all those things that are the result of Your Spirit working in human lives, will be absent for those who choose eternity without You.

My guess is, they won't be far into eternity before they begin wishing that it was "a fleeting shadow."

### ALL IN THE SAME BOAT

You shall tell him, Yahweh says: "Behold, that which I have built, I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. Do you seek great things for yourself?"

Jeremiah 45:4-5

Lord, it seems that Baruch was pretty upset about things at this time. He had heard Jeremiah pronounce your judgements against the nation of Israel, and that was cool. After all, they were only getting what they deserved for their flouting of Your Law and their worship of idols.

Then it suddenly dawned on him: he was part of Israel! Oh, whoops! At that point he wanted to make a deal with You - something along the lines of, "Let all those other evil-doers suffer, but keep me safe and let me prosper in the midst of it all."

The problem for Baruch was, You were not having any part of such a deal. Seems Your reckoning was more along the lines of, "You're in the boat with Israel, you go through the storm with them!"

When I read Your Word, I see some places where You protected Your people from the judgements that were happening around them - like during the last half of the plagues against Egypt - but most of the time, we have to go through things just the same as everybody else. I guess that's the flip side of the fact that You "send rain on both the just and the unjust."

The great difference is, of course, that when non-believers face trials they face them without any real hope. Your people, on the other hand, know that no matter what storms we must sail through, You are there with us, and You will ultimately bring us to safe harbour, either in this life or in the next.

### SELF DECEPTION

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes;

but Yahweh weighs the motives.

Proverbs 16:2

Lord, how easy it is for us to deceive ourselves! We set our minds and hearts on a particular course of action, and convince ourselves that not only is the action right, but we are doing it for the very best, most pure, most unselfish motives.

Yeah, right! We might tell ourselves that our motives are pure, but most of the time we don't have to scratch very far below the surface to find the WIIFM - What's In It For Me?

Whether it's promoting ourselves, making us look good in the eyes of others, setting ourselves up to receive rewards or simply making ourselves feel good, almost inevitably there is a selfish, less-than-pure motive lurking in there somewhere.

The truth is, Lord, I find that no matter how hard I try, I can't fully eliminate those wrong - or at the very least, less than pure and perfect - motives.

I guess that's part of the sin nature. Even when we do the right things, we do them from the wrong motives. The external looks good, but underneath it's rotten. A bit like putting a coat of paint on a house that's riddled with termites!

Seems to me, Lord, that's the whole point of the Gospel. You didn't come to paint the old rotten house. You came to tear down the old house and build a brand new one. You didn't come to make us better, You came to make us new.

And, Lord, Your Word tells me that when I came to You and was born again, you gave me a new nature. What I need to do is to learn to live out of that new nature rather than out of my old nature with its stinky, self-serving motivations.

Help me, Lord, to live and act from the motivations that You place within me.

### WHERE'S YOUR TRUST?

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust the name of Yahweh our God.

Psalms 20:7

Lord, it's so easy for us to look at others and see the dumb things they do. So often when I read through Your Word, I look at the behaviour of Your people and think, "How could they do that? What on earth were they thinking?"

Like when they called on Aaron to make them an idol, even while Moses was up on the mountain with You receiving the Law.

And when, having refused to cross into the Promised Land at Your command, they then decided to try to go in under their own strength.

Or when they sent down to Egypt to get horses and chariots to support them in their battles, even though You had specifically told them not to.

Yes, Lord, Your people sure do some dumb things at times. Of course, we would never do anything so stupid.

Except when we imagine that we can live the Christian life in our own ability.

Or when we use every natural means available to meet our needs, but never bother praying about it.

Or when we look to our boss, or the government, or luck, or friends or anything other than You as our source of supply.

Or when we allow the circumstances to run roughshod over the top of us, totally forgetting the authority You have given us in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hmmm. On second thought, it seems we do a fair few dumb things, too.

Lord, help us to really put our trust in Your Name rather than in all the other things.

### IF YOU SAY SO

Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?

Lamentations 3:37 (NIV)

When You put it this way, Lord, the answer is pretty obvious. Nobody can. How could any human being ever overrule Your decree or Your will?

Yet there are so many in Your church who teach that we can have anything - absolutely anything! - that we want, we just have to "name it and claim it," "blab it and grab it."

You know, Lord, that teaching has never sat comfortably with me. I know myself too well, and experience tells me that had I been able to obtain the things I wanted at various times in my life simply by claiming them, the result would have been total disaster.

I remember seeing a kids' movie a long time ago in which the hero released a genie from a bottle, and was granted the traditional three wishes. Now this kid was smart, and he figured that he only needed one wish to set him up for life. He wished that everything he wished for from that time on would be granted.

His wish was granted, and then the fun (or trouble) started. He soon found that many of his "wishes" were not things he really wanted at all. Fortunately, before total disaster overtook him, he remembered that he still had two of his original wishes left, and wished for his first wish to be cancelled and the results reversed.

Just a silly movie, but it made an important point: often the things we think we want are not really the things we want or need.

Lord, You know the things that will be good for my life far better than I do. I'm glad the answers to my prayers are dependent upon Your will.

