Be Still And Know

Proverbs 29:1-2 NLT   'Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery. When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.'   The word ‘justice’ is often quoted across the media. Single issue causes attract a strong following and generate large income streams. Yet, at times it’s difficult to discover if the world in which we live is any more just than it was 60 years ago. The word isn’t limited to our legal system; it conjures up ideas of fairness, equality, honesty and integrity.   We all love the idea of justice, yet the price demanded of us is often too high to ensure we turn our aspirations into anything enduring. I was recently talking to someone who manages an asylum centre. He believes slavery within Britain is growing, operating in plain sight. We may speak of Wilberforce and the movement that stopped the transatlantic slave trade, but slavery hasn’t ended.   Our desire for justice proves elusive in implementatio

2 Chronicles 9:7-8 NLT   'How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you...'   The search for happiness has been important for thousands of years. The queen of Sheba travelled from her home to visit Solomon, because of his famed wisdom, which she observed produced ‘happiness’ among his subjects. I have also travelled widely, extensively and studied to PhD level. I love seeking to discover truth and have an insatiable appetite to understand how I tick and how I might realise my greatest potential. After many adventures in self-discovery, I find myself today content simply to acknowledge that I know God. I spend large amounts of time very happily on my own. But, in reality, I’m not alone. I meet God within all the daily routines of my existence. And where I fail to do so, it is merely that I’ve taken my eye off the Lord.   Paul declares: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil

John 14:6-7 NLT   Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”   We are all selfish beings, and we all know it – whether or not we are believers. We know that, left to itself, our self-centred nature is destructive, but we don’t agree on how to stop this happening. Is natural selection the inbuilt means to manage a self-perpetuating society, or does a personal God lie behind the many layers and textures that make up human existence and personal interaction?   I believe that St Augustine was right when he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.” In a non-religious world, the concept of God can prove elusive. Despite the advances of scientific enquiry, however, the question of where everything comes from remains. God, of course, is quite content to leave it to each of us to make up

John 15:7-8 NLT    'But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.'    What do you think is the primary purpose of prayer? There are many opinions on it, but it can only be understood through our relationship with God. My own view is that prayer is entering into the very presence of God. There are many reasons we would want to take that step, only one of which is to make demands of God.     Today we too easily understand the word ‘want’ in its material context; goods or services to improve my life. Jesus appears to approach ‘want’ from an entirely different angle. In the Lord’s Prayer, the only prayer Jesus taught his disciples, the opening declares: “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). This tells me that when we pray, we’re always to be conscious that we’re part of something so much greater than our own personal horizons. Everything Jesus and the whole of the Ne

John 15:6 NLT    'Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.'   When we arrived at the Oratory, we knew little to nothing about gardening, so we set about learning a new craft. One of the first tasks was to prune the many overgrown trees. We discovered this strengthened the remaining growth and ensured greater fruitfulness. The wood we removed was eventually burned on our log fire.    Moving from the specific to the metaphorical, Jesus is speaking here of those who choose to stop abiding in him. I think this is a challenge we all face; moments when we doubt our faith or blame God for the realities of our life. Choosing salvation does not risk-proof us: we are subject to the anomalies of human existence in the same way as everyone else.   In Christ, I can find the resolve and resilience to navigate my way through such anomalies. In doing so I may discover some wood that is reducing my fruitfulness. This I can easily su

John 15:5 NLT    'Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.'    Standing along a stretch of dual carriageway near to us are a series of apple trees. Every year we see the blossom, the fruit and finally the harvest: the trees shedding their fruit on the ground. No one gathers it. Initially, I thought this was a waste. But as I reflected upon the fallen fruit, I recognised these trees were unable to stop doing what they were created for: to be fruitful. Nor can we. Even if we feel disconnected through circumstances, cut off from our family, or are no longer participating in a life-affirming Christian community, we cannot stop being fruitful if we remain in Jesus.    What is the purpose of fruitfulness, however, if we are alone? Perhaps simply that God will never stop pouring out love into and through us. As I considered those trees, I realised the soil that nurtured them was itself enriched by their fallen frui

John 15:3-4 NLT    'You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.'     Christian discipleship remains something of a mystery. Since I chose to surrender my life to Jesus, I have, in Jesus’ words, been ‘purified by the message’. In one sense, I have crossed the threshold of acceptance and belonging. So what is discipleship?     I spent many years creating and delivering discipleship courses. I’m not sure how useful they were. They were laden with well-constructed information in an attempt to apply biblical truth to explain the character of Christian behaviour. The intention was always sincere, but I realised I often failed to embrace much of the application I was advocating.     We live in an age in which performance is measured against external criteria. But discipleship is not a pass/fail course. It is a relationship. And re

