Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Psalm 88:1-3

O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. This is possibly the saddest of all the psalms. The psalmist cried out to God in a state of total despair. Many of the psalms are referred to as psalms of lament, but this one goes even further and is full of absolute desperation. It is painful to read because it is so bleak, but I am so glad that it is part of the Bible. It reminds us that God is there for us, whatever the circumstances. His love reaches out to us even in the darkest of places. It reminds me of Psalm 139 where the psalmist declared that it is impossible to escape from God’s Spirit: “I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there” (vv7-8). We are all different and you might not have been through such desperate times, and perhaps never will, but we will all meet people who are struggling with life and it is important for us to be able to point them to psalms like this. For amid his battling, the psalmist knew that he could turn to God and be totally honest about his situation. He didn’t need to dress up and put on a good performance for God. He could come to God just as he was with all the sharp edges of his confusion and disappointment. I fear at times that people perceive the Church as a place for good people who have resolved all the difficult issues in their life. The doors are open wide to people who are struggling and who are willing to be open to God. I used to work in a church which had a huge notice on the front of the building declaring: “Welcome. No perfect people allowed.” Of course, since none of us is perfect, the church was saying that everyone was welcome! Whether we are in debt or wealthy, disappointed with life or fulfilled, friendless or surrounded by friends, in employment, unemployed or retired, God gladly welcomes us. We are all welcome, just as we are!

Question Is your church good at welcoming every kind of person? If not, why not?

Prayer Loving heavenly Father, thank you that your arms are open wide to people whatever their circumstances. Amen

Psalm 86:11

Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! I wonder what your school teachers were like. I suspect that we all had a wide range of experiences. Some of my teachers were strict, others were encouraging, a few were inspiring. Some seemed to be in the wrong job, others were funny - and some just thought they were funny! Teachers vary enormously, but when it comes to learning about life itself, we need the very best teacher. Here, David recognises that God is that person. God is often spoken of as Israel’s teacher. In Isaiah 2:3, the prophet identified Jerusalem as the centre of education for the world when he wrote: “People from many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’ For the LORD’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem.” Sadly, God’s teaching was often rejected. In Jeremiah’s prophecy we hear God saying: “My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey” (Jeremiah 32:33). Aren’t they painful words? No one likes it when someone turns their back on them, but when God’s own people reject his teaching, it must be excruciatingly painful. If we are to grow in our walk with God, we need to listen hard to his instruction. Many people will help us on that journey, but God is the source of all faithful teaching. He sends us preachers, teachers, Bibles and study books, and surrounds us with Christian friends who can help us to understand what he is saying to us. To use the powerful language of Jeremiah’s prophecy, we need to make sure that we turn our faces to his teaching and not our backs.

Question What is God teaching you at the moment?

Prayer Loving Father, thank you that your teaching always encourages and strengthens us. Amen

Psalm 86:8

No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do! There have always been lots of gods on offer. A god is anything that calls for our commitment and devotion, and in every age, there has been a colourful variety of options. I once stayed with a journalist in Mumbai who had a remarkable variety of gods in his flat. There were pictures of many Hindu deities, but Jesus and Mary were there as well. Gods also come in more subtle forms. A person’s family or their job, house, bank balance, hobby or sport can be their god. All of those things are good in themselves, but when they are turned into gods, they take on a completely different and potentially destructive significance. King David was well aware of the wide range of gods that he could worship, but he concluded that the God of Israel was incomparably great. He alone was worthy of David’s commitment and devotion. The prophets spent a lot of time mocking the false gods of their time. Isaiah mocked the wood carver who carefully worked with his chisel and plane to carve a human figure. He created a little shrine out of it and fell down in worship before it, crying: “Rescue me! You are my god.” He then took another part of the wood to make a fire with which he warmed himself and baked bread. Isaiah laughed at the sheer absurdity of this and called the wood carver a “poor, deluded fool” (Isaiah 44:20). Tough talk, but Isaiah knew that worshipping the one true God was something of infinite importance. David and Isaiah’s straightforward approach to false gods needs to challenge our own attitudes. Like them, we would let other people down if we didn’t make it clear that any other god will be a complete disappointment. They may give encouragement for a while, but ultimately they are bound to let us down. Only the one true God will be faithful to us for time and eternity. Only he is worthy of our commitment and devotion.

Question What are the most common gods in our society?

Prayer Lord God, I commit my whole self to you as the one true God. Help me to be faithful to you and to take every opportunity to speak to others about your incomparable greatness. Amen

Psalm 86:5

O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. Sooner or later, everything breaks down. Whether you are thinking of your health, car, bicycle, microwave, computer, vacuum cleaner or heating system, all of them will, one day, encounter problems. In this psalm, David faces up to the fact that we all sin. It’s not pleasant to admit, but we would be crazy to suggest that it doesn’t affect us. Of course, we may try to wriggle out of this by suggesting that our sins are not nearly as bad as other people’s sins but, at the end of the day, we need to acknowledge that we are sinners, falling well short of God’s standards. The Bible doesn’t draw our attention to our sin in order to humiliate us, or to encourage us to beat ourselves up. It shines the light on our sin in order to show us the remedy. In Romans 3:23, the apostle Paul wrote: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Sadly, we let God down each day through our self-centredness. Our thoughts, words and actions are all cheapened and spoilt through our preoccupation with ourselves. Because we are not entirely in tune with God, we fail to say and do many things that he would have wanted. The remedy for sin is truly amazing. God offers to wipe it out. He offers to forgive our sins. We are familiar with the fact that failings normally lead to penalties. If I fail to drive at an appropriate speed, or to park in the right place, I am likely to get a penalty, and although we huff and puff, we know that’s what happens and we accept it. But what happens about the penalty for our sin? The Bible tells us that Jesus took that penalty upon himself through dying on the cross. He was perfect, so was able to take the weight of our failures upon himself and offer us forgiveness. God offers his forgiveness to us today and, as we face the facts, we all need to turn to him and receive his gift.

Question In what ways do you regularly let God down?

Prayer Lord God, I admit that I have failed you in thought, word and deed and I accept your generous gift of forgiveness. Amen

Psalm 86:1 Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help. Finding peace and purpose in our lives is something that we all want, and the first step to achieving it is recognising that we need God’s help. David, the author of this psalm, was Israel’s king in about 1000BC and had that experience time and again. This was clearly one of those times. He knew that although he was incredibly wealthy and powerful, he simply couldn’t manage without God. Bernard Levin was one of the most respected political commentators in the UK. He once wrote: “Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it…it aches!” I firmly believe that it is only God who can answer that ache. Only when we acknowledge our need of him can we start on the road to finding his peace. Calling out to God is where it begins, and we can all do that. It may begin with a simple cry of: “God help me. I can’t do it by myself.” There is no need to come up with a long or polished prayer. God loves it when people tell him they need him because he can then get to work, doing what he loves to do and answering our prayers. However, God steadfastly refuses to work in our lives without our permission. The Bible shows us that time and again, God let people reject him and go their own way. He often warned them of the consequences of their actions, but he never compelled them to follow him, and he won’t do so today. God waits for us to recognise our need, and then the journey can begin. Question When did you last tell God how much you need him? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you hear my prayers and are willing to answer them. Amen

Psalm 85:8 I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. Listening is crucial to every part of life, but that doesn’t mean it is a simple process. It requires a huge amount of thought and care, so it isn’t surprising that courses in listening are widely available these days. There are essentially five stages to the listening process: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering and responding. I am sure the psalmist would have seen this as a good description of what it meant to “listen carefully” to the Lord. It’s possible to hear someone speaking without taking on board anything that they have said, but when you listen, you deliberately receive what they are saying. However, even that isn’t enough. You need to understand the words they are using. Without that, their words are nothing more than sounds. Having understood the words, they need to be evaluated. What exactly was the person trying to say, and how does it apply to you personally? When God speaks to us, we need to see how his words relate to our everyday lives. We then need to remember his words so that they continue to influence our thinking. However, all of this process is worth nothing unless we respond to what we have heard through our actions. The Bible’s truths can wash over our heads and have absolutely no effect, or they can transform our lives. As I write these notes day by day, I am acutely aware that the key question is whether we are truly listening to what God is saying. We all hear many voices each day – from friends, family, colleagues, the media and so on – but the crucial question is whether we are giving quality time to listen to the voice of the living God. Question What could you do to help you to listen more fully to God’s voice day by day? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you are a God who speaks. Help me to listen more attentively to you each day. Amen