### CYNICISM OR DISCERNMENT?

A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

Proverbs 14:6

Lord, sometimes it seems there are so many conflicting voices around. One says one thing, the next says the exact opposite, and someone else says something different again. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, except that oftentimes they all want you to accept what they say as absolute truth, simply because they have said it.

It seems, Lord, that it is very easy to take either of the extremes: believe nothing, or believe everything.

Believing nothing leaves us with cynicism: the kind of attitude that says, "I won't even bother listening to you unless you can convince me before we begin that you have a rock solid case." The problem with that is, until we listen nothing, not even the truth, will convince us. No wonder You call such a person a mocker, and say that he can never find wisdom. He has chosen disbelief - which is, according to Your Word, foolishness - before he begins.

At the other extreme, believing everything leaves us open to being tossed around by every wind of doctrine. One person comes and says such-and-such is true, and we trot off following him, until someone else comes along and says so-and-so is true. Then we trot after him, even if so-and-so is the total opposite of such-and-such, until someone else comes along saying the truth is thus-and-thus. Confusing. Very, very confusing.

Lord, I am so glad You have given us a third option. Neither cynicism nor blind acceptance will bring us into Your wisdom, but You tell us that discernment brings us into it easily. I suppose, Lord, that means that we should listen with open hearts, but then take everything back to You, and check it out with Your Word and Your Spirit.

I guess, Lord, it comes back to what a wise old saint told me right back at the beginning of my walk with You: "No matter what you hear or read, learn to chew the meat and spit out the bones."

### THE CONTEMPT OF COMFORT

Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.

Job 12:5 (NIV)

Ain't it the truth, Lord! When we have never walked a mile in the other bloke's moccasins, it's so easy for us to blame him for the roughness of the road.

So often I've heard well-meaning Christians say that the sick aren't healed because they don't have enough faith. Or that the poor are poor because they don't know how to handle money. Or that just about anyone who is having a rough time is going through it because he/she is out of Your will.

Yet, Lord, as I read Your Word, it seems to me that some of Your choicest saints suffered, sometimes terribly. And, as I look around the world today, I see the same thing: those who are most passionate for You, who are most on fire with Your Word and most bold in their witness, are the ones who are most likely to face persecution from man and fierce opposition from the demonic realm.

It seems that the kind of judgement that Job talks about here reflects spiritual pride, because if we take this attitude we are implying that our own comfort is the result of our goodness, rather than giving You praise for Your goodness and mercy toward us.

In fact, if we are that comfortable, it may be just that the devil is leaving us alone because we are absolutely no threat to him.

This attitude also reflects a total lack of empathy, an unwillingness to sit in the other person's place and see through his eyes.

Lord, if ever I am comfortable, let it be because of Your blessing, not because the enemy sees me as no danger to him. And help me to remember that Your blessing is the product of Your grace, not of my goodness.

### JESUS WEPT

Jesus wept.

John 11:35

I don't get it, Lord. You knew that you were about to call Lazarus forth from the grave. This would be one of Your most spectacular miracles - after all, the man had been dead for four days. No-one could possibly deny Your power over death once they had seen this.

More than that, You knew that much of the overt emotion around the grave was false \- professional mourners, simply doing their job to help the family grieve (as if the family weren't good enough at doing that by themselves!)

And even beyond that, You knew that the genuine grief of Mary and Martha and their family was unnecessary. You told them clearly that You were the resurrection and the life, and that anyone who believed in You would have life in You. You knew better than anyone there that death is only a doorway through which we pass to a different kind of life.

Yet, knowing all that, You wept. I find it hard to believe that You were simply caught up in the emotion of it all. That You started crying just because Your friends were crying.

...But then, I guess Your heart was such that You were touched by Your friends' grief, even though You knew it was unnecessary. I guess You were moved by the fact that they were hurting now, even though You knew that they would be rejoicing in just a few minutes time.

You know, Lord, some people say that Christians should not mourn for those who die if they know that they are believers and are now with You. I guess Your tears that day said they are wrong.

### NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean?'"

2 Kings 5: 13

Lord, sometimes it amazes me how good we are at missing the simple things. Sometimes, I guess it is precisely because they are so simple. Like Naaman, we want a big production.

I guess the whole show must have been quite an anti-climax for Naaman. He had come all that way, with his great retinue, on the mandate of no-one less than the king. And surely, if this foreign prophet could do such great things, he would have to put on a good show!

Yet when he arrived with all his pomp and ceremony, Elisha didn't even bother to come out to meet him. He just sent the servant to tell Naaman to dip seven times in the Jordan. What a let-down! Naaman's pride must have been really wounded. And in the heat of that let-down and wounded pride, he very nearly missed his miracle.

Lord, how often do we miss our miracle because we are looking for something big and flashy, when all You are asking for is simple obedience? How hard is it, really, to simply follow instructions?

If You told people to do something difficult, they would do it. Instead, You tell us to do something simple: repent, believe, and receive cleansing and forgiveness. It's so simple, many people miss it.

Lord, raise up many like Naaman's advisors who will say, "If you would be willing to do the hard thing, why not do the simple?"

### BEAUTIFUL FEET

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Isaiah 52:7

Lord, I have a picture of the people of the city waiting anxiously for news from the battle front. Has their king and his army been successful in defeating the enemy? Can they return to going about their day-to-day lives in peace and security? Or have they been defeated? Will a marauding horde come swarming over the hill at any moment now, ready to kill, rape, loot and capture?