John 15:1-2 NLT    'I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.'   Last year I decided to train for my Trinity Certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). I wanted to have something that I might trade with as I grew older, that would also be recognised internationally and enable me to live outside the UK if necessary. It was also a deepening response to my call to walk the way of a contemplative. God does not expect his people to live off charity, but to be able to meet their own immediate needs. Living on the edge of Southampton, there were many foreign language speakers, and I could arrange tutoring around the Oratory.    In determining if I should train, I had to consider the value of the course to what God wanted for the Oratory and my life of prayer. I knew life would be disturbed by the training and teaching. I was fairly comfo

Psalm 25:10 NLT  'The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.' I find ‘unfailing’ a difficult word to comprehend. Living in Britain, I have grown up confident that the weather that greets me in the morning will have completely changed by lunchtime. I cannot rely upon weather, nor the weather forecaster who advises me on the day ahead. So I’m unsurprised by the nature of my character which is equally changeable. I move from affability to tetchiness as easily as sunshine gives way to rain.   So, the idea of a character who never changes is difficult to comprehend, even harder to trust. Yet this is how our God is described. A lover who never falters. A love that’s consistent in its intensity. Such constant love is the very definition of faithfulness.   Often, I feel distant from God. My prayers appear unanswered, or answered with a response I find less than consoling. I apply my inconsistency to my apparent friendship with God, who I can barely discern. Dou

Psalm 25:7 NLT  'Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord.' Despite not having a particularly colourful past, I often realise I’m mulling over past events. An insistent, inner voice wants to use such memories to prove that I have no right to call myself a disciple; I am a fraud. It can become a significant distraction. If I allow it to establish a hold, it becomes all-consuming and I begin to doubt, even denigrate myself. I have had to learn to contest this voice and surrender such memories to God. I simply acknowledge the memory and immediately turn to God. I recall that I cannot be loved by God more than I am in this moment. No action can or will enable him to love me more. The fullness of his love for me was demonstrated at the crucifixion, and I can only gratefully accept that I am loved entirely. And what’s true for me is true for you.  If necessary, I may need to apologise to someone. I also need to surrender my self-p

Psalm 25:6 NLT  'Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past.' We live in a fast-moving and often brutal world, often forced to live at a pace that leaves us breathless. We easily tire under the weight of life’s competing demands. So many of the prayer requests I receive reflect today’s challenge of affordable rent, employment opportunities and financial stability. It is evident we have to navigate our way through a pressured life that increasingly challenges our mental health.  Recently I received notice from a credit agency that I owed my old mobile phone company money. It was a small sum, around £28. I wanted to challenge this since I’d cancelled my account appropriately. Then the problems began. Firstly, there was no phone number to talk to a fellow human. After trying to talk to a human being, eventually I paid up, under the threat of further penalty charges.  Fortunately God is not some unreachable rule-enforcer. He is a personal friend who works with u

Psalm 25:4 NLT 'Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow.' I’ve wondered many times what it is I’m here on this earth to do. When younger, I was anxious to realise my potential, assuming there was a particular path I must pursue. I never satisfied this inner demand that I find my calling. I had a low boredom threshold, so once I had accomplished something, I’d want to move on to something new. It is useful to get to know oneself, since we’re all wired differently and realising our potential in serving God is directly related to our character. I thrive on change. However, I recognised I must deal with this insistent voice that told me my life added up to very little. Here I had the first great revelation since my conversion. God was interested in me, far more than in anything I did. It initially felt uncomfortable since it flew in the face of all I’d assumed about God’s purpose. God’s way was simple. It was to get to know him better. So I became a better human being, available to ser

Psalm 25:1-2 NLT  'O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced, or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.'  Like all idioms, the phrase “to give one’s life to” carries a meaning far deeper than the phrase initially suggests. We often use it when reflecting upon someone’s career: “She gave her life to cancer research.” It is perhaps easier to see the coherence of a life by gazing into the rear-view mirror, than looking straight ahead. When I first gave my life to Jesus, I was both excited and serious. Perhaps I wanted some emotional validation for my prayer of commitment, a sign of God’s presence experienced through my senses. Worship gatherings and powerful communicators encourage us all to respond to a variety of things, and I felt many powerful emotions.   Over time, I realised such emotions were short-lived. I could not rely upon them to carry me through difficulties. They were also poor guides to the will and way of God, since they generally insisted on satisfying my ow

