Promise?

•August 20, 2012 • 1 Comment

How good are you at keeping promises?

Do you only make ones you know you can keep?  Do you stick to promises you’ve made rigidly? Or do you try to back out of ones that in the cold light of day seem ambitious or a mistake?

God keeps his promises.

1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43

Solomon Prays at the Temple

22 Solomon stood facing the altar with everyone standing behind him. Then he lifted his arms toward heaven 23 and prayed:

Lord God of Israel, no other god in heaven or on earth is like you!

You never forget the agreement you made with your people, and you are loyal to anyone who faithfully obeys your teachings. 24 My father David was your servant, and today you have kept every promise you made to him.

25 Lord God of Israel, you promised my father that someone from his family would always be king of Israel, if they do their best to obey you, just as he did. 26 Please keep this promise you made to your servant David.

27 There’s not enough room in all of heaven for you, Lord God. How could you possibly live on earth in this temple I have built? 28 But I ask you to answer my prayer. 29 This is the temple where you have chosen to be worshipped. Please watch over it day and night and listen when I turn toward it and pray. 30 I am your servant, and the people of Israel belong to you. So whenever any of us look toward this temple and pray, answer from your home in heaven and forgive our sins.

41-42 Foreigners will hear about you and your mighty power, and some of them will come to live among your people Israel. If any of them pray toward this temple, 43 listen from your home in heaven and answer their prayers. Then everyone on earth will worship you, just like your people Israel, and they will know that I have built this temple to honour you.

Solomon comes to pray in the Temple he has had built for the glory of God.  As he does so, he remembers God’s faithfulness and acknowledges that he has always done what he had promised he would.  And then he prays for that to continue.

But as Solomon does so, he also prays in other ways:

  • He praises God, “Lord God of Israel, no other god in heaven or on earth is like you!” (v23), and “There’s not enough room in all of heaven for you, Lord God.” (v27) Solomon comes in praise, wonder and worship of the God who is so vast, so majestic – and yet is still interested in one man.
  • He comes aware of his need for forgiveness from his sins, “So whenever any of us look toward this temple and pray, answer from your home in heaven and forgive our sins” (v30); “ Listen when anyone in Israel truly feels sorry and sincerely prays with arms lifted toward your temple” (v38).  He is aware of so much that can go wrong in people’s lives and their need to return to God and ask his forgiveness.
  • He prays for God to be worshipped and honoured, “Then everyone on earth will worship you, just like your people Israel, and they will know that I have built this temple to honour you” (v43).  The Temple is not to show off Solomon’s building skills, or the splendour of Israel, but the glory of God alone.

All in all, not a bad pattern for prayer…

Lord,

I come to you in worship,

You are a might and majestic God,

King of the Universe,

holder of all

…and yet you know me,

love me

and care for me.

Yet Lord,

as I gaze on you and your splendour,

I realise how far I am from that,

and I come in confession,

seeking your forgiveness

and a clean start.

Lord,

my prayer

is that your name be honoured

throughout the world,

that all people will see you

and acknowledge you as God,

worship you

and live for you.

Lord,

hear my prayer

Posted in bible, faith, forgiveness, God, Lectionary, Religion
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Real Food

•August 15, 2012 • 1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy food – well eating it anyway, I’m not so hot on making it!  So to me this idea that the people had that Jesus was going to feed them, and keep feeding them sounds attractive.

Except that was not quite what Jesus had in mind…

John 6:51-58

51 I am that bread from heaven! Everyone who eats it will live forever. My flesh is the life-giving bread that I give to the people of this world.

52 They started arguing with each other and asked, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus answered:

I tell you for certain that you won’t live unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. 54 But if you do eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have eternal life, and I will raise you to life on the last day. 55 My flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. 56 If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you are one with me, and I am one with you.

57 The living Father sent me, and I have life because of him. Now everyone who eats my flesh will live because of me. 58 The bread that comes down from heaven isn’t like what your ancestors ate. They died, but whoever eats this bread will live forever.

This is that soul food that Jesus was talking about – he is the food that nourishes to the depths of our being.

Eating Jesus’ flesh is a strange, if not repulsive idea.  So what does Jesus mean?

To me, it means that when we meet with Jesus, in worship, in prayer, in communion, he is feeding us. Feeding us at the depth of our being.  The food that Jesus offers is life-enhancing – not just with vitamins, proteins and fibre. He offers to feed us not with food that will make us hungry again in a few hours, but feeding us with God, his life, his love, his peace, his power.

 

Lord,

I come to you

seeking food,

not that I will soon be hungry again,

but your food,

you love,

your peace,

your hope,

your way in my life…

Feed me Lord,

I pray

for I come

and eat

Posted in bible, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion
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Every Minute Counts

•August 14, 2012 • 1 Comment 

By Steve Fair from UK (IMG_5001 Uploaded by Miaow Miaow) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

At the Olympics, we saw a whole succession of people who were making every second count.  From athletes who had used their time of training effectively to arrive at peak fitness to people making the most of every moment of their being some part of the event – cheering, dressing up, making banners and generally entering fully into the spirit of the games.

Making every minute count – how do we do that in our lives day by day?

Ephesians 5:15-20

15 Act like people with good sense and not like fools. 16 These are evil times, so make every minute count. 17 Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life. 19 When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart. 20 Always use the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to thank God the Father for everything.

Oh how I long to act like a person of good sense, to not do the stupid, hurtful, unnecessary things it is so easy to get caught up in; to not waste time on the things that actually really don’t matter.

How to make every minute count?  By finding out what God wants us to do, understanding what he is asking of us.

And how do we do that?  Well, the suggestion is to meet together and to worship God.  For in worshipping God we “touch base” with him, and allow him to touch us.  As we focus on all he has done for us and give thanks, we become in tune with him, and then we will get closer to him and hear what he is saying to us.

How, today, where we are, can we make every minute count?  Make every minute God’s?

Lord,

I so want to make my life count for you;

to not get caught up in things that don’t matter,

or are foolish.

I come

and spend time with you,

praising you,

thanking you,

and seeking to hear your voice.

May I quiet my heart,

and the loud voices within me,

and hear you…

– that my actions may be the ones you are looking for

Posted in bible, God, Lectionary, Religion
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