Then they see the runner. Even from a distance, they can see that he is signalling victory. The enemy has been overcome. Life can go on. With a collective sigh of relief they embrace the runner, the bringer of good news.

Even in today's wars, Lord, there is that sense of relief and joy when the news of victory comes, even though today the "runner" is more likely to be radio, television or the internet.

So, Lord, how come people don't react the same way to the "runners" who bring the good news of the greatest victory of all - Your victory over Satan, sin and death at Calvary. More often than not, those who bring this wonderful news are treated as if they are bringing bad news rather than good, bondage rather than liberty.

But then, if you're stuck in the enemy's camp, I guess it's hard to recognise that good news is good news. Maybe we better just keep running to bring it anyway, and hope that at least some of those to whom we go will get the message.

### WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

Mark 10:51

Lord, am I missing something here? Or were You? The guy was blind. It was obvious that he was blind. Everyone in town knew that he was blind. Surely, Lord, You knew that he was blind. Surely that was obvious from everything about him. Surely it was obvious that the thing he wanted from You was his sight.

Was it just that You wanted him to say it? Were You trying to teach Your followers that a general cry of "Lord, help!" is not always enough? And if it isn't enough, then why isn't it? After all, You know all our needs - and our wants - far better than we do. Are those needs not enough to move You to action?

Yet, when I think about it, I guess they aren't. If need were all it took, then surely there would be no hungry people in the world ... no homeless ... no sick ... for that matter, no unsaved.

Somehow it seems that faith has to get in on the act. But why? Surely You are a big enough God to act without help from us? Surely You are a compassionate enough God to want to act, without us asking specifically?

But then, there's that word, "want." It's tied to the will, isn't it? Our will, our choice, has to be involved. You gave us free will, and You will never violate it, even to give us the things You know we need and want.

I guess, at the bottom line, faith is simply our choosing to bring our wants and needs to You, and choosing to believe that You will meet them. To do that, we have to ask, and to ask specifically.

### DIFFERENT WAYS

" _For my thoughts are not your thoughts,_

and your ways are not my ways," says Yahweh.

Isaiah 55:8

Lord, it's not news that Your thoughts are different from mine. It staggers me, just how much greater Your mind is than mine. Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like for an ant to try to understand me - or, for that matter, for me to try to understand the mind of an ant. But the gap is too great - I just can't get my head around it.

Yet the difference between Your mind and mine is infinitely greater than that between mine and an ant's.

I can't even begin to imagine the thought processes that went into the creation of the human body, or that lay behind the architecture of the universe. I can't imagine what it is like to know everything about every one of the six billion people currently on this planet - every cell of their bodies and how they are functioning, every thought of their minds and every desire of their hearts - never mind all those who have gone before and all those who are yet to come.

Yet it seems to me that You are not talking here about the capacity of Your mind, or of mine, but rather of its quality: not the vastness of Your thoughts, but their nature. Your mind is totally righteous and holy. There is no hint of sin or evil, or of anything short of total perfection. And because Your mind is righteous, Your ways are righteous.

We, on the other hand, have minds totally corrupted by sin, a reality that is demonstrated in our actions.

Lord, transform my mind to have the same nature as Yours, so that my actions may be like Yours also.

### SHOW ME THE WAY

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:6

Lord, one of the questions I hear from Christians more than any other is, "How can I know God's will?" It seems so many of us are constantly struggling in darkness, not sure which path to take. And if I am to be honest, I must admit that I often find myself in the same place.

Yet, Lord, I'm sure this is not how it is meant to be. After all, throughout human history You have gone to great pains to make sure that You revealed Yourself and Your will to mankind. You sent prophets, leaders and teachers. You gave Your written Word. Most of all, You revealed Yourself in Christ.

Sometimes, though, all that teaching and writing doesn't really cut it in the nitty-gritty of daily life. Sure, there are things that we know not to do, because they contravene Your Word. But there are also many things about which Your Word seems totally neutral - big things like career choices, and mundane things like whether to do the shopping today or tomorrow.

Often, I'm sure, our decisions really don't matter; You are happy to allow us to do whichever we please. But sometimes ... sometimes lives can be changed by the right person being in the right place at the right time. How can we know, Lord, whether the decision we are making right now is one of those?

As I look at this verse, Lord, it seems the emphasis is not on the direction: it is on You. The direction seems an automatic consequence - almost an afterthought.

So, Lord, is that the key? Are we meant to focus on You - to commit our ways into Your hands, and commit ourselves to serving You and listening for Your voice - and then simply get on with it, trusting that You will lead us in Your paths?

That idea sure beats stressing and straining and tearing our hair out trying to find Your will!

### HOPE AGAINST HOPE

Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken ...

Romans 4:18 (KJV)

Lord, there are some promises that I have been holding on to for an awfully long time. Some of them are general promises from Your Word, given to all Your people. Others are very specific and personal promises that You have given to me, either directly by Your Spirit, or as prophetic words through other people.

I know that You are always faithful to Your Word, and everything in me says that these promises are Your purposes for my life. I have clung to them for so long. Yet year follows year, each one slipping by before I have even had a chance to get used to its presence, and still it seems that I am no closer to the fulfilment of these words.

