There is a song by Emile Sande called Read All About It. On the surface, it seems like quite a random thing to mention - many people know this song, and it's not a particularly religious song. In fact, I doubt that its true meaning has anything to do with God. Despite this, this song really makes me think of my relationship with God - particularly the chorus.
It's often said that the Gospel is the Good News, and this is used to preach about, well, preaching; that when you have good news, you share it with others, so that if you have the Gospel - the ultimate Good News - why would you not want to share it with others?
This kind of argument is hard to argue against, despite the fact that for many reasons we find it hard to tell others about faith. We are scared of being seen as fanatical, or of being ostracised for our beliefs. Moreover, it's often easy to separate the Good News from good news. Your favourite sports team winning a match is obvious good news, and we can understand why we want to share it with everyone we know. The Good News of the Gospel, however, doesn't seem to feel like the same kind of good news. It doesn't quite give us the same feeling, even though it is, in fact, Good News indeed.
Yet even if we feel this way most of the time, the time will come when we feel particularly close to God - it might be when we're praying, it might be because of a verse we read that moves us, it might be during worship - and in that moment, we see the Gospel for the Good News that it really is.
Most of the time, when I feel close to God, I get an initial thought reaction. Mostly it's a prayer, or a religious song that I particularly like. However, a few months ago I found that my initial thought reaction was not any of these things - it was the chorus of Read All About It. In that moment, when the Good News felt like good news indeed, I wanted to share it; to scream, shout and sing.
That's what this song means to me now. It might mean different things to different people, but from that moment I now find it synonymous with my relationship with God, and that it is Good News indeed.
Showing posts with label Thoughts on... prayer and worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thoughts on... prayer and worship. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Comfort Zone
There is a distinct stereotype of the English Anglican church that it is steeped in tradition: things have to be done this way; we can't do that!; well, if we allow that, then we must make sure we do this... It is a culture that puts so much emphasis on tradition that we lose the heart of why we do what we do; like why we take Communion, or why we read the Bible, or even why we go to church in the first place.
This post is not to reinforce these stereotypes, or even to imply in any sense that they are true. My aim is simply to say that I disagree with this notion. We should not be so steeped in tradition that we forget the heart behind our actions.
A few weeks ago in church, the prayer at the start of the service was not one that I knew, yet I tried to follow the words on the big screen at the front as though I did know it. As a result, I ended up stumbling over half the words, reading the wrong line and reading them in the wrong order, just generally messing up. It occurred to me that I was messing up because I was out of my comfort zone. I didn't know this new prayer, and I wasn't willing to admit that I was unfamiliar with it. I simply expected to be fluent with the new words, because I expected it to be the words that I knew already.
However, this does not work. We should not expect everything to be exactly the same, because when we do that, we end up messing up when something changes. We mess up because we get used to the tradition, and when we get used to the tradition, the tradition becomes habitual.
God is not interested in habitual worship. He is interested in our sincere worship, worship that we mean - not that we do simply because it is What We Are Used To. Because of this, we should seek to leave our comfort zone as often as possible. Listen to new worship songs, read different Bible plans, pray with other people rather than alone (or vice versa). Do something different to show God that we are not worshipping simply because it is What We Do, but rather because it is What We Want To Do. And, yes, we may mess up, but we are not perfect - and God accepts that. It is far better to mean what we do and mess up, than to be 'perfect' in what we do but insincere.
This post is not to reinforce these stereotypes, or even to imply in any sense that they are true. My aim is simply to say that I disagree with this notion. We should not be so steeped in tradition that we forget the heart behind our actions.
A few weeks ago in church, the prayer at the start of the service was not one that I knew, yet I tried to follow the words on the big screen at the front as though I did know it. As a result, I ended up stumbling over half the words, reading the wrong line and reading them in the wrong order, just generally messing up. It occurred to me that I was messing up because I was out of my comfort zone. I didn't know this new prayer, and I wasn't willing to admit that I was unfamiliar with it. I simply expected to be fluent with the new words, because I expected it to be the words that I knew already.
However, this does not work. We should not expect everything to be exactly the same, because when we do that, we end up messing up when something changes. We mess up because we get used to the tradition, and when we get used to the tradition, the tradition becomes habitual.