Psalm 84:10 A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. I wonder if you’ve ever experienced homesickness. I certainly have. I loved the years I spent in India and my Indian friends couldn’t have been kinder or welcoming, but there was still a deep longing to see my family and friends and to experience cold weather! At the time, the phone connection between India and the UK was very poor, and in two years I only managed to make one incredibly expensive call to my parents. The line was very crackly and it was very difficult to hear anything, but there were tears rolling down my cheeks as I heard their distant voices. I think the only information we shared that could be clearly heard was them telling me it was raining in Essex, and me informing them that it was hot in India! The psalmist was thoroughly homesick when he wrote this particular psalm. The home that he longed to be in was the temple. We don’t know why he was unable to get there, but he couldn’t have described his anguish more powerfully. He wrote: “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God” (Psalm 84:2). Clearly, the temple itself was incredibly precious to the psalmist, but his longing was to be close to God. He spoke of the joy of those whose strength comes from the Lord and then movingly described the way that even “when they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs” (Psalm 84:6). Even the worst experiences of life can be miraculously transformed when we place our lives into God’s hands. No wonder the psalmist concluded that it would be better to have the lowest job of all in the presence of God than to have all power and wealth and live at a distance from God. The psalmist’s words are a good reminder for us all of the incredible blessing and privilege of spending time with God. Question How important is it to you to spend time with God? Prayer Lord God, I praise you for the blessing of living in your presence. Amen

Psalm 82:3-4 Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people. When I was in my 20s, I lived in an Indian village for a year. I had the incredible privilege of living with a family of Dalits, who have generally been known as untouchables. Dalits form about a quarter of the Indian population and have always been regarded as the lowest of the low. My Indian family was a typical extended family with a granny, mum, dad, three children and various aunts who would stay with us from time to time. They generously opened their home and their hearts to me and gave me the most amazing insight into their way of life. In doing so, they opened my eyes to injustice on a scale I had never seen before. Every part of their lives was defined by the fact that they were Dalits. Life was a daily struggle as they lived with the certainty that they would never receive fair treatment from society. It was distressing to see how they were constantly disadvantaged in education, employment and even in the justice system. This is the experience of many people in our world today, and we need to remember that our God is passionate about justice. This psalm, like so many others, focuses its attention on the obligation that God’s people have to live justly and to speak up for the oppressed. Here, Asaph refers to the vulnerable members of his own community – the poor, the orphans, the oppressed, the destitute and the helpless. He is scathing about their leaders, who lived in total ignorance “wandering about in the darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core” (v5). We can’t solve all the injustices in the world, but we can all get informed. We live in an age that has more readily available information than ever before. To be ignorant of the issues can only be because we have refused to hear the cries of the vulnerable members of our community. The world is truly being shaken to the core and, for God’s sake, we need to act. Question In what ways could you work for justice today? Prayer God of justice, I praise you for your love for all people and your passionate desire that everyone should be treated with care and dignity. Amen

Psalm 81:10-11

“For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things. But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.” We probably all know the feeling when someone doesn’t want us around. It’s painful. For some reason, they don’t come out with it plainly and clearly, but we get the clear impression that we are not welcome. However, it is much more tragic when people decide that they don’t want God around, and that’s how the psalmist described Israel. He was the God who had led them out of slavery in Egypt. He was nothing less than their God of salvation, but time and again they rejected him and refused to listen to him. We are not just talking about ancient history – we are describing our society today. The majority of people totally ignore God. They don’t want him around because they think he will spoil their fun. They are concerned that they will lose their freedom. However, we need to take every opportunity to inform people that actually he is the God who wants to fill their lives with good things. As the psalmist put it in Psalm 84:11, “The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” Far from spoiling our fun, God’s desire is to complete our enjoyment of life. Far from limiting our freedom, God enables us to find true freedom for the first time. The key to receiving God’s blessing is listening. Israel’s refusal to listen to God was at the heart of their downfall. God is kind and merciful, and as soon as we listen to him, he is able to bless us. Listening is much more than simply hearing. The listening that we need to do is all about giving God our full attention and showing our willingness to turn his words into action. When we listen like that, it is like opening our mouths wide, and, when we do, God is then able to fill us with good things.

Question Why do we often find it hard to listen to God?

Prayer Lord God our Father, we thank you that you are always looking for an opportunity to bless us. Help us to listen hard to your voice and be willing to turn your words into action. Amen

Psalm 80:19

Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved. When someone looks at us with their full attention and warmth, it tells us everything we need to know – that we are welcome and that they are on our side. On three occasions in this psalm, Asaph expresses his longing that God’s face would shine upon the people. This psalm was probably written at the time of the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. The destruction of the ten northern tribes left little Judah terribly exposed and the people feared for their lives. In their despair, they turned to God and longed that he would turn his face to them and give them his blessing. God longed to give his people his blessing. Any loving father does, and the Old Testament makes clear to us that it was consistently God’s desire. Today’s verse reminds us of the Aaronic Blessing which we find in Numbers 6:24-26: “May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favour and give you his peace.” I love every opportunity to use those precious words. They poignantly express God’s desire to smile on us, but he will only do so when our lives are turned towards him in obedience and trust. Long ago, a friend showed me a picture of her father. He was smiling warmly and she explained that when the photo was taken, he was looking at her. I think that’s a beautiful picture of our God who longs to smile at us and throw his arms around us, but can only do so when our lives are committed to him.

Question In what way do you believe God smiles on you?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for your continual love and faithfulness. Help me to turn my full attention to you each day. Amen

Psalm 78:2-4

I will teach you hidden lessons from our past – stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. In a speech in the House of Commons in 1948, Winston Churchill paraphrased the philosopher Santayana when he said: “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” This was precisely the concern of Asaph as he wrote this particular psalm, reflecting on five centuries of the life of the people of God. Time and again they had disobeyed God, but he had consistently responded with love and forgiveness. Asaph was concerned that future generations should be reminded of their history, and of the gracious way in which God had provided for his people. Teaching the next generation about God always needs to be a priority for the Church. I often find that the approach to children’s and youth work is incredibly patronising. I hear people say, “They are the church of tomorrow”, but that precisely misses the point. Children and young people are an integral part of the Church of today, and we will have no future unless we are energetically and enthusiastically reaching out to them with the good news of Jesus. Passing on the faith to younger generations is always a challenge because the world changes so fast. The ways in which we communicate have changed out of all recognition in the last few years. Twitter (now X) only came into the world in 2006. Snapchat was born in 2011. TikTok arrived in 2016. Billions of messages are sent every year on platforms that didn’t exist only a few years ago. Of course, the good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t change, but how we communicate it needs to, and we must ensure that the resources for this are available. If we fail to do so, the danger is that the sad history of people’s disobedience to God will repeat itself.

Question What are you doing to ensure that younger generations are hearing the good news of Jesus?

Prayer Lord God, we praise you for your faithfulness through thousands of years. Help us to be faithful in passing on this wonderful message to others. Amen

Galatians 6:18

Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. The story of John Newton is well known. He first went to sea with his father when he was eleven years old and soon became deeply involved in working on slave ships. It was a terrible experience and, after falling out with the crew of the Pegasus in 1745, he even found himself in slavery. Three years later, he was rescued, and on his return home, he read the Bible and became a Christian. He became a Church of England vicar and famously reflected on his conversion in his hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. His life was completely transformed, and he knew that it was entirely down to God’s gracious gift to him. In his latter years, he fought for the abolition of the slave trade. The apostle Paul often reflected on the amazing grace of God. The word grace takes us right to the heart of God’s nature. He is a generous God who loves to share his gifts with us, and he did that supremely by sending Jesus into the world to be our Saviour. When he wrote to the Ephesians, Paul said: “We praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins…God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Ephesians 1:6-7; 2:8). God has given us the best gift imaginable, and there is nothing we can do to pay for it or deserve it. If you have lived a good life, I’m delighted, but you will never live a life that is so good that you will deserve or earn salvation. It cannot be done. All we can do is recognise that God is incredibly generous and willing to give salvation to anyone who will receive it. No wonder Paul finishes this letter by longing that his friends in Galatia will experience the grace of God for themselves.

Question In your own experience, what is so amazing about grace?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for your incredible generosity. Help me not only to receive your gift but to pass it on to others. Amen

Galatians 6:17

I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. Alan Paton wrote a book called [itals]Cry, the Beloved Country[end itals] (Vintage) and was a fierce opponent of apartheid in South Africa. He once wrote about his death: “When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, Where are your wounds? and if I say I haven’t any, he will say, Was there nothing to fight for? I couldn’t face that question.” If we are willing to stand up for truth and justice in this world, we will pay a price for it. That was certainly the apostle Paul’s experience. He was thrilled with the new life that Christ had given him, but he had to pay a very high price. When he wrote to the church in Corinth, Paul recounted the many occasions when he had suffered physically. He states: “I have…been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea” (2 Corinthians 11:23-25). There is no doubt that his scars revealed the depth of his commitment to Christ. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome, he spoke of himself as a slave of Christ, and he knew that slaves were normally branded. The mark of the owner was clearly placed on the body of the slave. Paul’s scars were the clear signs that Christ was his master. I don’t believe that we should ever deliberately seek to suffer for Christ. However, I do believe that we shouldn’t be surprised when serving him is tough. Perhaps the reason that we haven’t suffered is because we have refused to stand up for the weak and vulnerable in our society. Perhaps it has been easy for us to serve Christ because we have ducked when more challenging roles have been offered to us. We all need to share Paul’s sense of privilege that he was called to do demanding work for the Lord he loved.