Sometimes I wonder whether it's me, Lord. Was I mistaken in claiming those particular Scriptures for myself? Did I mis-hear Your voice when I thought You spoke that promise? Did the prophet who spoke to me intend his words differently from the way I took them?

On the other hand, have I somehow mucked it up? Did I fail to move into the promise when I should have? Did some sin of mine cut me off from the fulfilment of Your Word? It seems totally impossible that those promises would ever come to pass.

Then I think of dear old Father Abraham. Both he and Sarah were already past it when You first gave them the promise of a son. Even if You had fulfilled Your word right that minute, it would have been a miracle. Then You kept them waiting for 15 years. I guess they also felt that it was never going to happen. Maybe they even questioned themselves, wondering whether they had heard right, or whether they had done something to lose the promise.

Yet even if he questioned and wondered, Abraham didn't let go. He just closed his mind to the evidence of his eyes, ignored the impossibility, and clung to Your promise.

Lord, help me to be more like Abraham.

### FRIENDSHIP

... the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

I Sam 18:1

Lord, thank You for friends. Not the kind who are just casual acquaintances, people to whom we are nice and who are nice to us. Not the "networking" kind, to whom we relate because of the contacts they have. Not the "fair weather" friends who are all over us when things are going well, but disappear the minute it starts to get hairy. I guess each of those have their place in our lives. But what this verse reminds me of - and prompts me to thank You for - is the true friends.

True friends don't come along that often, but when they do it is very much like what Your Word says here - there is a real knitting of hearts. Somehow the other person becomes almost like part of us. We share his heart; we feel her joys and sorrows. The welfare of our friend becomes as important to us as our own well-being.

That sort of friendship isn't just for the good times. We continue to walk with our friend when things are rough. Even if we have disagreements, they only serve to strengthen the relationship. No matter what life may throw at us, we know that we will be there for each other.

Lord, those kind of friendships are so precious, and I thank you for the friends I have who fit into that class.

Yet when I think about it, Lord, I guess You like to have that kind of friends, too. Friends who really want to get to know You as You are, not just at a surface level. Friends who don't just use their friendship with You to get what they want and further their own ends. Friends who stick with you through the hard times as well as the good times.

Lord, help me to be that kind of friend to You.

### TRIALS AND JOY

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds ...

James 1:2 (NIV)

Lord, this last month or so Murphy's Law has been excelling itself. Not only has it been, "If a thing can go wrong, it will" but "if it can go wrong it will do so at the worst possible time and in the way that will cause the greatest possible inconvenience and annoyance."

Not only that, but everything that could go wrong has chosen to do so at the same time! I feel like an entire herd of elephants has stampeded right over the top of me.

What I'm trying to say here, Lord, is that I'm feeling just a little bit outnumbered and just a little bit battered. And You tell me to count it joy!? That seems so ridiculous!

Yet in a strange way, there is a joy attached to it. Somewhere along the line I have figured out that if the devil is throwing this much rubbish at me, I must be doing something right.

And yes, I do understand that You use these trials to build my character - though I must confess, Lord, sometimes I really wonder whether I want or need that much character! But then I look at myself as compared to You, and I think that, yes, my character could do with just a little bit of work.

That thought leads me to consider the trials You endured "for the joy that was set before You." Your Word makes it clear that You didn't enjoy them. Yet You knew that they were achieving a higher purpose.

What's more, that higher purpose was not for You, but for us: to bring us back into relationship with Yourself and restore the Kingdom of God on earth.

Lord, help me to stay focused on the positives in the situation - not just the pleasure of getting up the devil's nose, but the knowledge that my trials are achieving Your purposes in my life and the lives of others.

### TWO EARS, ONE MOUTH

So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger

James 1:19

Lord, when I read this verse again this morning it reminded me of the principle I was taught so long ago: God gave man two ears and one mouth because He intended them to be used in that proportion.

I have taught it many times over the years, but when I read this I found myself wondering, as I do with so many things, whether I actually do it. Do I really pay twice as much attention to what others are saying as I do to speaking myself? Even when I'm not speaking, am I really listening, or am I simply being quite while I prepare what I am going to say next? You know the answers to those questions, Lord, and I know that they are not what I would really like them to be.

Then there is something else here, Lord - something that I had never really noticed till this morning. You put becoming angry in the same basket with the whole listening and speaking thing. Interesting. Are You trying to tell us that often our unnecessary anger is a result of speaking too quickly and not listening enough? Of not really hearing what the other person is saying because we are so focused on what we are trying to get across?

If that's the case, then could a lot of anger be resolved by us laying aside our own agenda for a while and listening - really listening - to what the other person has to say. Not just hearing their words, but hearing their heart. Could it be that if we stop to really hear them, then we may find that they are not so different from us after all, or at least that we can understand their position?

Come to think of it, that sort of listening could not only resolve a lot of the anger between individuals. On a national basis, it could also stop a lot of wars.

Lord, next time my mouth is flapping around when I should be listening to the other person, stop me. Next time I am ignoring what someone else is saying because I am too busy preparing my next monologue, stop me.

You gave me two ears and one mouth: teach me to use them in that proportion.

### BLINDED BY PRIDE

They answered him, "We are Abraham's offspring, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, 'You will be made free'?"