God is not interested in habitual worship. He is interested in our sincere worship, worship that we mean - not that we do simply because it is What We Are Used To. Because of this, we should seek to leave our comfort zone as often as possible. Listen to new worship songs, read different Bible plans, pray with other people rather than alone (or vice versa). Do something different to show God that we are not worshipping simply because it is What We Do, but rather because it is What We Want To Do. And, yes, we may mess up, but we are not perfect - and God accepts that. It is far better to mean what we do and mess up, than to be 'perfect' in what we do but insincere.
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Solipsism
Solipsism is a concept that I first came across during my AS Philosophy course. Basically, to be solipsistic means to feel that you are the only one that actually exists, and that all objects and people external to you are fiction; they do not exist.
Obviously, this is not something that Christians advocate. On the contrary, as Christians our fundamental belief is that we are not alone, that there is an eternal and omnipotent One who exists now, existed before the world began, and will continue to exist forever, regardless of us. Furthermore, if the individual were the only one who existed, then we would not need to follow the command to "love others as ourselves", because there would be no others to love as ourselves.
Why, then, do I mention solipsism?
Well, I do not mean to say that we should act as though we are the only ones that exist in every area of our lives. Indeed, in my Philosophy course, solipsism was always used as a counter-argument to certain philosophical positions; that solipsism was a potential problem of those positions. However, I think that there is a use for solipsism - in a very diluted form - which can aid us in our Christian life.
My church has a Sunday school, and this means that the children go off during the service to other, more age-appropriate things instead of having to stay in church listening to a sermon which will be far too long and far too uninteresting for a three-year-old. However, the children do not go straight to Sunday school, and so the very start of the service - before the children go off - is usually more child-friendly than the rest of it. In some cases, this means singing more songs which are aimed at children, whose lyrics are simpler and whose music is more bouncy and energetic; songs which sometimes have actions.
I find myself rather embarrassed when we sing these songs in church. I find myself starting to think that I shouldn't be singing a song like this; after all, this song was written for under-10s to sing, and I am not under 10. So I find myself barely singing them at all, instead almost mouthing the words while looking around with an expression on my face as if to say 'Help, get me out of here! This song is too infantile for my teenage mind!'.
Yet a few weeks ago, I realised that I didn't need to feel embarrassed. Regardless of what age group a song is written for, it is still a worship song; still a song designed to glorify and lift up the Name of God. And why should I be embarrassed to do that? It occurred to me that instead of thinking that this song is not for me simply because it was written for children, I should be singing along as enthusiastically as I do any other song; maybe, I should even be joining in with the actions. Because it's still achieving the same aim: I am still worshipping my God and Saviour.
I feel embarrassed because singing songs such as these is not how society deems it appropriate for older people to behave. If you have ever read the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, you will know that once you reach a certain age you are called upon to shed the 'immature' skin of childhood and replace it with the 'mature' skin that has been growing underneath since birth. Yet if this stops us from enjoying certain forms of worship simply because it is too 'childish' and 'infantile' for someone of our age to be doing, then maybe we should stop worrying about what society has deemed appropriate for us and start focusing on the One person that matters in that situation, the One we are worshipping: God.
Maybe, just maybe, we can all be a bit more solipsistic when it comes to matters such as these, and not worry about what others might think; shirk off the presence of other people and just focus on ourselves and God, the One whom we praise, so that we can worship in socially 'inappropriate' and 'childish' ways, without embarrassment.
Obviously, this is not something that Christians advocate. On the contrary, as Christians our fundamental belief is that we are not alone, that there is an eternal and omnipotent One who exists now, existed before the world began, and will continue to exist forever, regardless of us. Furthermore, if the individual were the only one who existed, then we would not need to follow the command to "love others as ourselves", because there would be no others to love as ourselves.
Why, then, do I mention solipsism?
Well, I do not mean to say that we should act as though we are the only ones that exist in every area of our lives. Indeed, in my Philosophy course, solipsism was always used as a counter-argument to certain philosophical positions; that solipsism was a potential problem of those positions. However, I think that there is a use for solipsism - in a very diluted form - which can aid us in our Christian life.
My church has a Sunday school, and this means that the children go off during the service to other, more age-appropriate things instead of having to stay in church listening to a sermon which will be far too long and far too uninteresting for a three-year-old. However, the children do not go straight to Sunday school, and so the very start of the service - before the children go off - is usually more child-friendly than the rest of it. In some cases, this means singing more songs which are aimed at children, whose lyrics are simpler and whose music is more bouncy and energetic; songs which sometimes have actions.