Question How willing are you to do difficult work for Christ?

Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the privilege of serving you. Help me never to flinch when the going gets tough. Amen

Galatians 6:14

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There was clearly a lot of boasting going on among the Galatians! There were those who boasted of the fact that they continued to keep the Jewish law. They continued to practice circumcision and to stand by the Old Testament law. They were convinced that they were doing extremely well and looked down their noses at Paul, who was firmly opposed to circumcision for Christians and who spoke constantly about the inadequacies of the law. Paul was keen to do his own boasting, but focused entirely upon the cross of Christ. For him, what Christ had done on the cross was all-important. Through the cross, he had found true freedom and a wonderful new life. I wonder when you last boasted. You were so proud of something that had happened in your life, or in someone close to you, that you just couldn’t wait for the opportunity to tell other people about it. My wife and I have become grandparents over the last couple of years, and we are eager to seize every opportunity to speak about our granddaughter and to show the latest pictures! Boasting is a natural activity when we are thrilled about something, and that describes Paul perfectly. He was so thrilled about the new life that he had found in Christ that he was eager for everyone to hear about it. Boasting is encouraged in many parts of the Bible. In Jeremiah, we hear God saying: “But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth” (Jeremiah 9:24). In Psalm 34:2, King David proclaimed: “I will boast only in the LORD.” Boasting of how wonderful we are and of our great achievements is always foolish, but boasting of the Lord is always a blessing.

Question How could you become better at boasting about the Lord?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for all that you have done for me. Help me to become increasingly proud of all that you have done. Amen

Galatians 6:7-8

Don’t be misled – you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. The principle of ‘you reap what you sow’ is both obvious and profound. If you sow a field full of wheat, you would be crazy to expect a crop of potatoes. It’s so obvious, but the message fundamentally challenges the way in which we live every day because each word that we speak and action that we perform will have consequences. If we are kind, gracious and loving, there will be one kind of outcome, and if we are spiteful, angry and destructive, there will be a completely different result. Paul drew the conclusion that we should therefore not become tired of doing good things, knowing that sooner or later there will be a good harvest. Of course, the problem quite often is that it takes a long time to see any positive outcome from doing good. It is possible to work in a children’s or youth club for years before you see any positive outcomes. I have known people work in local churches for decades without seeing any tangible successes. Indeed, sometimes people are unkind and critical of the things that we do, and it all feels like terribly hard work. All of this means that we need to focus our energies on ensuring that we plant good seed. That was precisely Paul’s situation with the Galatian church. He faced fierce opposition, and many people wanted him to believe that he had got it all wrong, but he knew that the seed he was planting was the best. The good news of salvation was a message of hope and liberty that would never let people down, so he kept preaching it, however cruel and resistant people might be. Similarly, we will often find ourselves in situations that are tough and unrewarding and, if we are convinced that we are doing God’s good work, he will always encourage us to hang in there, knowing that a good harvest will definitely result one day.

Question In what situations or relationships are you needing to ‘hang in there’ at the moment?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for the work that you call me to do. Help me to keep doing good even when it is tough and unrewarding. Amen

Galatians 6:6

Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. It’s not surprising that Paul spoke so clearly about the need to care for teachers in the early Church. They had a crucial role, and if they were not supported by the financial gifts of the church members, they would starve. The Galatian Christians needed to be reminded of their responsibilities. When Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy, he referred to the need to show respect for church leaders and to ensure that they were well paid. He used an interesting verse from the Old Testament to support this view: “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). Perhaps you hadn’t thought of comparing your church leader to an ox, but the point was clear – the church members needed to accept the responsibility to provide for their teachers and leaders. Churches are far more organised these days, and most churches have a very thoughtful and responsible way of financing and supporting their ministers, but it is still important for church members to be alert to their responsibilities. I have known many ministers suffer significantly because of the thoughtlessness of church members, who have simply assumed that their leaders were well provided for, unaware of financial and housing needs. Some have even thought that it was appropriate for their church leaders to suffer as part of their Christian calling. Such immoral thinking is deeply shocking and, happily, I sense that it is increasingly rare. Everyone, whatever their work, needs to be well cared for in order to be truly effective. Christian teachers and leaders are no different. We all need to accept our part of the responsibility for ensuring, in the words of the apostle Paul, that all good things are shared with them.

Question Are you convinced that your own church leaders are well provided for?

Prayer Lord God, I thank you for my church leaders. Help me to always do what I can to ensure that they receive all the support and encouragement that they need. Amen

Galatians 6:4-5

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. In the previous couple of verses, Paul spoke of the importance of helping other people to carry their heavy burdens. Now, he reminds them that they have got their own burden to bear. The word he uses is also used of a soldier’s pack. We all have a certain amount that we have to carry by ourselves. We have specific responsibilities to bear, and we just need to get on with it and do the very best that we can. When our lives come to an end, the Lord will not ask us whether we lived like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Martin Luther or Mother Theresa. He will ask us whether we lived the lives that he called [itals]us[end itals] to live. Perhaps you have the awesome responsibility of being a shop worker, a cleaner, a teacher, an accountant, an MP or a carer. Whatever it is, God wants us to be the best that we can be. Comparing ourselves to other people totally misses the point because the Lord is not calling us to be anybody other than the person we are. Spending energy comparing ourselves with others or feeling we’ve failed because we are not more like someone else is a complete waste of time. Each of us has our own pack to carry. Imperfect as it inevitably is, we need to get on and make the most of what God has put in our hands. That’s exactly what the apostle Paul did. He was faced with a continual barrage of criticism, and sometimes violent opposition. He had to live with his thorn in the flesh, which was a continual burden for him, but he knew he had a job to do and he got on with it. May God bless us today as we seek to do just the same.

Question What is the work that God has called you to do?

Prayer Lord God, thank you that you are with me every moment of every day. Help me to always give my best to you. Amen

Galatians 6:2-3

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. We live in a society that appears to be far more interested in rights than responsibilities. Rights are clearly crucial. The right to free speech, health, safety, care and justice are fundamental to society. However, none of them will ever happen unless we are all willing to take responsibility. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks powerfully put it: “Without responsibility, rights are a cheque on an empty account.” Here, Paul describes the Church as a community of people, each of whom needs to take responsibility for carrying other people’s burdens. He had no thought of the Church as being there for us to gain inspiration and support so that we can live independent lives. Sharing other people’s burdens doesn’t happen quickly. It is a tragedy that for so many people, the experience of Church is confined to attending worship services. Good as it is to worship with other people, such occasions are rarely an opportunity to get to know people well, let alone learn what their burdens are. Having refreshments and meals alongside worship can start to open up opportunities to get to know others, but it is normally only in small groups or one-to-one conversations that such deep sharing takes place. I am delighted to hear that some people are using these daily devotional thoughts as a basis for meeting with a small group of people. As they meet, it gives an opportunity to share the joys and struggles of life and to give real support to one another. Paul identifies one of the reasons why you might not want to help someone else: you think you are too important. However, there’s another reason why you might not feel able to help, and it’s probably more common: you think you are too unimportant and assume that you would never be able to help. We all need to be willing. Willing to listen and to learn and to stretch out a hand to help.

Question In what ways are you able to bear other people’s burdens?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for those people who have been so willing to support me. Help me to always be willing to stretch out a hand to help others. Amen

Galatians 6:1

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Sadly, in every organisation of human beings, things sometimes go wrong. I love the gracious and positive way in which Paul addresses this issue. When someone sins, it’s not the end of the world and we don’t need to make a drama out of it, but action needs to be taken, quickly. The goal is always restoration, but that needs to be done really carefully. The three major qualifications of people who help with restoring someone who has done wrong are these: godliness, gentleness and humility. A godly person has their mind fixed on serving God and not themselves. They get involved in helping someone who has slipped up because of their love for God and their desire for his honour and glory. Clearly, it would be disastrous if a person got involved because they were looking for their own glory, or because they just loved being part of the action. Gentleness is a crucial quality. Strong-arm tactics will never achieve God’s purposes. Gentleness might at times be thought of as weakness, but it is in fact enormously strong. Frances de Sales got it right when he said: “Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.” Possibly the most vital quality is humility. The only real way to help someone who has sinned is to remind yourself not only that you are a sinner, but that you are vulnerable and could fall into exactly the same sin yourself. Restoration is a wonderful blessing, so we need to give thanks for those godly, gentle and humble people who are willing to bring it about. Every church and organisation needs them.