John 8:33

Um, 'scuse me, Lord, but wasn't someone missing something here? Weren't these descendants of Abraham the same race that had been in Egypt for four hundred years? Sure, they started out there as honoured guests, but that's certainly no how they ended their time there. I seem to recall something about slaves being forced to make bricks for the Egyptians, and being flogged if they didn't produce enough.

And weren't they the same ones that had been carried into captivity in Babylon? As I remember, You had become fed up with calling them back to Yourself, and had handed them over to the nation whose gods they had chosen to worship. They were forced out of their homes and marched off to Babylon, away from both their country and the Temple. Sure sounds like slavery to me!

Wait a minute - weren't they the same ones who, at the very time they were uttering these words, were very firmly under the heel of Rome? Let's see ... governed under Roman law, enforced by Roman Governors; forced to pay Roman taxes; policed by Roman soldiers ... maybe not quite slavery, but definitely not freedom!

And that's before we even begin to consider their spiritual bondage ...

It seems to me, Lord, that they were so totally caught up in pride because of their status as descendants of Abraham - a status that they only had because of Your grace in the first place - that they were blinded to the truth of their condition.

Lord, do I do that? Do I allow my relationship with You, or Your goodness to me, to become a pride issue that blinds me to my true condition? I don't think I do ... but if You ever think that I'm doing so, Lord, please give me a swift kick!

### DIVIDED LOYALTIES

... you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you ...

1 Samuel 23:17

Lord, how sad this verse is in the light of what was to follow! Here were two young men with such enormous potential. And not only did they each have that potential, but they could recognise it in each other. They could have been such a strong team, each building on the other's strengths and compensating for his weaknesses. As David's right-hand man, Jonathan would surely have come into greatness himself; whilst he, in turn, might have been able to deflect David from some of his more foolish decisions.

Of course, David went on to greatness anyway. Even though he never dishonoured his family or his background, he managed to separate himself from them and become his own person; to find his own identity and destiny.

Jonathan never quite managed to do that. In spite of his recognition of Your anointing on David's life, and in spite of his personal love for David, he clung to his loyalty to his father and the old order of things. Never able to make the break and stand firm in his new loyalty to David, he instead remained with his father and suffered the same fate as him.

I find that sad, Lord - how much more sad must You find it? But then, I think of so many people that I know today, and wonder whether they are really much different from Jonathan ... people who can see clearly the kind of things that You want for Your Church, but hold back from moving into them ... people who have such enormous potential, but choose to cling to the past and the old ways rather than growing into that potential.

Lord, teach me when to hold on and when to let go. Help me to grow in a loyalty to You that overrides all other loyalties.

### HOW MANY DOES GOD NEED?

Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.

1 Sam 14:6(b) NIV.

Lord, this episode had to be one of the craziest schemes of all time. Two blokes, Johnathan and his armour bearer, decide to take on a whole detachment of Philistine warriors. Not only that, but they warn them that they're coming. What's more, they have to climb up hand-and-foot to get there.

Their only possible advantage - at least in the natural - was that the Philistines were probably too busy rolling around on the ground laughing at the whole idea to be able to defend themselves.

Yet, Lord, it seems that throughout Your Word, You like to make the point that one plus You is a majority. I think of Gideon's army, which You deliberately reduced from 32,000 to just 300, specifically to demonstrate that victory doesn't come from human numbers, strength or ability, but only from You.

And, in the New Testament, I think of the little band of 120, empowered by Your Spirit on the day of Pentecost, who went on to "turn the world upside down."

Lord, in my own life it often feels like I'm fighting on a dozen fronts at once. Sometimes I feel totally outnumbered. Yet, Lord, when I look at those things in the light of these Scriptures, one thing becomes obvious - no matter how big and daunting the things that come against me might be, as long as I am in Your will, You are with me \- and we are the majority.

Stretching my vision to the bigger picture, I think of all the things that come against Your Kingdom - false religions, militant atheism, spiralling immorality, rampant injustice, endemic materialism. Sometimes they all seem so big, we wonder how we can ever effectively stand against them.

Help us - help me - to remember that You always win, no matter how many are on Your side.

### THE ETERNAL WORD

Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.

Psalms 119:89 (NIV)

Lord, eternal is one of those concepts that it's really hard for people to get their heads around. Maybe it was easier in the days of our grandfathers, when things moved more slowly and manufactured goods were built to last. But today ... life moves so quickly, and years slip by before we have even gotten used to writing the new date. Then there's the wonderful concept of "built in obsolescence" - so often it's cheaper to throw something away and get a new one than to have it repaired.

All of that adds up to a sense of temporariness: nothing lasts, everything changes, nothing is dependable.

Yet there, overriding it all, is Your Word. It doesn't change or fluctuate. It's not going to become obsolete tomorrow, next week or next year \- or in a billion years time. It's not "here today, gone tomorrow." It is eternal, just like You.

As with so many things about You, Lord, that can be either comforting or confronting, depending on where the hearer stands with You.

For those who know You, it is a comfort to know that Your promises are not "like pie crusts, made to be broken." It means we can stand on firm ground, sure and unshakable. We are not going to get close to the goal posts, only to find that You have moved them again (as is so often the case with the words of men.)

For those who don't know You, though, I guess it's rather confronting to think that You are not going to back down; that You are not going to change Your standards just because society does; and that you are not going to allow individuals to be the "exception to the rule."

