Believe the Good News

WHAT IS GOD SAYING TO US THROUGH THIS CRISIS?

Verse for Sept 23

And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and He is eternal life.

1 John 5:20 NLT

Good News

Jesus, the Son of God, has made it possible for us to know God in a real and personal way, simply by knowing and receiving Him first.

Reflection

It’s not just Christians who are asking the question. People who have no church connection, perhaps with just some fragments of faith which they have not articulated very much, are seeking the same answer. What is God saying, at this testing time?

And those who might not want to belong to the ‘fragments of faith’ category are adding their voices — with increasing desperation. “If there IS a God, what is He saying?” The pandemic has come, and we have changed our lives and isolated and hoped… and it receded, and we were very relieved about that. But now the threat is increasing again, we must learn new rules and follow them, and there doesn’t seem a way to get the upper hand and win through.

“There doesn’t seem a way…” — and in a way, that is a good thing. It is a good place to be, although it is a stretch to find that encouragement. But let’s give it a go.

Asking the question: “If there IS a God… what is He saying…?” puts us in position to find out. A lot of our problem is that we are too busy with our lives, preoccupied with all sorts of other things which are more important than faith. The ‘structural timbers’ of our lives have become everything and the foundation, never prominent, has been lost from sight.

What we have have built in our lives to believe and follow, gives us energy. What do we turn on the TV to see?

• Sport
• The political debate
• Occupation and career
• Holidays and travel
• Socialising
• Family and friends
• Neighbourhood life
• Clubs, hobbies, interests, study
• Homes and gardens
• Shopping and possessions

None of these are bad things in themselves. To a greater or lesser extent they define who we are and colour-in our lives and our freedoms. So somebody having made poor choices which landed them in prison, or through difficult circumstances which have left them in poor health or homeless, are deprived of the freedoms that the rest of us celebrate and express, and live for in these kinds of ways!

However, the growing health and safety emergency is restricting all of these ‘structural timbers’ again. It is becoming our imprisonment. And, locked down and locked in and trying to find a way out, we may give some thought again to those hidden foundations.

Which brings us back to the verse which is speaking, with our question, “If there is a God…” and the hint of His answer which starts, “And we know…”

The way is relationship

Here’s the thing. Knowing God does not come through the ordered following or recited expressions we call religion. It’s not all bad, it is just not the way to come into a relationship with God. The way is not religion, it is relationship. It is not the alternative culture of religious form and practice but the reality of knowing God personally. This verse explains, clearly and simply, how that happens.

“…The Son of God has come, and He has GIVEN US UNDERSTANDING so that we CAN KNOW the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ.”

The Passion Translation (TPT) puts is like this: “… The Son of God has made our understanding come alive so that we can know by experience the One who is true.” That’s how it works. We turn to Jesus and make a decision to receive Him. And something happens, whereby we see what we didn’t see before — our understanding comes alive — and where God was remote, now we know Him by experience. It’s a spiritual shift which is hard to convey in mere words.

The essential truth is simple, and we tend to bypass what seems too simple and make it complicated, which on a human, intellectual level is more satisfying. Hence the tension between ordered religion, and the simplicity of the reality. We may be trying to achieve and gain and work up by practice, something which we have been given. If we have been given it, we don’t need to work at finding it!

God is unseen, spiritual and completely ‘other’ and we have words like ‘holy’ which are used to describe this. So at this point God is remote, uncompromisingly perfect and unseen — and if He speaks, we are not on that wavelength. Enter the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was born in the most ordinary circumstances and grew up, flesh and blood like us, completely human but at the same time the complete representation of what God is like. He IS God but God in human form. We can look at Jesus, and know just what God is like, in terms we can relate to and understand.

We can look at Jesus, and accept and submit to who He is — and at that point the might and majesty of wisdom of God is revealed to us.

The verse says: “… We can know the true God”. And we can. We come to know Him through the means He has provided for us to know Him which is not complicated, does not require us to do a lot of things or pay any ‘club membership’. It is about heart-to-heart accepting Jesus and knowing God as a loving, understanding Father who cares and provides for us.

What is God saying?

What is God saying? Just this — that we can come to know Him, by turning to His Son, Jesus. There is a cost. It’s our pride, our independence, our priorities and giving Him the say in all those ‘structural timbers’ and how we build them together. It amounts to recognising that Jesus went to the Cross and gave up His life in the most horrible way imaginable, so we could have new life that endures for eternity. So we recognise that He gave up His life, by offering Him our lives, letting go of the independence. And we find He gives us our lives back, reshaped, different in some respects — but more and better.

God is using the evil of this crisis, turning it around for good, to get our attention and corral us into finding Him. We do that by our own free choice, and by the uncomplicated decision to turn to Jesus, trust Him and ask Him into our hearts.

Take away

• Go for a walk or take some time away from other distractions to talk to God about what He says in this verse.
• And give Him space and time to speak to you, and He will.
• It takes a bit of persistence to ‘tune in’ to His voice, perhaps more of an impression at first, but He says “call and I will answer you”

Link

For a prayer based on this verse, go over to our prayer site, www.glowweobley.com

Verse

The punishment you brought me through was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me Your ways.
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:71‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Good News

Life is not all plain sailing and threats and difficulties arise. God does not cause these but uses the difficulties to strengthen our relationship with Him, and get us exercising our faith.