Question Who do you know who could be described as godly, gentle and humble?

Prayer Lord God, I thank you for those who have the gift for bringing about restoration. Help me to recognise and celebrate their gifts. Amen

Galatians 5:25-26

Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Living in step with the Holy Spirit sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Just imagine a life which is full of love, joy and peace, and all the other beautiful fruit of the Spirit. This must surely be life at its best, but, as the apostle Paul knew, the life of the Spirit has to be lived out in a world in which sin is still alive and well. I often hear people express disappointment about their church. They have found that there is a big gap between the pure life of the Spirit and the attitudes and actions of their Christian brothers and sisters. Paul was clearly well aware of this, and it is significant that he follows this challenge to live by the Spirit with the reminder that the Galatians needed to stop being conceited, provoking or jealous. We cannot be sure what was in Paul’s mind as he wrote these words, but he was likely concerned about those who had become conceited because they believed that they were more spiritual than others. Those who continued to obey the Jewish law strictly looked down on those who, like Paul, believed that all that was necessary was to have faith in Jesus. Tensions easily spring up in any community, and Paul knew how important it was to act before they became totally destructive. Paul had his feet firmly planted on the ground. He knew both how wonderful it was to live a life directed by the Spirit and, at the same time, how easily that life could be disrupted. We need to be alert in just the same way.

Question What are the challenges you are facing as you seek to live in step with the Spirit?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for the strength you give to me day by day as I seek to live in step with the Spirit. Amen

Galatians 5:22-23

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These beautiful spiritual qualities are the inevitable result of the Holy Spirit taking control of a person’s life. You can be sure of the genuineness of a person’s spiritual experience when you see these qualities in evidence. It’s interesting that Paul speaks here of the fruit of the Spirit but not the gifts, which are also the result of the Spirit being at work in someone’s life. Perhaps this is because the gifts of the Spirit can be mimicked, but the fruit cannot. Jesus spoke of those who, on judgment day, would say: “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.” Jesus commented that he would have to reply: “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws” (Matthew 7:22-23). Nobody would doubt the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit. We would all want our lives to be characterised by these qualities, and whether or not we display them is in our hands. The Holy Spirit wants to give us this wonderful fruitfulness – the question is whether we are willing to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit. Paul was clear that our lives will be a battleground as long as we live and breathe on this earth. The voice of the Spirit will not be the only one that we hear, so we need to spend our days deliberately tuning in to the Spirit amid the clamour of other voices. Spiritual fruit is crucial in our own lives, but it is also an important way of recognising those who are genuinely working for God. The Galatians heard many false teachers and needed to be able to tell who they could trust. Jesus had addressed exactly the same situation in his Sermon on the Mount, when he helped people to recognise the difference between true and false prophets, saying: “You can identify them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16).

Question How are you seeking to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your own life?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of your Spirit. Help me to open more of my life to his influence each day. Amen

Galatians 5:16-17

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. It’s always refreshing when you meet someone who is completely honest. The apostle Paul was such a man. In Romans 7, he gave an astonishingly frank account of how he ticked. He talked about struggling with his sinful nature. He summed it up in this way: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (vv18-19). That all sounds rather bleak, doesn’t it? Whoever we are, we all know how easy it is for our selfish nature to dominate our lives, even when we know that that’s the wrong way to go, but we don’t need to despair because God offers to lead us by his Holy Spirit. He is able to give us the wisdom and strength to choose a better way. Paul then gave an agonising list of the destructive consequences of leaving our selfish nature in the driving seat. What’s fascinating is that he wouldn’t need to come up with a different list if he were addressing us today. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). Paul’s excitement was that it doesn’t have to be this way. The Holy Spirit has set us free so that we can live a new life characterised by love and all the fruit of the Spirit. Such a life is open to all of us, but only if we are willing to be, like Paul, absolutely honest about our own weakness and our complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to help us to live this new life. We will never make it by ourselves.

Question How will you deal with your natural desire to be selfish today?

Prayer Loving God, I thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Help me to put him in the driving seat of my life today. Amen

Galatians 5:7-9

You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! We all know what is to be disappointed. It may be that someone has let you down, or that things just haven’t worked out in the way you had hoped. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is dominated by his deep and agonising disappointment that his readers had allowed false teaching to mislead them. He wondered whether his ministry to them had been a complete failure. This was clearly intensely painful for Paul because he longed to see them become joyful and fruitful Christians, and all seemed to have gone horribly wrong. They had gone back to following the rules and restrictions from which Christ had set them free. It’s easy to understand how quickly and easily false teaching spread in the early Church. Christianity was new and very few people had a deep knowledge or experience of it. Many people came from a Jewish background and found it very difficult to understand the radical nature of the changes that Christ had brought about. Others came from a background in other religions and were easily persuaded by the latest eloquent speaker. Paul was eager to help them resist false teaching and to stand strong in the freedom that Christ had brought them. Our context is very different from the Galatians, but we should be no less concerned about false teachers. Paul describes their teaching as being like yeast. It may seem small, but it can have a huge and damaging effect. These days, false teaching can spread instantly around the world through the internet, so we need to be even more on our toes. The very best way to prepare ourselves is by sticking close to the Bible’s teaching. By spending time reading, reflecting and praying through the Bible, we arm ourselves to face the latest false teaching.

Question What have you found to be the most helpful ways of getting to know the Bible better?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of the Bible and for the way in which its light shines on my life. Amen

Galatians 4:6-7

Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. When I hear the word ‘father’, I immediately think of my own father. We probably all do. I think of a gentle and kind Christian man. He was a businessman and a busy member of our church, and he was always absolutely devoted to my mother and his four children. He died a few years ago, and I thank God for him. I am well aware that the word ‘father’ can trigger completely different reactions. For some people, it reminds them of someone who was cruel, dismissive and rude to them. Does that mean we should stop referring to God as a father? I don’t believe so. A number of people who have had a bad experience of fatherhood have told me how they desperately needed to know that they had a father, a heavenly Father, who was completely faithful and loving to them. Whatever experience we have had of human fatherhood, our fathers have not been perfect. Only God himself offers us that kind of fatherhood. Now that we are fully a part of God’s family, we have the incredible privilege of calling God Abba. The word comes from Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue, and is a word of extreme intimacy, similar to ‘daddy’. How amazing that we can address the creator of the universe with such familiarity, but that is the consequence of being children of God! We have a completely new status and security. It’s helpful to think of our relationship with God as forming the foundations of life. No building can stand for long if it hasn’t got firm foundations, but if they are in place, the building can grow strongly and securely. Life is no different. When we are clear about our unchangeable relationship with God our Father, we can build all other relationships and plans with confidence.

Question How helpful do you find it that you are able to call God ‘Abba’?

Prayer Abba Father, thank you for the love and security that you give me. Help me to build the whole of my life on the relationship that I have with you. Amen

Galatians 3:11

So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” For the apostle Paul, this was the crunch issue. The only way to be made right with God is through faith. He was addressing many people who believed that obeying the law was crucial for all Christians, but he argued that however well we live, we will always fail. We will never be able to put our relationship with God right by our own efforts. Coming from a strict Jewish background, Paul knew all about the significance of the law. From his earliest days, he had been taught that he needed to obey the letter of the law in order to please God. He had then been taught by the Pharisees, who were meticulous in their adherence to the law. Paul knew exactly what he was talking about! He knew that the law could only ever be a burden, and that’s why he was so excited that Jesus came to set us free. Because of the impossibility of pleasing God by our hard work, all we can do is receive his salvation as a gift. This all sounds so simple but, interestingly, we find it surprisingly difficult to receive free gifts. We instinctively suspect that there must be a catch. When someone offers the most precious thing in the world, we assume that it cannot possibly be true, but it is! Paul knew for himself how wonderful it was to live in the freedom that Jesus gives, and he longed for his friends in Galatia to have the same experience, but they needed to know exactly what kind of freedom this was. In chapter 5, he spelled this out. We have been set free not to do whatever we like, because that would be incredibly destructive. Christ has set us free so that we can “serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13). It’s impossible to think of a world that is better or happier than one that is shaped by love, and that’s the gift we have been given, if only we will accept it.

Question How has Christ’s gift of freedom affected your life?

