Lent Day 4

 

Lent Day 4

How often does God call to us? How often do we pass by and not know that God is calling us personally?

We can live close to God our whole lives and even do His will, even minister to him through our compassion and goodness, yet not necessarily recognise that that is what we are doing. 

We may be good, yet we do not know or realise that the source of that goodness is God. God therefore calls to each of us, bidding us to come closer, to open our spiritual eyes to what He wants to show us, to open our spiritual ears to hear Him speak. He wants us to open our hearts, to come to know him better. He wants us to draw close.

Perhaps we are not open to listening to God directly, yet God speaks to us in many ways, through Bible verse, spiritual direction, prayer answered, other people, a Word of Knowledge. Perhaps we think that He does not speak in a direct fashion, that visions are rare, compared to the days of The Old Testament .

Yet listen, faithfully and openly and you might hear Him call you. You can trust that the voice is of God, for God will always speak the truth. You will learn to feel and know its rightness in your whole being, if it speaks true, for a Word of God is pure love. So listen for His call.

Let your heart respond with joy that he is calling you. And indeed answer with love and faith and all your days will be blessed.

Come listen to God and especially this Lent let us listen intently to his call and draw closer.

For he speaks indeed and calls us by our names.

Day 3 of Lent

 

Lent Day 3

What is  truly amazing and comforting for us, is to know that God has allowed us to draw near, for He has chosen us. How amazing that we, so small and often helpless creatures, are loved by God and chosen to know Him. For we are all chosen, because Christ chooses us, as he affirmed when he said, ‘you did not choose me, no I chose you’ John 15:16

How wonderful it feels to recognise this choosing by God. How precious we must each be to Him!

What strength and reassurance we can gain from this knowledge, for even if we feel not good enough or battered by life or the way ahead seems unclear, we can hold on to that truth that God knows us, loves us and chooses us. As we enter another Lent, we can hold this message in our heart's so that on difficult days and in struggling moments, we can keep this truth alight, somewhere in our hearts and find the hope and blessing it brings us, in order to keep going forward on our own unique holy path.

How powerful a message is that?

We are all bid to come close to God. We all have the gift of life waiting to be received.

What an amazing gift beyond words and joy to know that God consecrates us all by His beloved Son's actions and presence and allows us all to be one with the Father and the Son, through the power of the Trinity.

Let us then step closer to God, to know by God's grace that we are chosen and we are loved.

Praise God indeed.

The Second day of Lent

Christ brings life to all. This is His promise and our hope.

Yet first we must seek him. The choice is ours. God speaks to us. He gifts us this promise of life if only we seek him. And Lent is the perfect time to journey deep into seeking God. And as we seek, so we shall find, for this is also promised by Christ himself in the Gospels.

And what greater gift will we find than the gift of life, which is fulfiled and given freely through the path of seeking. As we seek we grow in understanding of the way to life. As we seek God we find Jesus, his Son, waiting with outstretched arms to love us and heal us and give us the Light of Life. 

He leads us on a mystery entering ever more deeply into relationship with the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As we move towards and through the Passion and Resurrection, life is more and more truly revealed to us.

What a gift we receive by choosing to say Yes to God's offer. All we need do is seek.

Ash Wednesday

 Ash Wednesday: The first day of Lent

Can we ever be happy if we cannot feel Christ’s light in our lives? When we feel cut off from it, we are limited, our perceptions and knowledge are limited, we can feel lost and alone. This is when we need to seek Christ’s light shining within us, in order to remember the truth that He is with us always, despite our ability to always feel this is so.

True happiness comes then, from trusting in His light and from following God, where He leads us, even if that is unknown. God will always bless us and help us especially if we trust in him.

So let us never accept a life where Christ’s light does not shine, yet if darkness, difficulties and fear seem to obscure our view, then is the time for courage. Courage begets hope and hope begets trust. Let us always trust then, that we will hold steadfastly to trust in God's aid in all circumstances; in the possibilities we cannot always see.