I find myself rather embarrassed when we sing these songs in church. I find myself starting to think that I shouldn't be singing a song like this; after all, this song was written for under-10s to sing, and I am not under 10. So I find myself barely singing them at all, instead almost mouthing the words while looking around with an expression on my face as if to say 'Help, get me out of here! This song is too infantile for my teenage mind!'.
Yet a few weeks ago, I realised that I didn't need to feel embarrassed. Regardless of what age group a song is written for, it is still a worship song; still a song designed to glorify and lift up the Name of God. And why should I be embarrassed to do that? It occurred to me that instead of thinking that this song is not for me simply because it was written for children, I should be singing along as enthusiastically as I do any other song; maybe, I should even be joining in with the actions. Because it's still achieving the same aim: I am still worshipping my God and Saviour.
I feel embarrassed because singing songs such as these is not how society deems it appropriate for older people to behave. If you have ever read the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, you will know that once you reach a certain age you are called upon to shed the 'immature' skin of childhood and replace it with the 'mature' skin that has been growing underneath since birth. Yet if this stops us from enjoying certain forms of worship simply because it is too 'childish' and 'infantile' for someone of our age to be doing, then maybe we should stop worrying about what society has deemed appropriate for us and start focusing on the One person that matters in that situation, the One we are worshipping: God.
Maybe, just maybe, we can all be a bit more solipsistic when it comes to matters such as these, and not worry about what others might think; shirk off the presence of other people and just focus on ourselves and God, the One whom we praise, so that we can worship in socially 'inappropriate' and 'childish' ways, without embarrassment.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Pit Stop
In this post, I'd like to talk about something that I do a lot. When I pray, it's often because I'm feeling really low, or I feel like I've got no other possible option. It equates to treating prayer like a pit stop.
It often feels as though we go to church to re-fuel spiritually, as though while we sit in our pews listening to sermons and reading the Bible and singing hymns and the like, we each have a petrol nozzle inserted in our arms which is pumping us full of the Holy Spirit until our Spirit Metre reads 'full' at the end of the service and we go out to run on it. By the time Sunday morning comes round again, the little needle on our Metre is hovering dangerously in the red zone next to a giant EMPTY and we need a top-up again.
This is not how we should approach church, or prayer. It's not enough to go to church and then ignore God for the rest of the week as though we don't need Him anymore cause we're full enough, thank-you-very-much, because more often than not if we try to live this way we'll find ourselves running out mid-week, and then we say a few prayers to try and make it till the church service on Sunday when we receive our full top-up.
The point is, if we try and live like this, we'll only ever feel full directly after church, or directly after a mid-week mini-top-up prayer. This is something I do a lot. I find myself feeling really low during the week and to counter that low feeling I say a prayer, and instantly feel a little better. Then I realise that I was only praying for the improved feeling I get, rather than because I had anything to say when I was praying. Instead, we should be praying constantly, because if we expect a single act of worship or prayer to sustain us until the next time we go to church, we'll find ourselves running on empty more often than we can manage.
It often feels as though we go to church to re-fuel spiritually, as though while we sit in our pews listening to sermons and reading the Bible and singing hymns and the like, we each have a petrol nozzle inserted in our arms which is pumping us full of the Holy Spirit until our Spirit Metre reads 'full' at the end of the service and we go out to run on it. By the time Sunday morning comes round again, the little needle on our Metre is hovering dangerously in the red zone next to a giant EMPTY and we need a top-up again.
This is not how we should approach church, or prayer. It's not enough to go to church and then ignore God for the rest of the week as though we don't need Him anymore cause we're full enough, thank-you-very-much, because more often than not if we try to live this way we'll find ourselves running out mid-week, and then we say a few prayers to try and make it till the church service on Sunday when we receive our full top-up.
The point is, if we try and live like this, we'll only ever feel full directly after church, or directly after a mid-week mini-top-up prayer. This is something I do a lot. I find myself feeling really low during the week and to counter that low feeling I say a prayer, and instantly feel a little better. Then I realise that I was only praying for the improved feeling I get, rather than because I had anything to say when I was praying. Instead, we should be praying constantly, because if we expect a single act of worship or prayer to sustain us until the next time we go to church, we'll find ourselves running on empty more often than we can manage.
Sunday, 14 April 2013
Silence
I've always thought that silence is something that is almost essential for effective prayer. Obviously, everyone is different, but I prefer no noise when I pray, and I think that it helps me to connect with my words a bit more.