Lord, help me to rest in the sureness and unchangeability of Your Word.

### NAGGING GOD

You who call on Yahweh, take no rest, and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Isaiah 62: 6b-7

Lord, I laugh every time I read these verses. If ever there was an invitation to nag You, this has gotta be it! You say to give you no rest - what a far cry that is from the people who say, "pray once, and then if you pray for the same thing again you are lacking faith."

I think, too, of Your illustrations in the New Testament ... the woman who kept nagging the unjust judge till he gave her justice, and the bloke who kept banging on his friend's door in the middle of the night till the friend got up and gave him a loaf of bread. In both cases the message seems to be, "keep making a pest of yourself till you get what you want."

Now, Lord, I know that the world has a saying that "it's the squeaky door that gets the oil," but I don't quite understand why You would be like that. After all, You love us and want the best for us even more than we do. Particularly I don't understand why You would be like that with things that You have already said that You want to do ... like establishing Jerusalem, or establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. If it is Your will and purpose to do these things, then why don't You just go ahead and do them? Why do You need us to nag You into it?

Something just occurred to me, though, Lord. From the beginning You wanted to reign on earth through man. You appointed us as Your vice-regents and gave us Your authority.

Sure, we handed that to Satan when we sinned - but that never changed Your purposes, did it? So, when You invite us to nag You like this, are You really inviting us to step into the position You called us to in the first place? Is it really more about moving us than about moving You?

### NO SHARED GLORY

I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.

Isaiah 42:8

Lord, I have heard people take verses like this and use them to suggest that You are some kind of egomaniac. I know that's not the case, Lord ... but I can kinda understand that reaction from people who don't know You.

Why is it that You place such importance on people not worshipping other gods? After all, there are many today - as I'm sure there were in Isaiah's day - who insist that there is only one god, and it doesn't matter what you call him (or her,) or how you represent him \- we are still all worshipping that same god. You certainly don't seem to share that viewpoint! You make it abundantly clear in Your Word that You do not consider Baal or any of the other deities worshipped in the ancient Middle East to be even remotely equal to You.

Could that be because all those gods turn the true order of things upside down? They are made by man - whether they are carved in stone or wood, or only in the minds and imaginations of people - therefore they reflect man's image. You were not made by man: You are not the creation of either our minds or our hands. Rather, we were created by You in Your image.

There are a whole heap of problems when man creates god in our image. Firstly, we are finite, so a god created in our image cannot be infinite. We are temporal, so the god we create cannot be eternal. We are sinful, so a god in our image cannot be holy. Our power is extremely limited, so a god like us cannot be omnipotent. Our knowledge is limited, so the god we create cannot be omniscient.

Lets see ... that leaves us with a god who is finite, temporal, unholy, and limited in both knowledge and power. Not much of a god, if you ask me! Not much use to mankind!

I guess that explains why You insist that we worship You, and You alone!

### THINK AS I THINK

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:5 (NIV)

So often, Lord, we hear that expression, "Do as I say, not as I do." People give voice to standards that they themselves do not observe, yet they expect to hold others to those standards. It's so easy to separate our words and our actions - to say one thing and do something totally different.

But here You get to a much deeper level: the level of the heart and mind. Everything we do flows out of our attitude. Unlike our words, we cannot separate it from our actions.

Our attitude is the sum of how we think and feel about life, the universe and ourselves. If we think life owes us, that attitude will show through in everything we do. If we feel that our purpose is to love and serve You, that will also show through.

You say we are to cultivate an attitude that is the same as Your own. It's not enough for us to speak Your words. Nor is it enough for us to "imitate" You - the very best imitation is only ever a good fake. No, You say it has to come from the heart and mind.

The question is, of course, how do we get there? You had the distinct advantage of not being encumbered by a sin nature, remember!

Ah, but even as I write that You remind me that You live within me by Your Spirit. He has Your nature and Your attitude, and He wants to live His life \- Your life - through me. I don't have to struggle and strain to make my life and my thinking conform to Yours. I just have to let the old life die and start living in the new life You have given me.

Sounds so easy ... but not so easy to do! Lord, bring me to that place where I am dead to my own old attitudes, so that Your attitude can truly be expressed through me.

### MEET THE AUTHOR

Lynn Fowler cannot remember a time when she did not write. Her father, who was a poet and freelance writer, instilled in her a love for the written word, and from her earliest years she was putting thoughts on paper.

After a difficult childhood and an early marriage, Lynn became caught up in spiritualism, from which she was dramatically saved in December 1974. The day she was saved the Lord called her to preach, and within six weeks she had started studying at Sydney Missionary and Bible College.

From that point on most of Lynn's writing was focused on Christian life, and she had a number of articles and poems published in Christian magazines in Australia, and a few overseas. In 1990 her children's book, A Crazy Alphabet, was published in Australia and the USA, and was nominated for the Children's Book of the Year Award in Australia. She has published two other Christian books: Real, Radical and Revolutionary - Building Kingdom Relationships with God, with Each Other and with the World; and Called To Battle, a manual of spiritual warfare.

First ordained in 1983, Lynn briefly laid down her credentials in the mid-90s due to personal circumstances. She was re-ordained in 1998. Over the years she has been involved in various pioneering situations and itinerant ministry, and since 1989 had made numerous short-term missions trips.