Reflection

The present fall and then rise in Covid-19 infections teaches us a fundamental principle: when everything is going well, we become more careless.

This is our experience of isolating or gathering, which is about being socially responsible — or negligent. How rigorous we are about maintaining a good sanitisation regime is about being practically diligent — or lax.

Psychology tells us that how we perceive the threat — increasing, or decreasing — drives how we react to and safeguard against danger.

So what happens in the spiritual realm? Our spiritual awareness, we could argue from Scripture, is an overarching influence that governs all of the other strands. The Holy Spirit in our lives doesn’t tell us how to live or what is morally unacceptable. That is much more the voice of religion.

But He leads our thinking, gives us prompts, nudges our decisions and gives us an inward witness of what is good or what might be a danger.
But He can only do this when we listen. When we give Him space. When we ask. We have to make the running, ask the questions prayerfully, seek wisdom — and then it is up to us to put it into practice.

How much do we need His guidance? “All the time,” comes the ready answer, but of course our perception is that we need guidance more when difficulty threatens and less when the going seems easy. And that’s the danger, right there. Complacency and self-sufficiency are what lead us away from faith, from seeking God, being open to His leading and — most damaging and sinful — from knowing our dependency on Him

Take away

What is God teaching you about His ways through the difficulty you are battling with right now? How could you use this to encourage someone else to exercise faith?

Link

For a prayer based on this verse, go over to www.glowweobley.com

VERSE

Then call on Me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give Me glory.”

Psalm 50:15 NLT

Good News

God is already close for us to turn to Him — it’s all on us to call.

Reflection

From the first day at a new school onwards through life, knowing that there is someone looking out for you is good.
Just that person being there is one of the big factors that governs whether we feel secure or not.

In adult life, being part of something bigger than oneself has traditionally helped to balance that sense of isolation.
In the past century, many people spent part of their lives in the armed services, and the sense of belonging to something bigger carries on with the Royal British Legion, reunions and other connections. It was an age of belonging and identifying — with a political party, or within a trade union or professional association.

For many, belonging to their local church was as much part of their local identity as it was spiritual. Where club membership is an important part of the culture, church can easily be treated as another club, with its committee rewarding long involvement with a title.

The present age is individualistic and a distrust of institutions has made people wary. It is no longer an age of belonging. Nor is it an age of formality. At times, the two went together, the institutional identity, the respectful titles. Now, politicians and pundits alike appear on television in ‘smart casual’. Older readers might remember (or be aware anecdotally) how early BBC television presenters wore evening dress!

That facet of something bigger and grander than oneself has disappeared. But it’s not all bad. The need for a personal connection with a personal, loving God is all the greater. Jesus — simply known without formality or the packaging of an institution or organisation — has made it possible for us to know who to call when we are in trouble, who will rescue us, and who we give the glory to. And not just possible, but more desirable than ever before.

Take away

How is your sense of belonging and safety changing, and where is God in it?

Link

For a prayer based on this verse, go over to www.glowweobley.com

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Verse for today

O LORD, do not stay far away! You are my strength; come quickly to my aid!

Psalm 22:19 NLT

Good News

God is our strength, and any of us who believe in Him enough to turn to Him, can simply ask for His help.

Reflection

These words were written as a prayer by King David, the renowned godly, worshipful and generally righteous leader of Israel. He saw Israel become prosperous and secure, as never before. Yet — perhaps because of His dogged devotion to God — he attracted some vicious opposition.
Good dispels evil, but it also attracts the attention of evil.
There is a prophetic picture in this psalm which is a remarkable fit with the circumstances of Jesus undergoing crucifixion. According to Mark and Matthew, His last words were the opening words — the context of today’s verse — which are: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
What is happening in heaven can seem disconnected with what we are experiencing on earth. Prayers, even desperate ones, can appear to be unheard and unanswered.
But David, in our verse, puts “Do not stay far away!” together with what he believes and trusts: “You are my strength”.
When we cry out to God and nothing seems to happen, it is good to be reminded that this is normal!
The gospel accounts of healings and deliverances are very compressed accounts. They can read as more instant than they are. There is usually a time element in there. Sometimes Jesus asks His question again.
Sometimes He prays again. Sometimes the salvation occurs as the person starts to journey back. We don’t have a full picture of /how long/ Jesus was with the sufferer.
Faith is like a bungee rope which connects our appeal with receiving heaven’s response. For a time it just pulls out. You have jumped off Clifton Suspension Bridge in your harness and it feels like free fall, far too long in free fall! But this is normal. This is where faith is generated, and does its work. This is where the bungee takes up its tension.
Where are you, in your feeling of ‘plunge to disaster’ right now? Is it the terrifying weightlessness of free fall? Or are you starting to feel the restraining pull of heaven’s support? What matters is not wavering from our declaration: “God, You are my strength”. Especially when it really doesn’t feel like it.

Link

For a prayer based on this verse, go to this page on www.glowweobley.com