The fact is that when we pray in silence, we can concentrate more. If we have music playing along in the background, we find ourselves singing along in our heads instead of speaking to God. If we are watching TV, we want to see what's going on in the programme and don't pay full attention to what we're doing. However, if we are in silence, we are fully focused on what we are doing, and we are also focused on the response that God is giving back because, as I have already said in a previous post, prayer is a conversation.
I realise that it's near impossible to find somewhere that is completely silent. There aren't many places where the absence of noise is absolute in today's loud and crowded world. However, your chosen place doesn't have to be completely silent: just as close to silence as is possible, for when we begin praying small noises like the traffic outside of our windows, the ticking of clocks, and even the sound of cats scratching on doors downstairs are all drowned out, because in the end God is bigger than the noises that might distract us.
Then why should we have to find silence in the first place; if God is bigger than the noises, surely it doesn't matter how loud our surroundings are? But to that, I say this: no one is perfect at drowning out distractions, and the noise of prayer only overcomes the noise of the world when we are praying. If we are surrounded by music and television, it can be difficult to begin praying.
So, just as something that I have noticed in my own prayer life, I would recommend trying to find the quietest place as possible to pray. Even if it's not totally silent, if there is little noise it is so much easier to concentrate, and prayer can be more effective.
The fact is that when we pray in silence, we can concentrate more. If we have music playing along in the background, we find ourselves singing along in our heads instead of speaking to God. If we are watching TV, we want to see what's going on in the programme and don't pay full attention to what we're doing. However, if we are in silence, we are fully focused on what we are doing, and we are also focused on the response that God is giving back because, as I have already said in a previous post, prayer is a conversation.
I realise that it's near impossible to find somewhere that is completely silent. There aren't many places where the absence of noise is absolute in today's loud and crowded world. However, your chosen place doesn't have to be completely silent: just as close to silence as is possible, for when we begin praying small noises like the traffic outside of our windows, the ticking of clocks, and even the sound of cats scratching on doors downstairs are all drowned out, because in the end God is bigger than the noises that might distract us.
Then why should we have to find silence in the first place; if God is bigger than the noises, surely it doesn't matter how loud our surroundings are? But to that, I say this: no one is perfect at drowning out distractions, and the noise of prayer only overcomes the noise of the world when we are praying. If we are surrounded by music and television, it can be difficult to begin praying.
So, just as something that I have noticed in my own prayer life, I would recommend trying to find the quietest place as possible to pray. Even if it's not totally silent, if there is little noise it is so much easier to concentrate, and prayer can be more effective.
Sunday, 10 March 2013
Honesty
The Bible has a lot to say about honesty. The ninth Commandment is to be honest, and to not "bear false witness". This Commandment comes from the second 'series' of Commandments, if you will; the first 'series' i.e. Commandments 1-4, is all about how you should treat your relationship with God by not worshipping false idols and so on and so forth. The second 'series' i.e. Commandments 5-10, is all about how to treat your relationship with others. The ninth Commandment, then, about not bearing false witness and being honest, is about your relationship with other people. However, this is not what I want to talk about today. My topic for today is about honesty with God.
I have noticed that honesty is often a difficult thing for us humans to get right. We often hold things back from God; 'beat around the bush', maybe. I've done this as well. But it seems a little pointless to hold things back when we pray; God knows the secrets of our hearts, and He already knows all of our troubles, so why would we not tell Him them? It could be argued that if God knows our hearts, then why should we have to tell Him? He already knows, He doesn't need us to tell Him. But this seems a rather cynical view in my opinion. Despite the fact that God does already know all of our troubles, spitting them out - even in a silent prayer in our heads - can really help.
At this point I would like to give you a personal testimony that I have experienced about holding things back from God. I have already mentioned that I have OCD in an earlier post. When my symptoms first started getting worse, I often went up for prayer at my church. But I would never just spit out what was wrong (although I should point out that at this point I was undiagnosed). I would never just say what was happening inside my head; I would give excuses like "I'm having unholy thoughts". Then I would get prayed for, burst into tears, and go home feeling - if nothing else - a little worse than I had been before. Then last year I went to Soul Survivor, and to a seminar called 'Help I Don't Like Myself'. I sat through the seminar and at the end the woman who had been speaking said that there were members of the Soul Survivor prayer team were there to pray for anyone who wanted to be prayed for. I didn't go up straight away, but sat there looking at my feet for a couple of minutes before I plucked up the courage to go up and get prayed for. A woman came over to me and asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted praying for; and I told her everything. I didn't do what I had done before, I simply told her that I had OCD (having been diagnosed by this point) and exactly what had been going in my head. When I got prayed for, it was different than any time before. I felt as though God had said to me, "I just wanted you to be honest with Me".