Lynn holds two diplomas and a Bachelor of Theology degree, and in 2013 was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Ministry from St Andrews Theological College and Seminary, India, in recognition of 38 years of ministry.

With a passion to see people "set on fire" for Jesus Christ and for His Kingdom, Lynn likes to refer to herself as a "spiritual pyromaniac."

Lynn has two adult sons and five grandchildren. She lives alone in a tiny country town in Victoria, Australia.

###  SNEAK PEEK - CALLED TO BATTLE

This is an extract from Lynn B. Fowler's book, Called to Battle. You can get a free digital copy of this book by signing up for Lynn's newsletter at http://signup.lynnbfowler.com (It is not available anywhere else.)

You will also receive free "sneak peeks" at other books by Lynn and notification of any new releases.

CALLED TO BATTLE

SPIRITUAL DEFENSE

...

Before we move on to looking at the individual pieces of the armour, there is one thing that we really need to understand. Many people pray each morning something like this: "I put on the belt of truth, I put on the breastplate of righteousness ..." That, in itself, will not work. They are basically using the armour of God like some kind of talisman (lucky charm) to ward off the attacks of the enemy during the day. Whilst it is good to include a meditation on the armour in our prayer time, the armour is not just a prayer that can be waved like a magic wand over our lives. Rather, it is about a lifestyle. Paul is talking about the way we are to live, day in and day out, if we are to be able to stand against the attacks of the enemy.

That said, let's move on to looking at the individual pieces of our armour.

THE BELT OF TRUTH

The picture that Paul uses in this passage is one with which his readers were all-too-familiar: that of a Roman soldier in full battle dress. The first piece of the armour on which he focuses is the belt. Now to us that may seem strange - surely the sword or the shield is more important than the belt?

However, the belt was a very vital part of the soldier's kit. It did far more than keep his toga up! The belt had two very important functions:

1. It supported his weapons. Everything the soldier had hung on his belt. Without it, he would have had to carry everything in his hands, which would have made it impossible for him to fight.

2. It protected the very vulnerable area of his abdomen.

For us, also, truth has these two functions. Everything we are and everything we do as Christians hangs on the truth. Likewise, truth protects us in the areas where we are most vulnerable.

There are several aspects to truth. Firstly, God is truth. Jesus declared, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6) Numbers 23:19 says that "God is not a man that He should lie." God does not make "tissue paper promises:" all His promises will stand. (2 Corinthians 1:18-20) This needs to be burned into our hearts.

Sometimes we look at a promise of God, let's say for example His promise of healing, and we look at the circumstances around us, and it doesn't seem that promise is coming to pass. It is very easy for us to begin believing the circumstances rather than the promise of God. When we find that beginning to happen, we need to immediately switch our focus to the promise of God. No matter what our circumstances tell us, no matter what our experience tells us, no matter what our emotions tell us, no matter what other people tell us, no matter what the devil tries to tell us, God's promises will stand. Take hold of that and don't let it go. Remember, the very first words spoken by the devil in his plot to rob Adam and Eve (and through them, us) of their (our) destiny in God were, "Did God really say ..."

Secondly, the Word of God is truth. There are some churches that teach that the Bible merely contains the Word of God. In other words, some bits are and some bits are not. The problem with this approach is, how do we tell which are which? In practice, those who say the Bible merely contains the Word of God (as opposed to being the Word of God) then go on to apply their human thinking and analysis to the Bible, and end up with very little if any that they are prepared to say is the Word of God.

Discussion about the evidence for the Bible being the absolutely authoritative Word of God is way beyond the scope of this book. For the present, however, please accept that the Bible is the Word of God, and is absolutely truthful. Otherwise, like the soldier without his belt, you have nothing on which to hang your faith.

Doctrine is important. Every so often you will come across some Christian or group who says, "Oh, we don't have a statement of faith. Doctrine doesn't matter. We just love people with the love of Jesus," or something similar. In fact, everything we do derives from what we believe, and if we have never defined what we believe then we have no way of defining what we do not believe.

Everything we will ever do in spiritual warfare (or, for that matter, in any aspect of our Christian lives) is held up and supported by the truth of God's Word. If it isn't, it will fall to the ground at our feet and we will stand unprotected before the attack of the enemy.

The truth that God is omnipotent holds up and supports our declaration that He is more powerful than Satan.

The truth that God is eternal holds up and supports our declaration that He will never be defeated by the enemy.

The truth that God is just holds up and supports our declaration that God will judge Satan and destroy all his works.

The truth that Jesus is God holds up and supports our declaration of His authority and power.

The truth that the Bible is the Word of God holds up and supports our use of it against the enemy.

The truth that Jesus defeated Satan at Calvary holds up and supports everything we do in warfare.

If you do not already have a clear understanding of the truth of the Word of God, if you have not clearly defined what you believe, then you need to spend time in the Word as a first priority. Your victory in Christ hangs on it.

The third aspect of truth is our truthfulness. The nature of Christianity is such that we cannot separate Who God is from who we are. We cannot say (even though many try,) "Don't judge God by me." The Spirit of the living God lives in us, and He is in the business of transforming us both personally and corporately into the image of Christ. We are children of a God Who is truth, and His nature must be seen in us.