Ruth 1:16 NLT  But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” I have ditched God occasionally, drawn by some distraction that caught my heart. Yet God does not rush to any swift judgement because of my waywardness. Why would he need to, since he knows more about me than I will ever know about myself? It seems, however, that our humanity is wired towards criticism, notably of others yet equally of ourselves. Perhaps it’s a British thing, but complaint appears to be seeded deep within our DNA. Even when asked how we are, we respond: “I can’t complain.” I have taken quite some time to throw off the cynicism such criticism births. For too long I confused being clever with being a master of the sharp reply. Time has taught me to quieten my inner critic and wait for God’s presence. Life is only ever complete when in God’s presence, or in hot pursuit of my Lord.   So in this latter se

Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT  'Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.' I quote this verse far too often, to myself, but also to family and friends. Quoting is easy: confidently living out its content proves exceptionally challenging. When gazing back over my life, I see quite a lot of fear and discouragement. As a young Christian I met disappointment with frustration, often expressed in angry outbursts. I lacked a lot of self-control – yet it was one of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) I received upon choosing to follow Jesus. It cost me nothing. For so long, I failed to realise God’s provision was already within my grasp. My problem was my failure, or unwillingness, to take hold of this fruit and apply it in managing any difficult set of circumstances. I have spent much time wondering at my stupidity and inability to take hold of what was already mine in Christ and secure the benefits for a less tempestu

Luke 9:23-24 NLT  Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” I have spent many hours trying to hang on to my own life. Who doesn’t invest time reflecting on who they really are? The internet is awash with courses offering answers to the mysteries of our psychological make-up, and I serve as a spiritual coach and director, so I have bought into the people development business.   Jesus’ emphasis was to redirect our gaze from ourselves to our creator. This makes sense, since the one who crafted me is the one who truly knows me. Yet an insistent voice within me demands the right of self-expression, often at the expense and suppression of others expressing themselves. So what will I compromise to secure my desired ambitions? Jesus is uncompromising in his teaching. No one can carry a cross inconspicuously.

John 6:26-27 NLT  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life...” I’m not sure it was easier for those first disciples who’d actually seen and been with Jesus, though we might wonder. Faith is required, regardless of whether Jesus is present as he was throughout his incarnate ministry on earth or today, when we encounter that same presence through the grace of God’s Spirit.   On this occasion the crowds who had enjoyed a free picnic go in search of Jesus on the far side of the lake. The night before, they had attempted to make him their king. Jesus sees their motive and contrasts their material desires with their failure to perceive their spiritual poverty. And I see myself within that crowd. There is the constant desire within me: I want Jesus to resolve all my issues.   As Jesus explains later in the chapter, he is all we

Matthew 4:18-20 NLT  One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers – Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew…Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. What so caught the attention of the first disciples, that they walked away from their jobs and followed Jesus? Was something of his immortality breaking through? Or did his charisma draw them? Maybe he spoke with such authority, they had to follow him. They soon saw that Jesus was the Messiah. In John’s Gospel, the first disciples heard the Baptist announce that Jesus was “the Lamb of God” and immediately set out to discover more. They turned their attention from God’s prophet to God’s Son. ‘To follow’ is to choose to go to the same place as someone. They want to keep close to Jesus. Over time, the Church came to understand that to follow Jesus was to choose to live one’s life dedicated to God to the degree that Jesus did. It

Psalm 134:1-2 NLT  'Oh, praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, you who serve at night in the house of the Lord. Lift your hands toward the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.' Once I’ve entered my day, time appears to rush by. Pursuing my rhythm of prayer as a contemplative, managing the Oratory, responding to the questions of those seeking advice, life is full. The day makes many demands and sometimes it’s a challenge maintaining my focus on God. I guess we all face that daily challenge.  If I have started my ‘day pilgrimage’ by laying a solid foundation as outlined this week, then I am better placed to reach the end of the day with a heart still resting in the Lord. It is then I once again want to encounter God.   So my day ends as it began. I tell God of the goodness I enjoy as a result of our friendship, the blessing of God. I refuse to let life and my daily experience silence me. Regardless of the wounds inflicted through my daily interactions, I declare what I know is true of God, despite my feeling

Psalm 131:2 NLT  'Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.'  In a noisy world, one of the greatest challenges we face is finding space for ourselves, away from the demands that stalk our every waking moment. The pressures of daily living are intense. Reviewing the many prayer requests that cross my desk reveals the intense strain that finding regular employment, affordable housing and managing ongoing health conditions places on us. It is incredibly difficult to take each day at a time, when anxieties about the future encircle us. We are easily robbed of any sense of peace.  There have been periods when I have been unable to sleep. Awake, I’ve battled the most terrifying thoughts. While the dawn often brings a welcome measure of balance, I can’t completely shake off the spell cast by such extreme anxiety.   Yet I have discovered, amid many disappointments, and with my fears encamped around me, that