It's for this reason that I wanted to say that honesty in prayer is very important. If nothing else, it would improve our relationship with God. If we hold back, we are not giving everything we have to God and it's harder to develop our relationship with Him. I would really recommend trying to tell God as much as possible in as much detail as possible when you pray, cause believe me, it really helps.
I have noticed that honesty is often a difficult thing for us humans to get right. We often hold things back from God; 'beat around the bush', maybe. I've done this as well. But it seems a little pointless to hold things back when we pray; God knows the secrets of our hearts, and He already knows all of our troubles, so why would we not tell Him them? It could be argued that if God knows our hearts, then why should we have to tell Him? He already knows, He doesn't need us to tell Him. But this seems a rather cynical view in my opinion. Despite the fact that God does already know all of our troubles, spitting them out - even in a silent prayer in our heads - can really help.
At this point I would like to give you a personal testimony that I have experienced about holding things back from God. I have already mentioned that I have OCD in an earlier post. When my symptoms first started getting worse, I often went up for prayer at my church. But I would never just spit out what was wrong (although I should point out that at this point I was undiagnosed). I would never just say what was happening inside my head; I would give excuses like "I'm having unholy thoughts". Then I would get prayed for, burst into tears, and go home feeling - if nothing else - a little worse than I had been before. Then last year I went to Soul Survivor, and to a seminar called 'Help I Don't Like Myself'. I sat through the seminar and at the end the woman who had been speaking said that there were members of the Soul Survivor prayer team were there to pray for anyone who wanted to be prayed for. I didn't go up straight away, but sat there looking at my feet for a couple of minutes before I plucked up the courage to go up and get prayed for. A woman came over to me and asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted praying for; and I told her everything. I didn't do what I had done before, I simply told her that I had OCD (having been diagnosed by this point) and exactly what had been going in my head. When I got prayed for, it was different than any time before. I felt as though God had said to me, "I just wanted you to be honest with Me".
It's for this reason that I wanted to say that honesty in prayer is very important. If nothing else, it would improve our relationship with God. If we hold back, we are not giving everything we have to God and it's harder to develop our relationship with Him. I would really recommend trying to tell God as much as possible in as much detail as possible when you pray, cause believe me, it really helps.
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Mark 10:46-52
In Mark 10:46-52, we read the story of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus. Three of the Gospels tell this story, but my favourite is in Mark (GNT version), so that's the one I'm going to focus on.
Just briefly, I want to give an overview of the story before I go into the lesson that I want to give from it. In this story, we see Jesus and the disciples on a journey, and the people they pass know about Jesus and the things that He has done so far. A crowd gathers, and blind Bartimaeus is part of this crowd. Bartimaeus wants to be healed, so he calls out to Jesus, trying to get His attention. The other people in the crowd scold him and tell him to be quiet, but Bartimaeus shouts even louder. Jesus notices, and calls Bartimaeus over, then heals him, and in verse 52 we read that Bartimaeus, now able to see, follows Jesus on the road.
The reason that I have put this post in 'Prayer and worship' rather than 'Bible', is because I think it gives us two really good pieces of advice about how to pray for ourselves: desperation and simplicity.
Bartimaeus is desperate to see again, which is why he shouts out to Jesus when he hears that He is passing by. He doesn't even stop when he is scolded, but he shouts even louder (verse 48). This kind of desperation shows how much he wants to be heard by Jesus, and how much he recognises that he needs Jesus. I love when, in verse 50, after Jesus calls Bartimaeus up, Mark writes that Bartimaeus "jumped up". You can just imagine someone jumping to their feet in excitement and rushing over, because his desperation to be heard has been answered. It it his desperation that causes Jesus to notice him, and ultimately heal him, because - as Jesus says in verse 52 - this desperation shows how strong Bartimaeus' faith was, that he would keep on shouting until he was heard and called over.
The second lesson from this story is to pray with simplicity. In verse 51, when Bartimaeus reaches Jesus, Jesus asks Bartimaeus what He can do for him. At this point, Bartimaeus could have gone on and on and on about what he wants; he could have asked not just to be able to see, but to have riches beyond his wildest dreams, or popularity, or anything. But Bartimaeus doesn't do this. He simply says, "Teacher, I want to see again". Sometimes we can go on and on in prayer, giving a long description of exactly what we want, when really we should just get to the point and pray simply but truthfully.