Prayer Lord Jesus, forgive me for those times when I have fooled myself into thinking that I could please you by my own efforts. I thank you for the free gift of salvation. Amen

Galatians 2:20

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. In these first two chapters of Galatians, Paul gives a fascinating summary of his life story since he became a Christian, reminding his readers of his background. He had been so deeply committed to his Jewish faith that he had done everything possible to destroy the Church. Paul makes it clear that when he started following Christ, he didn’t rush to Jerusalem, where the first church was formed. First, he went away into Arabia, and only after three years did he go to meet the leaders in Jerusalem. The point he was making was that his new life as a Christian hadn’t been shaped by other people and their traditions, but only by Christ. It was another 14 years before he returned to Jerusalem and the church leaders recognised him as the one God had sent to preach to the Gentiles. The Jerusalem church was, not surprisingly, focused on people from a Jewish background. Paul’s life was completely defined by Christ, not by any humans or their traditions. His new life was no longer his own but Christ’s, and he was certain that he had found the best life imaginable. He had long since learned that living for himself wasn’t worth it. In Romans chapter 7, Paul reflected on the struggle inside him when he lived life by himself. He tried to do the right things but consistently failed. He exclaimed: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” He triumphantly concluded: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). To give up his entire life to Christ might sound an incredible thing to do, but don’t miss the punchline. He was delighted to give himself completely to Christ because the Son of God had loved him and given up his life for him. Living for Christ, whether in the first century or the 21st, is purely and simply a response to God’s perfect love for us in Christ.

Question How do you understand the expression “crucified with Christ” for you personally?

Prayer Lord Jesus, I thank you with all my heart that you love me and gave yourself for me. Amen

Galatians 1:4

Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. Every now and again, we hear about rescue missions. Brave soldiers are put down behind enemy lines, often in a low flying helicopter, and set some prisoners free. It’s all very exciting and impressive. Here, the apostle Paul talks about us being rescued, and it sounds as if God is coming to transport us out of this world, but that isn’t his purpose. His desire is to leave us in this world to do his work. What we need to understand is that the Jews thought in terms of two ages. There was this present evil age and then there was the age to come. This present age is dominated by the devil and is characterised by sin, death and brokenness, and the age to come is marked out by love, harmony and life. The age to come is what the New Testament writers refer to as eternal life. Because it has its roots in God, it cannot and will not come to an end. When Paul talks about the rescue mission that Jesus brings about through his death on the cross, he is saying that we are transported from one world to another, but for the time being, we stay exactly where we are! Our calling is to experience eternal life and to live for God amid all the challenges and difficulties of a world that is firmly opposed to him. We might often wish that God would relieve us from all the pressures and brokenness of our sinful world. Having met Christ, we know that the world doesn’t need to be like this. However, for now, our calling is to stay where we are and to serve God faithfully, encouraging and helping other people to have the experience of being rescued by Jesus.

Question In what ways have you experienced God’s rescue through what Christ did for you on the cross?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for rescuing me. Help me to become increasingly eager to help others to find the eternal life which you offer. Amen

Galatians 1:1

This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. Yesterday, we were reflecting on the call of Isaiah. He was absolutely clear that he was called by God to his challenging ministry. Today, in this reading from Galatians, we meet the apostle Paul hundreds of years later making it clear that he was appointed by God alone. This was no human appointment, but one that God had decided to make. As this letter unfolds, it will become increasingly clear why he needed to make this point right at the beginning. It’s a strong letter in which he shows his severe disagreement with many people. They needed to know that he was acting purely and simply on the orders of God himself. There is nothing more important in life than to know that we are doing what God wants. Too often, people have got the impression that only ministers and mission personnel are called by God, but that isn’t the case. Each day, God calls all of us to work for him. In our schools, offices, colleges, hospitals, factories, homes, communities and friendships, we are living and working as God’s representatives. That might sound rather overwhelming. We are all keen to emphasise how frail, failed and unimportant we are, but God always equips the people that he calls. We frequently face situations that are outside our experience or expectation. In those moments, we need to remind ourselves why we are there in the first place! We are there because God has placed us there, and we can confidently look to his Spirit to equip us to be who and what he wants us to be. Throughout Paul’s ministry, there were people who looked down on him. He hadn’t spent time with Jesus like the other apostles, and he was often seen as an outsider. He also doesn’t seem to have been a particularly powerful preacher, and that didn’t go down well. However, he knew he was called by God, and that gave him the steel to stand up for his faith in the most testing of settings. Whatever others think of us, we all need to keep focused on what God thinks of us and what he has called us to do.

Question What is God calling you to do for him today?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for equipping me to do whatever you call me to do. Amen

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah’s encounter with God in the temple was so intimate that he was able to overhear God having a conversation. God was wondering who he could send as a messenger, and Isaiah immediately put up his hand and offered his services. Isaiah’s response stands in marked contrast to others, such as Moses and Jeremiah, who offered God reasons why he had chosen the wrong person. Isaiah was willing, and God took him at his word. Willingness is a wonderful quality. When gifts were given for the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the people were incredibly generous. They gave 170 tonnes of gold, 10,000 gold coins, 240 tonnes of silver, 612 tonnes of bronze and 3,400 tonnes of iron. We read that: “the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and the captains of the army and the king’s administrative officers all gave willingly…The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD, and King David was filled with joy” (1 Chronicles 29:6,9). Isaiah was willing to serve God, but that doesn’t mean that life suddenly became easy for him. Far from it. He was given a desperately difficult task to perform. God assured him that people wouldn’t want to hear his message. They would “plug their ears and shut their eyes” (Isaiah 6:10). Even this discouraging information didn’t undermine Isaiah’s willingness. He simply enquired of God how long this would go on, to which God replied that it would carry on until the land had been turned into a wasteland and the people had been carried off into exile. It was a tough message, but Isaiah’s willingness was undiminished. Isaiah knew that the greatest thing he could ever do was to serve the living God.

Question Are you willing to do whatever God asks you to do?

Prayer Lord God, help me to always be willing to serve you in whatever way you choose. Amen

Isaiah 6:5-7 [Isaiah] said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man…” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” You may have had the experience of cleaning a window with great care. The last smudge has been removed and you are convinced that you’ve done an excellent job, and then you sit down and see the sunlight streaming in and you cannot believe how dirty and smudgy it still looks! That was Isaiah’s experience in these verses. He came into the presence of a holy God and the brilliant light of God’s presence shone on the inadequacies and failings of his life. He felt doomed. His predicament seemed completely hopeless, but it wasn’t. God did for Isaiah what Isaiah could never have done for himself. He forgave him. Isaiah recognised that he had filthy lips and lived among a people with filthy lips, so the seraphim touched his lips with a burning coal from the altar. His guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven. His life was transformed from one of hopelessness and defeat to one in which he would be able to carry God’s word to his people. Forgiveness was the turning point in Isaiah’s life, and that is the experience of every Christian. Until we come to that point of recognising our sin and seeking God’s forgiveness, we will inevitably be weighed down by our sin and guilt. Only God can set us free, and he does so by totally removing our sins from us. David described the experience in this way: “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Question How has God’s gift of forgiveness affected your life? Prayer Holy God, I worship you and praise you for your love for me. I recognise my need of your forgiveness, and thank you for your willingness to set me free from my sin. Amen

Isaiah 6:1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Uzziah had become king when he was 16 and reigned for 52 years. For much of that time, the kingdom of Judah had thrived. Uzziah had listened to the prophet Zechariah and walked in the ways of the Lord. However, later on in his reign he had become arrogant, and on one occasion, he went into the temple to burn incense, a task which only priests could perform. Uzziah was struck down with leprosy and lived in isolation for the last years of his reign. The death of King Uzziah after such a long reign was clearly a turning point for Isaiah. His world had suddenly changed. I wonder what his mood was when he entered the temple. He likely felt confused and insecure as the nation faced a major time of change, but in that moment, God met with him in an amazing way. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by the majesty and holiness of God and forced to take a completely new look at his life. God meets with us in an amazing variety of ways. He can do so when we are in a church building or a garden. He can speak to us as we read the Bible or the newspaper. He can reveal himself through a friend or a stranger. The main question is whether we are ready to meet with him. Celtic Christianity speaks of thin places, where heaven and earth seem to meet and where it can be particularly easy to meet with God. The islands of Iona and Lindisfarne are two places that have been identified as thin places for hundreds of years, but you may well have discovered somewhere else that is a thin place for you. The ways in which God might meet with us are many and various. What matters is that we should, like Isaiah, be ready for that moment. Question Have you discovered any thin places where it seems particularly easy to meet with God? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you want to speak with me. Help me to always be ready to hear your voice. Amen

