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Luke 1:5-25

Courage and faith

Courage means doing something even though you’re frightened. It takes courage to go for a job interview, for a child to have a injection or to learn how to ride a bicycle for the first time. Having someone who cares for you can really help your courage. Like a mum holding a child’s hand when they have their injection, or a dad running behind the first wobbly peddling of a child learning to ride.

Faith helps us see that God cares for us and that he is with us. As we journey through the gospel of Luke it is my hope that we will see how God cares for his children, how he provides for them and how he is always close to them. Just like Zacharias and Elizabeth. Do you feel like God has passed you over with respect to something you feel is really important to you? Perhaps the expectations you had for your life have not worked out. Maybe you feel like you’ve blown it with God.

Luke gives us a real picture of God and how his grace is much more powerful than our disbelief, failings and sin. As we journey through Luke we will see just how determined God’s love is towards us, how he constantly gives patience, grace and forgiveness to those who are unworthy, unimportant and evil.

I’ve been really challenged by Luke’s gospel as I wrestle to learn to believe in God as he really is rather than how I think He is. My hope is that we will all learn to connect our knowledge of God with our experience of Him so that we can have a real relationship with God rather than a theoretical one. As we learn we will grow in our courage and faith.  the Rev

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Philippians 4:10-10

Learning Contentment

Many people get rich selling their advice on how to be content. Typically the method involves some form of positive thinking which essentially teaches that having faith in your faith will get you what you want. It equates to telling someone to try harder, that any failure or suffering is their own fault (ie a lack of self belief).

Bible is a good place to start

Paul is someone who really has learnt to be content in all circumstances. He wrote a letter about joy while being imprisoned. Contentment is less about a search or a quest and more about a process of learning. The greek word used by Paul means to be self sufficient. To be independent of circumstances.

Learning something worthwhile typically requires effort, discipline, faith and perseverance. Like learning a new language or a musical instrument. There is effort to learn the letters or notes, there is discipline needed to practice, there is faith involved in trying to stretch your abilities in the hope that you will progressively succeed. And there is a need not to give up. Learning to be content is the same.

Learning contentment happens when we make Christ our teacher, our mentor and our Lord. He is the one who will give you the strength to say ‘no’ to your desires so that you can say ‘yes’ to his desire for you. Denying self is a big step towards contentment. It will free you up so that you can think more about Christ and your neighbour. It will free you to serve, to give, to bless without feeling anxious for yourself. Losing your life is the path to learning contentment. the Rev

Learn contentment

The answer to contentment is not the problem. Achieving and maintaining it seems to be my greatest challenge. Contentment from food, achievement, sex, family, friends, hobbies, money,  recreation, holidays is not the answer. It is either hit and miss, short lived or shallow. The answer to contentment is God. Not in terms of Him giving you what you want so that you become content, but rather learning to be content with God Himself. This should make sense because God is loving, faithful, patient, kind, merciful, all powerful, all wise, able to use every circumstance for the good of His children. Life comes from God and is sustained by Him so you shouldn’t be surprised that I’m saying that God is the answer to contentment.

What may surprise you is my confession that I’m finding achieving contentment in God challenging.  Partly my problem is that I’m so strongly drawn towards making myself content using relationships, possessions and experiences that I neglect my relationship with God. The other part of my problem is that I need help to work out just how to enjoy God in the midst of my daily life. By learning to love God I will love people and by loving people I’ll be loving God. Working that out specifically and practically is what I’m finding challenging but I realise that while hard, living my life with and for God is the only way I will be content.  the Rev

Listen to my messages on this theme (Be Content) @ www.gaplifechurch.net/content

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1 Corinthians 10:1-14

Rest

I’m beginning to realise that I may be the frog in the pot with the water that is slowly getting hotter. There is a growing realisation that a lot of busyness needs to come under review. It’s like there are all these things I need to do but when I ask ‘why’ I’m not so certain I can give you a good answer. It’s like starting a project, setting the auto pilot on and then forgetting what the project was for. And now there are all these projects running out of control.

Find a better way to rest

Maybe you feel like you are ‘time’ poor, that you are overwhelmed and tired. Well a lot of my activity is generated from discontent. I want so much I have to work hard to get stuff and then it needs maintaining or upgrading. I seem to run from one thing to another so that there are some nights I don’t sleep well because my mind is anxious and racing.

Wouldn’t it be better to be driven by Christ? He promises that he won’t make us tired, or drive us the way our desires do. In fact he promises that we will find rest in him. The way this works is that you can start having a holiday from having to do, achieve, amass, consume and relate the way your desires tell you to do. You can stop listening to the constant drone of worry. Instead you can start practicing the development of joy. Learning to be thankful and grateful for God’s goodness in your life will lead you to become content with God. You will become less discontent which means you will become less driven by your desires, wants and needs. Denying self, learning to love God and love people is the best way of achieving rest.  the Rev