The story of Bartimaeus is one of a person who was thought not proper; he was told off for shouting out to the Lord, but in the end it was him who was called over and healed. Maybe we should all spent a little more time shouting out to the Lord, rather than feeling as though we have to be quiet.
Just briefly, I want to give an overview of the story before I go into the lesson that I want to give from it. In this story, we see Jesus and the disciples on a journey, and the people they pass know about Jesus and the things that He has done so far. A crowd gathers, and blind Bartimaeus is part of this crowd. Bartimaeus wants to be healed, so he calls out to Jesus, trying to get His attention. The other people in the crowd scold him and tell him to be quiet, but Bartimaeus shouts even louder. Jesus notices, and calls Bartimaeus over, then heals him, and in verse 52 we read that Bartimaeus, now able to see, follows Jesus on the road.
The reason that I have put this post in 'Prayer and worship' rather than 'Bible', is because I think it gives us two really good pieces of advice about how to pray for ourselves: desperation and simplicity.
Bartimaeus is desperate to see again, which is why he shouts out to Jesus when he hears that He is passing by. He doesn't even stop when he is scolded, but he shouts even louder (verse 48). This kind of desperation shows how much he wants to be heard by Jesus, and how much he recognises that he needs Jesus. I love when, in verse 50, after Jesus calls Bartimaeus up, Mark writes that Bartimaeus "jumped up". You can just imagine someone jumping to their feet in excitement and rushing over, because his desperation to be heard has been answered. It it his desperation that causes Jesus to notice him, and ultimately heal him, because - as Jesus says in verse 52 - this desperation shows how strong Bartimaeus' faith was, that he would keep on shouting until he was heard and called over.
The second lesson from this story is to pray with simplicity. In verse 51, when Bartimaeus reaches Jesus, Jesus asks Bartimaeus what He can do for him. At this point, Bartimaeus could have gone on and on and on about what he wants; he could have asked not just to be able to see, but to have riches beyond his wildest dreams, or popularity, or anything. But Bartimaeus doesn't do this. He simply says, "Teacher, I want to see again". Sometimes we can go on and on in prayer, giving a long description of exactly what we want, when really we should just get to the point and pray simply but truthfully.
The story of Bartimaeus is one of a person who was thought not proper; he was told off for shouting out to the Lord, but in the end it was him who was called over and healed. Maybe we should all spent a little more time shouting out to the Lord, rather than feeling as though we have to be quiet.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Living for God
This post started as a writing exercise that I did at my writing workshop.
The concept of living for God is nothing new. We hear it all the time; you must live for God, you need to live for God. We hear this a lot, but we don't often hear the reason why. Why should we live for God?
The reason that you need to live for God is that He is living for you - He is living for you, He came down to earth for you, He performed miracles for you, He died for you, He rose for you. God, through Jesus, did all these things for you. Not 'you' as in plural, 'you' as in singular. I once listened to a sermon in which the preacher told the congregation that even if there was only one person on earth all those years ago, Jesus still would have come and died for that one person. So Jesus is living for each one of us individually. So of course we need to live for God, because He is always living for us. Jesus still has the holes in His hands and feet from the nails that held Him to the cross, and He still has the hole in His side from the sword that was drawn into it.
But how do we live for God? There isn't a single way you can do it, and no one has ever drawn up a list of things that, if every item on it is completed, you are living for God and you don't need to do anything more. That isn't how it works. Living for God is ongoing, and involves every single thing that you do. Basically, you need to do everything for God's glory.
That might seem like an impossible feat; how can everything be done for God's glory? God gives us opportunities to live for Him every day, but it's reckoned that because of our free will, we miss most of them. When I first heard that, I found it quite sad. How can you make sure that you don't miss opportunities to live for God? Of course, it's highly unlikely that you won't miss any of them, but you can make sure that you don't miss as many.
The simplest way that I can think of to explain it - because I'm a Harry Potter freak - is by a bit in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (I'm not going to use too much jargon here, in case anyone reading this doesn't know Harry Potter that well). There is a potion in that book called felix felicis. It's nickname is liquid luck; a potion that, when drunk, will give a person luck in everything that they do until the effects wear off. There's a bit in the book when one of the characters thinks that he's taken this potion, when in fact he hasn't. But even the thought that he's taken it makes him 'lucky' in his endeavours, until he's told that actually he hadn't taken the potion at all.