Isaiah 5:7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence. There is only one reason why you would plant a vineyard: because you were wanting grapes. You certainly wouldn’t plant one for the vines’ natural beauty or because you want to make use of their wood, which struggles to burn. This chapter poignantly describes God’s desperate disappointment with his people. They were planted to be fruitful and he had gone to great lengths to prepare his vineyard. He planted it on a fertile hill. He ploughed the land, cleared its stones and planted one of the best of the vines. However, the outcome had been appalling – the exact opposite of what God had been looking for. Instead of the justice that he longed to see, he saw oppression, and instead of righteousness, there was murder. God had given his people free will and they’d chosen to use it to oppose him rather than to obey him. He had given them every opportunity to thrive and they had thrown it all back in his face. Amazingly, he didn’t give up on them. The prophecy of Isaiah is an amazing study of the love and faithfulness of God. Disappointed as he clearly was, he didn’t reject his people but looked for new ways to bless them. We may feel that we haven’t acted as badly as the nation of Israel, but we have all sinned. We have all been a disappointment to God. He has given us every advantage and time and again we have ignored him and gone our own way, but God doesn’t give up on us. In Isaiah chapter 40, we see a beautiful picture of the persistent and gentle love of God for his people. “He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young” (v11). That’s our God! He loves us so much that he has high expectations for us. He longs to see us being fruitful. However, he doesn’t give up on us when we fail, but looks for every opportunity to shower us with his love. Question In what ways do you think that you have disappointed God’s expectations? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you never give up on me. I confess my sins and ask you to help me to live closer to you day by day. Amen

Isaiah 2:4

The LORD will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. This beautiful verse gives us an insight into the heart of God, who always longs for world peace. In this passage, we are given a vision of what the world will look like at the end of time. With God in charge, there will be complete peace. The instruments of war will become useful agricultural implements, all war will cease and there will be no longer any need to train people to fight. It’s a stirring vision and one that needs to thrill us all. Our present world is continually in the grip of violence and war. They are characteristics of a world that lives in rebellion against God, but as we worship him, we need to remind ourselves of his longing for peace. It is so easy for us to feel that world politics and historic rivalries between nations are so complex that we cannot relate to them at all, but as followers of the God of peace, we need to continually pray for peace and long for a world in which warfare will have no place. Most of us live our lives far away from international politics, but that doesn’t mean we are uninvolved in peacemaking. Every day, all of us have the opportunity to be peacemakers. We can bring peace to people as we listen to their concerns, pray for them and give them encouragement. It might seem far removed from bringing peace to the world, but it is intimately connected, and it is all part of God’s mission of peace. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Question In what way might you be able to work for peace today?

Prayer God of peace, thank you for the way in which you have brought peace into my life. Help me always to be willing to share it with others. Amen

Isaiah 2:2-3

In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of all…people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from all nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Isaiah 1 makes for scary reading. God is hopping mad at the unfaithfulness of his people. They have comprehensively let him down, and they are paying a terrible price for it. God’s blunt language is enough to make anyone blush as he comments: “See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute. Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers. Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag” (Isaiah 1:21-22). It was a very grim predicament, but God still had a vision for how things could be in the future. The vision in Isaiah 2 focuses on Jerusalem as the place which would transform everything. It would be the focus of peace and unity, and people would stream there from all over the world. Yes, streams can flow uphill when God is at work! In Jerusalem, there would be teaching, and the result would be that people would walk in God’s ways – the teaching would lead to action. There is nothing more dangerous than to study the Bible and to reflect on God without asking the question: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” As I write these reflections, I often wonder what happens as a result. My prayer is that God will use them to help you to make really good decisions that will enable you to live more effectively for him. In his letter, James talks about the importance of not merely hearing the word, but doing it. If you don’t do what God’s word says, he observes, “you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22). He suggests that it would be like glancing in a mirror and immediately forgetting what you look like. I wonder what God is saying to you at the moment and how his teaching is helping you to walk in his ways. No pressure, but it is always great to hear about specific ways in which God is leading people, so always feel free to let me know at jonathan.edwards@premier.org.uk

Question Why do you think it is so easy to listen to God’s word and do nothing about it?

Prayer Lord God, give me your strength to walk in your ways, however tough it might be. Amen

Isaiah 1:18

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” If you want to know what God is like when he’s in a rage, read through this first chapter of Isaiah. He was fuming. He simply couldn’t believe that anyone could treat him like this. After all he had done for his people, it was as though they now didn’t even recognise his existence. God pointed out that even an ox and a donkey know who their owner is, but Israel didn’t seem to have a clue who their master was. The country was lying in ruins and beautiful Jerusalem had been abandoned. The situation was disastrous, and yet, amazingly, the people continued with their religious practices. However, God was repelled by their worship because he knew that it didn’t come from their heart. He asked them to stop making their sacrifices and offering their meaningless gifts and assured them that when they prayed, he would refuse to listen. We spend so much of our time thinking of God’s love, generosity and kindness that it’s hard to think of him being so cross. It would’ve been understandable if the chapter had concluded by saying it was game over and God wanted nothing more to do with them, but it doesn’t. Instead, God invited them to sort things out, which would affect every aspect of their lives. They certainly needed to confess their sins and turn away from them, but they also needed to: “Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows” (Isaiah 1:17). This passage in Isaiah is a good challenge for all of us. God does love our worship and praise, but only when it is offered by people whose whole lives are committed to living for him 24/7. God will be looking at the way in which we care for the poor and marginalised in our communities in order to work out the reality of our worship.

Question In what ways do you reach out to the needy members of your own community?

Prayer Loving God, thank you that you don’t give up on me when I fail you. Help me to be the person you want me to be throughout the whole week. Amen

Proverbs 29:25

Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. The posh word for fearing other people is ‘anthropophobia’, and it can happen for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps other people are threatening us. The psalmists often spoke of the people who were out to get them. They seemed to be surrounded by people who were trying to trip them up and make their lives a misery. Fearing other people might also be based on our fear of what they might think of us. It’s very easy for our lives to be controlled by our desire to please other people. We can become fearful of what they might think of what we are saying or wearing, or where we are going. There is no doubt that it is easy for fearing other people to become a dangerous and depressing trap. The writer of Proverbs provides an alternative. There is a way out. Rather than using other people as our reference point, we could turn to the Lord instead. When we trust him, we are entirely safe for a number of clear reasons. Firstly, God always loves us. However strong our relationship with other people is, they change. They have good days and bad days – days when they have time for us and others when they are far too busy for us. Secondly, God is eternal. Our human relationships are precious and important to us, but they have limits. They won’t go on for ever. God gives us the security of knowing that he will never leave us. When we place our confidence in God and find him as our true source of security, it will affect every other part of our lives. The outcome will be that we discover that we don’t need to fear other people. As the psalmist wrote: “The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

Question Do you ever fear other people? If you do, how could you handle the situation better in future?

Prayer Lord God, thank you that I have nothing to fear when you are on my side. Amen

Proverbs 29:23

Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honour. William Hazlitt, the brilliant 19th-century writer, put his finger on the problem with pride when he observed that it “erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it”. When we are puffed up with pride, we take total charge and push God out, together with everyone else. The proud person might look impressive for a while but, as the writer of Proverbs observes, sooner or later they end in humiliation. The alternative way is humility. This is the key to all of God’s blessings, so we need to be absolutely clear what it is. The trouble with the word humility is that we often confuse it with false humility, which is horribly unattractive. Anyone who claims to be humble is almost certainly false. The humble person doesn’t expend energy thinking about themselves, and if they were ever identified as being humble, they would deny it. True humility is not about denying that we have gifts and abilities, but having a readiness to admit that we have failings and shortcomings. The disciples were constantly seeking to push themselves forward. They were interested in who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In response, Jesus could have given them a lecture about the virtues of humility, but instead he called a little child and placed him in front of them. He said: “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). Jesus’ words couldn’t be clearer. Humility is the only way to make progress in the Christian life. Only when we acknowledge that Jesus is the King of our lives will we find his peace, love and joy. Building our own little empire may look clever for a while, but it is bound to end in disaster.

Question How do you think you could grow in humility?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I acknowledge you as the Lord of my life. Help me constantly to decrease that you may increase. Amen

Proverbs 29:20

There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking. The writer of Proverbs has a lot to say about fools. They live dangerously and destructively, and he does everything he can to encourage his readers to avoid foolishness and to live a life of wisdom. When he declares that there is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking, he is clearly describing the most terrible disaster, and that’s because words are so powerful. They can be powerful to build, but they can also be devastatingly destructive when used in the wrong way. So, what thinking should we do before speaking? I love the mnemonic T-H-I-N-K. Here are five excellent tests to apply to anything that you say. T stands for True. So much damage is caused in relationships and organisations because untrue things are said. Gossip feeds off this. A statement might be partly true but give a misleading impression, and when it is passed on a number of times, it bears no relationship to the real situation. If you are not absolutely sure that something is true, it is better to keep quiet. H stands for Helpful. It can be very tempting to share information simply to show that you know it, but it is better to be quiet if what you are saying won’t help. I stands for Inspiring. Your words need to have a positive effect and leave people encouraged and strengthened. N stands for Necessary. For some of us, when we start talking, it can be difficult to stop, and we end up sharing half formed thoughts that are totally unnecessary and are in danger of fuelling gossip. K stands for Kind. If our words are not kind, then they should never have been spoken. We won’t go through all those five steps every time we speak, but I encourage you to start making use of this simple guide. It may help to slow down our speaking and increase our thinking time.