Again, this is a vital part of our defence against the devil. Truth is powerful. After all, why should the devil - or anyone else - listen to a liar?

THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Just as the belt protected the soldier's abdomen, the breastplate protected one of the most vital parts of his body, the heart and lungs. It was also possibly the most noticeable part of the armour, the thing that people would see first as the soldier approached them.

This second aspect is the one that is taken up in Isaiah 59:17, "He (God) put on righteousness as a breastplate." When people become aware of the true God, one of the first things they notice about Him is His righteousness. The gods of the nations are unrighteous - unjust, petty, sometimes even downright immoral. For instance, many of the Greek and Roman deities of Paul's day were reputed to be involved in immorality, gluttony, drunkenness and every other conceivable form of evil. The God of the Bible, however, is righteous not only in all He does but in His very nature. In fact, there is no righteousness apart from that which has its source in Him.

We, on the other hand, are (in ourselves, apart from God) unrighteous. This is because we inherited the sin nature that came upon our first parents when they rebelled against God, and every one of us has acted according to that sin nature. (Don't believe it? When was the last time you heard of a parent having to teach his two-year-old to be naughty?) Outside of a relationship with Christ, every aspect of our lives - every motive, every thought, every word, every action - is affected by that sin nature. That does not mean that we are all terrible people, or that we are the worst we could possibly be, but simply that there is at least a little "bad" in the best of us, and that given the right set of circumstances any one of us is capable of living out of that bad to the limit.

When Jesus came and died in our place, He did far more than just secure our forgiveness. He took our sin - our unrighteousness - to the cross, "becoming sin" for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, "For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Although the Living Bible (TLB) is far from my favourite translation, I love the way it puts this verse: "For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!"

This is a two-part process. Firstly, God declares us to be righteous because Jesus is righteous. Theologians have a word for this, they say that God's righteousness is imputed to us. When Jesus died, He stood in our place. His death was not only a payment for sin, it was also a perfect obedience to the Father. It was absolute righteousness. And, because we are included in His death, we are also included in His righteousness.

One of the greatest tricks the devil will use in his efforts to destroy the people of God is to try to get us to stand in our own righteousness. This can take two forms. He may try to make us think that we are ok., that we are good enough in ourselves, and that we don't need Christ's sacrifice. We encounter people who have fallen for this trick all the time. When presented with the Gospel they will say something like, "Oh, I'm ok. I always try to keep the Commandments," or "I never do anything to hurt anybody," or "I give to the poor," or "I went to Sunday School when I was a kid." There are a million variations, but the one thing that all of them is saying is, "I am good enough by myself, I don't need God's goodness."

The Bible tells us that our own righteousness is like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) It is simply not enough to cover us. As we have already seen, all of us sin, whether they are big sins or little sins. Every sin opens us to the judgement of God. He has declared that "The soul who sins, he shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4) The only way to escape that judgement is by laying hold of Christ's righteousness.

Falling for this trick of the devil keeps countless people from receiving the salvation that God has provided for them, and that is tragic. Yet it is not only unbelievers who swallow this lie. Sadly, sometimes those who have previously come to Christ allow themselves to become puffed up with pride, thinking that they are righteous in themselves, and in doing so let go of the grace of God.

When this trick doesn't work, the devil will then often take the directly opposite approach. Rather than telling us that we are righteous in ourselves, he will remind us of how unrighteous we were outside of Christ. I can just hear that snivelling voice saying, "Remember you did that ... and that ... and that. How can you call yourself a Christian? You're not a Christian's boot lace!" When he tries this one, we need to be ready to remind him that our unrighteousness was all put on Christ, and we stand before the Throne of God clothed in Christ's righteousness.

The second part of the process of transferring Christ's righteousness to us is that the Holy Spirit is in the process of imparting His righteousness into our lives. When God created man in the first place, He made us in His image. That image was tragically marred through sin, but God never gave up His purpose of having a people who would be like Him. When we are born again, the Spirit of God comes to take up residence within our newly recreated human spirit. His purpose is to bring about a transformation back into that original image of God.

There are several Scripture passages that talk about this. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV) says, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." This shows us that we have a part in it. God is not going to just "zap" us into His image, even that would be far easier for both Him and us. We have to keep "beholding" Him: we have to keep our focus and our attention on Him and not on all the distractions of the world. That doesn't mean becoming a hermit sitting on a mountain top, but rather that in all our day-to-day work and lives we keep Christ in the forefront of our minds.

Romans 8:29 tells us, "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." This means that becoming like God is our destiny, our birthright in Christ. The only thing that can prevent it from happening is our own choices.

In Ephesians 4:13 we are told that the function of the Five-Fold or Ascension Gift ministries (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher) is to bring the Body of Christ corporately "... unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (KJV) That tells us that God's purpose is not just to have individuals who are like Him, but to have a people who corporately reflect His glory.

When we learn both to stand in Christ's righteousness that is imputed to us, and to grow in His righteousness that is being imparted to us, two things happen. Firstly, we have an automatic protection against many of the attacks of the enemy, particularly those that are aimed at our heart (the inner core of our being, the place out of which we live.) Secondly, both people and demons will see us coming. They will know that we are standing on God's side in the battle. That in itself can be a victory.

...