The reason I'm telling you this, is because to find the opportunities that God is giving you to live for His glory, you need to look for the opportunities. If you're looking for them (which is what the character was doing when he thought he'd taken the potion), you will find them, and it will seem so much easier to live for God.
When you live like this, the opportunities seem obvious. This is the third blog that I've run. The first two were about random things, and I was always struggling to find something to blog about. Then, it hit me: I can blog about my faith. Once I'd realised that, it seemed to silly that I hadn't thought of it before. And when you start looking, lots of different types of opportunities seem obvious.
Listening to Christian music on the commute. Reading Christian fiction... on the commute. When you get a new notebook or diary, write a Bible verse or a line from a hymn in the front cover.
It really isn't as hard as it may seem at first. But everything can be done for God's glory. You just gotta look.
The concept of living for God is nothing new. We hear it all the time; you must live for God, you need to live for God. We hear this a lot, but we don't often hear the reason why. Why should we live for God?
The reason that you need to live for God is that He is living for you - He is living for you, He came down to earth for you, He performed miracles for you, He died for you, He rose for you. God, through Jesus, did all these things for you. Not 'you' as in plural, 'you' as in singular. I once listened to a sermon in which the preacher told the congregation that even if there was only one person on earth all those years ago, Jesus still would have come and died for that one person. So Jesus is living for each one of us individually. So of course we need to live for God, because He is always living for us. Jesus still has the holes in His hands and feet from the nails that held Him to the cross, and He still has the hole in His side from the sword that was drawn into it.
But how do we live for God? There isn't a single way you can do it, and no one has ever drawn up a list of things that, if every item on it is completed, you are living for God and you don't need to do anything more. That isn't how it works. Living for God is ongoing, and involves every single thing that you do. Basically, you need to do everything for God's glory.
That might seem like an impossible feat; how can everything be done for God's glory? God gives us opportunities to live for Him every day, but it's reckoned that because of our free will, we miss most of them. When I first heard that, I found it quite sad. How can you make sure that you don't miss opportunities to live for God? Of course, it's highly unlikely that you won't miss any of them, but you can make sure that you don't miss as many.
The simplest way that I can think of to explain it - because I'm a Harry Potter freak - is by a bit in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (I'm not going to use too much jargon here, in case anyone reading this doesn't know Harry Potter that well). There is a potion in that book called felix felicis. It's nickname is liquid luck; a potion that, when drunk, will give a person luck in everything that they do until the effects wear off. There's a bit in the book when one of the characters thinks that he's taken this potion, when in fact he hasn't. But even the thought that he's taken it makes him 'lucky' in his endeavours, until he's told that actually he hadn't taken the potion at all.
The reason I'm telling you this, is because to find the opportunities that God is giving you to live for His glory, you need to look for the opportunities. If you're looking for them (which is what the character was doing when he thought he'd taken the potion), you will find them, and it will seem so much easier to live for God.
When you live like this, the opportunities seem obvious. This is the third blog that I've run. The first two were about random things, and I was always struggling to find something to blog about. Then, it hit me: I can blog about my faith. Once I'd realised that, it seemed to silly that I hadn't thought of it before. And when you start looking, lots of different types of opportunities seem obvious.
Listening to Christian music on the commute. Reading Christian fiction... on the commute. When you get a new notebook or diary, write a Bible verse or a line from a hymn in the front cover.
It really isn't as hard as it may seem at first. But everything can be done for God's glory. You just gotta look.
Friday, 7 September 2012
Constant prayer
Way back in July, I went to a thing called Time For Youth. I've already told you one story about this in The simple joy of kindred spirits. In the afternoon, there were a series of workshops and you had to sign up for three of them, and one of the ones that I signed up for was about how to be a Christian in every day life, and how living as a Christian is different than not living as a Christian. One of the things that was mentioned was constant prayer.
At first, I didn't think it was possible. How can you be praying constantly? But recently I've been thinking, how can you not be constantly praying? I thought of the hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and about how Jesus is our friend. I began thinking about Jesus' omnipresence, and about how we never are without Jesus right next to us.
Therefore, if Jesus is our friend and He's always right beside us, shouldn't we always be talking to Him? Even if it's about the really mundane things like what we had for breakfast or the fact that our shoelaces are untied. Because, after all, if your best friend was sitting next to you, you wouldn't ignore them. So why, when our ultimate best friend is right beside us wherever we go, we don't talk to Him all the time?