Question Which of the five steps is most challenging and important for you to reflect upon?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for the privilege of speaking. Help me to become increasingly wise in the way in which I speak. Amen

Proverbs 29:11

Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back. I love the down-to-earth realism of the Bible. It meets us where we are and engages in the sharp reality of our lives. We all have very different anger thresholds. Some people rarely get angry, and others can get steamed up about the most minor issues. Wherever you are on the scale of anger, we all need to know what to do with it. The writer of Proverbs, in his typically blunt way, declares that fools let it all out and wise people quietly hold it back. Valuable and wise as the book of Proverbs is, its short, pithy sayings need unpacking. It would, for example, be a mistake to lump all anger together. Some anger is good. We often hear about God’s anger. In his holiness, he gets incredibly angry about sin. Isaiah wrote of the Day of the Lord when God would reveal his “fury and fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9) and Jesus expressed anger at the temple being overrun by moneychangers and those who were selling animals and birds for sacrifice. There is clearly a place for righteous anger, and the Bible offers us many illustrations of it. However, anger is often completely unrighteous. We may be angry because we have failed to get our own way, or we didn’t like the way someone spoke to us. The apostle Paul was clearly well aware of the issue of anger when he wrote: “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27). This is extremely wise advice. The greatest danger is when we allow our anger to carry on unchecked, and this can so easily happen. Anger is sometimes allowed to grow for months or even years, and it starts to define a person’s life. Knowing how to control anger is crucial for all of us, so we all need to seek God’s strength and wisdom to do so.

Question How do you control your anger?

Prayer Lord God, thank you that you understand me completely. I invite you to help me to control my anger. Amen

Proverbs 28:27

Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed. The writer of Proverbs often refers to poverty. In his society, there was no welfare state, so poverty was an ever-present and terrible threat. If their family was unable to give support, a person could become totally destitute. Begging would be the only option. It’s not surprising that many proverbs speak of the vital importance of giving to the poor, and in chapter 19 the writer speaks of the spiritual significance of such giving. He writes: “If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD – and he will repay you” (Proverbs 19:17). God loves to see people who are generous to the poor, and this theme runs through the whole Bible, from the law of Moses to the sharp and down-to-earth wisdom of the letter of James. God expects us to care for the poor and will reward those who do so. The reference to those who close their eyes to poverty strikes me with particular force. The writer bluntly states that they will be cursed. God is clearly calling us to open our eyes to the reality of poverty, uncomfortable as that may be. Poverty is never pleasant, and it is very easy for those who are financially secure to get on with their comfortable lives in blissful ignorance of those who are struggling through financial need. The statistics are terrifying. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has been working for over a century to study the causes of poverty in the UK. It believes that more than 20 per cent of the population lives in poverty, and this affects every part of people’s lives – their children’s education, their health, their job prospects, their life span – everything. It is particularly painful to note that more than half of those who live in poverty are disabled or live in a family with someone who is disabled. This is a crisis which demands a response from all of us.

Question How aware are you of poverty in your area, and what can you do to help?

Prayer Loving God, thank you for all the resources you have given me. Help me to be increasingly generous in sharing them with others, especially the poor. Amen

Proverbs 28:26

Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe. The book of Proverbs has a great deal to say about fools. Time and again, the writer notes how stupid, ignorant and destructive they are. Many of his observations would be incredibly funny if they weren’t so serious and sad. In Proverbs 26, he wrote: “A proverb in the mouth of a fool is as useless as a paralysed leg…like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk” and “an employer who hires a fool…is like an archer who shoots at random” (Proverbs 26:7,9 and 10). His powerful descriptions of foolishness are, of course, his springboard for commending the importance of wisdom. Everything in life depends on the acquisition of wisdom, which leads to security, loving relationships, success and happiness. The writer is absolutely clear that the only one who can give wisdom is God himself. He teaches us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is only by worshipping God and building a life based on him that we can acquire true wisdom, and because wisdom relies upon God, we need to live our lives in continual humility, recognising our total dependence on him. The moment we conclude that we are wise, we are in danger. In chapter 8, the writer represents wisdom as a woman who longs to share her wisdom with others, and the chapter concludes with a picture of the person who eagerly desires her wisdom. She says: “Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! For whoever finds me finds life” (Proverbs 8:34-35). Nobody wants to be a fool, but we are all bound to end up being foolish unless we persistently and humbly seek God’s wisdom. We need to keep James’ encouraging advice in mind: “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you” (James 1:5).

Question In what aspect of your life are you particularly aware of your need for God’s wisdom?

Prayer Lord God, forgive me for my foolishness and help me, day by day, to seek your wisdom. Amen

Proverbs 28:23

In the end, people appreciate honest criticism far more than flattery. The first three words are crucial in this verse! At first, probably all of us would rather be overwhelmed by flattery than offered criticism. We all want to be loved and to have people tell us how wonderful we are. However, in the end, honest criticism is far more valuable, and we should be forever grateful for those words of wisdom that give us insight and enable us to live better lives. When I learned to drive, my driving instructor had a background in training police drivers and was very demanding. At the time, his words were strong and could even sound rather harsh, but I haven’t forgotten them and, as I look back now, I am so grateful for the guidance he gave. If he had showered me with unqualified praise, it wouldn’t have been any help to me or other road users! The problem with flattery is that it is like candy floss: it has no substance. Edmund Burke, the 18th-century politician, said: “Flattery corrupts both the receiver and giver.” Its power to corrupt lies in the fact that it’s a distortion of the truth. It is therefore deeply misleading, and no relationship that is built on it could be secure. The beauty of well-judged and loving criticism is that it fearlessly offers the truth but does so with the single intention of building the other person up. The apostle Paul sums this up best when he talks about speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Truth often has sharp edges and it can be difficult both to receive and to share, but when our words have been baptised in love, even the sharpest observations will be a blessing.

Question What was the last piece of honest criticism that you received, and how did it affect you? When did you last have enough courage and love to share honest criticism with others?

Prayer Loving God, teach me to love other people so much that I will be willing to share the truth with them, and help me always to receive criticism from others with patience and grace. Amen

Proverbs 28:13

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. Sin always tries to hide itself. It’s a pathetic process because it is always bound to fail. Sooner or later, the sin will be revealed. Given that we are all sinners and regularly do things that are well short of perfection, we all need to know what to do when we sin. The writer is clear that the best approach is to come clean. When we admit that we have done wrong and turn away from our sins, we will find God’s mercy. In Psalm 32, King David reflected on how grim life was when he refused to confess his sin to God. He said: “My body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat” (Psalm 32:3-4). The evil one will always try to persuade us that sin is fun and that we will easily be able to get away with it, but the truth is different. It is a burden that is difficult to carry and leads to guilt, shame and more bad decisions. The only way to get free from sin is to confess it and to turn to face in a new direction. That was John’s message in his letter when he addressed people who said that they had no sin. He called them liars. Then, he declared the wonderful news that if we confess our sins, the Lord will forgive our sins and cleanse us from everything that is wrong (1 John 1:8-9). That’s the good news that we need to take with us into each day. As we live for God, we hope and pray that we will sin less and less, but when we trip up, if we confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness, we can be sure that we are forgiven. There is no more wonderful feeling than to know that the burden of sin has rolled away.

Question What do you find to be the most helpful way of confessing your sins to God?

Prayer Thank you, Lord, that you are so ready to forgive my sins. Help me never to take this amazing gift for granted. Amen

Proverbs 28:6 Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich. This is such a typical proverb. It’s punchy, it’s brief and it contains a massive amount of wisdom. Honesty is always the best policy. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America, said: “Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.” It’s not surprising that the book of Proverbs has much to say about honesty. It speaks often of the importance of being reliable, telling the truth and never being deceitful. The writer saw these as crucial qualities of a godly person and was convinced that this was the most wonderful life to live. He wrote: “The life of the godly is full of light and joy” (Proverbs 13:9). Because God loves honesty, he detests dishonesty. The prophets often delivered messages of God’s hatred of those who twisted the truth, especially when they did so to exploit the poor and vulnerable. The prophet Amos described those who couldn’t wait for the Sabbath to come to an end so that they could get back to their daily work of cheating the helpless. He said: “You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales. And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor” (Amos 8:5-6). It’s a terrible picture, but the situation was actually even worse. When the people who had been defrauded complained, they would go to the judges who were, themselves, corrupt. They were totally stitched up by a completely dishonest system. God’s words of judgement on them couldn’t have been stronger. Dishonesty continues to be a terrible feature of life. Fraud is very big business. It accounts for about 15 per cent of all recorded crime and is calculated to cause losses of about £190bn each year. That’s similar to the amount that we spend on the whole of the National Health Service. It’s a terrible crime, and so is all dishonesty, whatever shape it takes. It will always be better to be poor than to be dishonest. Question In what form do you come up against dishonesty, and how do you deal with it? Prayer Lord God, help me to love the truth more and more, and to protect those who are the victims of dishonesty. Amen