Another obstacle is, what would you talk about? I think the problem is that it is seen that the only thing that you can pray about are the things that you're 'supposed' to pray about; things like war and injustice and the like. But, again, we have to remember that Jesus is our ultimate best friend.
I once read a Bible plan that talked about how Abraham is described in Genesis as being God's friend. We can see this when God is planning to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He says to Himself that He is not going to hide His plans from Abraham (Genesis 18:17). So that's what you do with a friend: you tell them your plans, as well as the stuff that isn't really important.
Therefore, if Jesus is our ultimate best friend, we should tell Him all of our plans and the stuff that isn't really important. For that reason, I think that constant prayer is possible. We can tell Jesus that we're going to take a shortcut to school or work, and we can tell Him that the advert that's on the TV really annoys us, because Jesus is our friend, and He's right there.
At first, I didn't think it was possible. How can you be praying constantly? But recently I've been thinking, how can you not be constantly praying? I thought of the hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and about how Jesus is our friend. I began thinking about Jesus' omnipresence, and about how we never are without Jesus right next to us.
Therefore, if Jesus is our friend and He's always right beside us, shouldn't we always be talking to Him? Even if it's about the really mundane things like what we had for breakfast or the fact that our shoelaces are untied. Because, after all, if your best friend was sitting next to you, you wouldn't ignore them. So why, when our ultimate best friend is right beside us wherever we go, we don't talk to Him all the time?
Another obstacle is, what would you talk about? I think the problem is that it is seen that the only thing that you can pray about are the things that you're 'supposed' to pray about; things like war and injustice and the like. But, again, we have to remember that Jesus is our ultimate best friend.
I once read a Bible plan that talked about how Abraham is described in Genesis as being God's friend. We can see this when God is planning to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He says to Himself that He is not going to hide His plans from Abraham (Genesis 18:17). So that's what you do with a friend: you tell them your plans, as well as the stuff that isn't really important.
Therefore, if Jesus is our ultimate best friend, we should tell Him all of our plans and the stuff that isn't really important. For that reason, I think that constant prayer is possible. We can tell Jesus that we're going to take a shortcut to school or work, and we can tell Him that the advert that's on the TV really annoys us, because Jesus is our friend, and He's right there.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Prayer is a conversation
In our culture today, if someone has said that God has spoken to them, even people who believe in God might question the truth behind that statement. However, it doesn't really make sense to question that; we can see clearly in the Bible that God speaks to those who follow Him, and if God is the same as He always was - including during Biblical times - then surely He must speak to those who follow Him now.
The reason behind our scepticism seems to stem from the belief that if someone is talking to us, they must be using words. However, God can speak to us through any number of ways, not just words. But even then, we never seem to expect God to speak to us during prayer. We think that we pray and then God puts us on hold sorting out all the other prayers before He gets to us. For that reason, when we pray, we talk and talk and talk and don't leave room for God's response before we finish and move on to other things. If we're talking to another person, we don't carry on and on and don't let them get a word in, so why do we do it with God?
If we pray slowly and leave gaps, we might find that God does want to speak to us, but maybe not in words.
Though, there are times when we don't really know how to pray. We find that we've finished a prayer and forgotten to pray about something or the other, and if we don't mention something in the conversation, we're not going to get a reply.
A good prayer technique is JOY. It stands for 'Jesus, Others, Yourself'. First you give thanks for all that God has been doing since you last prayed, then you pray for others, and finally you pray for yourself. We can make sure that we don't forget to mention anything, and then stay silent and listen for what God has to say.
The reason behind our scepticism seems to stem from the belief that if someone is talking to us, they must be using words. However, God can speak to us through any number of ways, not just words. But even then, we never seem to expect God to speak to us during prayer. We think that we pray and then God puts us on hold sorting out all the other prayers before He gets to us. For that reason, when we pray, we talk and talk and talk and don't leave room for God's response before we finish and move on to other things. If we're talking to another person, we don't carry on and on and don't let them get a word in, so why do we do it with God?
If we pray slowly and leave gaps, we might find that God does want to speak to us, but maybe not in words.
Though, there are times when we don't really know how to pray. We find that we've finished a prayer and forgotten to pray about something or the other, and if we don't mention something in the conversation, we're not going to get a reply.
A good prayer technique is JOY. It stands for 'Jesus, Others, Yourself'. First you give thanks for all that God has been doing since you last prayed, then you pray for others, and finally you pray for yourself. We can make sure that we don't forget to mention anything, and then stay silent and listen for what God has to say.
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