Proverbs 28:5 Evil people don’t understand justice, but those who follow the LORD understand completely. The Bible has a great deal to say about justice. The reason for that is clear. God is a God of justice, so he wants us to share his passion. The writer of Proverbs is characteristically blunt on the subject. Evil people, he claims, just don’t get it. They don’t mind bending or breaking the rules because they are only concerned about their own selfish interests. They aren’t bothered if there is no justice in the world, so long as they get what they want. It should be a completely different story for those who follow the Lord. Justice should be so important to Christians that they devote their lives to acting justly and encouraging others to do the same, however difficult it may seem. Our society looks very different from that of the writer of Proverbs, but it has always been the case that the weak and marginalised are most likely to be denied justice. The elderly, the disabled, the uneducated, the poor, immigrants and refugees are often the ones least able to argue their case and to find justice. Fighting injustice is hard work, but it is part of our calling as Christians. We dare not leave it to an enthusiastic minority, but so often that’s what happens. It is the business of [itals]every[end itals] Christian to stand up for those who are vulnerable and weak. In his letter, James was very keen to identify what true religion looked like. He had no time for people who didn’t turn their faith into action. He said this: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means looking after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). I don’t know what this will mean for you, but there is no question that God looks to each of us to stand with him in the fight for justice. Question In what way do you need to work for justice in your community? Prayer God of justice, forgive me for my selfishness and for the times that I have overlooked the needs of others. Open my eyes to the ways in which I can help to bring justice to those in need. Amen

Proverbs 28:2 When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability. Every nation needs good leaders, but the pages of human history show that they have normally been in short supply. The Old Testament offers us a depressing procession of inadequate leaders, occasionally punctuated by one who was godly and able. In the prophecy of Hosea, God summed up the situation when he declared: “Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help” (Hosea 7:7). It was a tragic situation and led to centuries of moral rot, to use the colourful language of this proverb. There is plenty of moral rot in our own society. The massive amount of substance abuse, the breakup of families, the prevalence of child abuse, the phenomenal levels of fraud and the huge rise in knife crime would be just a few of indicators of a society that is in a poor way. In such a situation, we need to cry out for the kind of wise and knowledgeable leaders that the writer of Proverbs had in mind. It isn’t good enough for us to join in with the chorus of cynicism and criticism. We can do better than that. Paul encouraged Timothy to pray for those who were in authority “so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:2). As we pray for those in authority, we reveal our commitment to them and our willingness to work with them as they seek to make wise and good decisions that will bless our society. In the work I have done with members of Parliament over the years, I know how encouraged and blessed they have been when they have known that churches have been praying for them. We don’t need to agree with their politics in order to pray for them. We simply need to appreciate that they have an authority which ultimately derives from God and recognise our responsibility to support them. It's too easy to bemoan the wickedness of our rotten society. God calls us to allow his Spirit to work through us so that we can help to build a better society. Question In what ways could you encourage your MP in their work? Prayer Loving God, I pray for this country and ask that you will bless our leaders. May they walk in your ways of compassion, truth and justice. Amen

Proverbs 27:25-27

After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears and the mountain grasses are gathered in, your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will provide the price of a field. And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself, your family and your servant girls. These verses give us a delightful insight into a rural way of life which has a rhythm that those of us who live in towns and cities can totally miss. The life of a farmer is an interesting interplay between God’s provision and sheer hard work. God graciously causes the grass to grow, but there is then a huge amount of work involved in drying it out and making the hay. The grass and hay sustain the sheep and goats who will provide wool and milk to clothe and nourish the family. It’s a wonderful cycle of life, but nobody should have any illusions that it’s a quiet life. Farm work is massively demanding. However far away we may live from a rural life, we all depend upon that relationship between God’s provision and human effort. The reasonably effortless process of purchasing our food, drink and clothes tends to obscure this, so it is good for us to remind ourselves of both facts. Firstly, we need to give thanks for everything we buy, which, ultimately, has come from God’s hands. It is part of his creation, and although many manufacturing, transportational and organisational processes might have intervened between the original raw materials and our purchase, God is nevertheless the source. Secondly, it is good for us to remember those who have been involved in the frequently very long process by which goods are brought to us. We should thank God for the farmers, fishermen, miners, manufacturers, transporters and retailers and all those who have worked with them to enable us to make our purchases. We are, unavoidably, intimately related to this whole process, so we need to pray that God is honoured and that justice is done to everyone involved in it.

Question Why is it important for us to be aware of the way in which our food, drink and resources are produced and brought to us?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for all those whose hard work enables me to shop with such ease. Amen

Proverbs 27:21

Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised. I wonder how you respond when someone praises you. Perhaps you are praised for your excellent work, your sporting skills, your kindness or your reliability. The writer of Proverbs makes the interesting observation that such praise is as critical a test of a person as fire testing precious metals. Praise will expose the kind of person that you really are. There are three things you can do with praise. The first option is to open wide and drink it all in. This is a dangerous path because it is likely to go to your head. It could inflate your opinion of yourself to the point that you become arrogant and unbearable to live with. The second option is to do everything you can to deny the plaudits and suggest that they have got it all wrong. This might sound like a humble approach, but it could easily come across as rude. The best way to handle praise is to acknowledge it gratefully and to use it as an opportunity to review your life and your relationship with the Lord. It could be that the praise will help you to understand where your gifts really are. When I first started preaching, I was a teenager and was totally unsure of myself. The response from the people who heard me preach was crucial, and if they had been negative and critical I probably wouldn’t have preached another sermon. However, their praise has encouraged me to keep doing it! Above all, praise needs to encourage us to look to the one who gave us our gifts in the first place. Any gift, flair or ability we have has come to us as a gift from God, and we need to make sure that he is the one who gets the main credit for anything that we achieve.

Question How do you respond when people praise you?

Prayer Lord God, I thank you for the abilities and strengths that you have given me. Help me never to forget that they have all come to me as a gift from your hands. Amen

Proverbs 27:15-16

A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day. Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands. I’m not going to defend the pure sexism of this proverb. There’s absolutely no need for it. Anyone can be quarrelsome, whatever their gender! The writer is convinced that the quarrelsome person is very hard to stop. He makes it sound as if quarrelling has become their way of life. No amount of challenging will change them. Clearly, quarrelling is something that has happened since the dawn of time, and it’s not surprising that the apostle Paul was fully aware of the problem. He instructed Timothy that “a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach and be patient with difficult people” (2 Timothy 2:24). The sad truth, of course, is that any of us can be quarrelsome. It may be that we’re not feeling well, or we are generally unhappy with the state of things or we are feeling threatened by life. Paul gives sound advice that, instead of quarrelling, we should seek to be kind and patient. Quarrelling with people is never kind. It causes anxiety and undermines relationships. The kind person is always looking to show love and care to people and to be sensitive to their needs. Such a person will always seek to be patient. Patience is always much more easily said than done, but Paul knew how vital it was in responding to difficult people with whom, it would seem, the Church has always been generously supplied. If you are finding someone particularly difficult at present, it is, perhaps, comforting to know that the Bible is familiar with your dilemma. Even more importantly, it is wonderful to hear that God knows the whole situation and will give us the grace and strength to cope if we ask him to.

Question How have you found it best to cope with quarrelsome people?

Prayer Lord God, I ask you to help me to be wise and gracious in my relationships with other people, especially those whom I find most difficult. Amen

Proverbs 27:14

A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse! This might sound a bit harsh, but if you’ve ever lived with someone who is irrepressibly loud and cheerful, you probably know what the writer of this proverb is getting at! In life, it’s not so much what you say as how, when, where and why you say it. The writer is talking about people who are insensitive, and, let’s be honest, we all know people like that, and we’ve all done it ourselves. In the previous chapter, the writer referred to someone who was completely insensitive and totally misread the situation. He saw them as a serious liability. He wrote: “Just as damaging as a madman shooting a deadly weapon is someone who lies to a friend and then says: ‘I was only joking’” (Proverbs 26:18-19). Everything was wrong about this. He shouldn’t have been lying in the first place, and to try to pass it off as a joke was just pouring fuel on the fire. We all have something to learn from this. We need to learn to use our words with increasing care, because the same words can be received totally differently depending on the person, time, weather and a thousand other variables. Words that might amuse one person might antagonise another. Statements that some people find full of insight might cause lasting offence to another. Before you conclude that you need to keep your mouth firmly shut and never say another word, let me encourage you to lean even harder on the Holy Spirit. He is the one who can give us the wisdom and strength to speak in the way that the apostle Paul described in Colossians 4:6: “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.”

Question What has this proverb taught you about communicating with others?

Prayer Father God, thank you that you have given me your Holy Spirit to enable me to speak in a way that will honour you and bless others. Amen