God will always lift us and help us, in some way. And remember that God has also given us an angel to guide and protect us. God's angel gives us courage to say "Yes. I will follow Him. "

Trust in the Lord; His mercy and His love. 

Let us always seek the light even if it is temporarily obscured. The inner light of God is always there. Amen

 Spiritual Refiections: Living the Holy Way through Lent

We hope to publish reflections through Lent, starting with Shrove Tuesday.

Entering into Lent: Shrove Tuesday

Lent is a time where God bids us look at our relationship with Him. It is easy to talk about God, to say His name and to appear to observe ritual and obey God’s law.....

....yet Lent is a time to truly examine our hearts, to see how much we have really allowed Christ to enter within, whether we have allowed love to fully take seed and grow in us; whether our practice is congruent and true to the living Light of the World or whether we pay more lip service to God’s Word, than being fully alive in the love of the Awesome Mighty Trinity?

This is a time when we can reflect upon how closely we have allowed Jesus to be with us, in our daily lives? Have we let Him in? Can we let Him come closer and do we dare to take the risk of being truly seen. Are we afraid that He might find us wanting, sometimes petty, shallow, insincere or ineffective, grieving, angry, hurt, despairing, fearful or lost in self-importance?

Yet if we dare to take another step toward Him, even if we are not as perfect as we would like to be and even if He finds these things hidden within us, yet still He will make His home with us and He will let His light shine on the truth of our loveliness. For He has told us so and that that is the truth at the centre of our being; we are lovely, for He has made us so and His light will shine on all hurt and all untruth within us and without us, until it is vanished and love alone remains.

Then our worship will be true and then we too will shine in the world for Him, for He will be close indeed and nothing will separate us from that Love. Joy indeed. Praise God for the journey of Lent.

Let us dare to look and see the Truth, that we are loved by Him and we are lovely! Amen

I ask for Wisdom

I ask for wisdom and knowledge, gifts of the Spirit to help me know the Truth in all aspects of my life :

Truth that is radiant

Truth that is pure

Truth that brings hope

Truth that brings joy

This is what I ask today. That I can see and know the truth of things both of the world and spiritually; between the relative truth of things and His Absolute Truth and the wisdom to discern the difference.

Truth is knowing God. God brings us to a place of clear sight. He helps us to feel the goodness that emanates from Truth. He asks us to live in a more congruent way through the validity of truth. He helps us to speak the truth, to stand up for Truth, even if it makes us uncomfortable. In truth to live without it , is a far more uncomfortable, unpleasant place to be.

I ask to shine the Truth today and to speak out. I ask to flow in all goodness that emanates from this knowledge and to be strengthened by my stand.

A reassuring message

At this time of struggle, with so many difficult issues to deal with especially the threat of catching a life-threatening, invisible  virus, it is important to try and hold on to hope. Praying can be a comfort, though we do not always know how those prayers are answered or necessarily have confidence that they have been heard. It is reassuring at such times of doubt or stress or great need, that you can turn to the messages Jesus himself gave us whilst on the Earth.

We trust in His Word, for it is wholly good and lifts our hearts. He tells us to pray in His name. He reassures us that He had to leave us on Earth so that the Holy Spirit can come and be with us and bring us His messages (John 16) and He reassures us that if we pray in His name the Father will give us what we ask for. What hope we have when the Holy Spirit comes to be with us and inspires us in our prayer. What trust we have that we are surrounded by the love of the Father. What grace is upon us if we pray in absolute faith in the Name of Jesus.

So what does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus?  This is surely something to contemplate deeply.

We believe it is to truly enter into the energy and love of Christ; to be in oneness with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to come from spiritual discernment in prayer, to be humble of heart and flow with love not fear. It may take us a life time to truly learn how to pray in His name, allowing the power and love of all Three to flow through us and touch the situation or person we pray for. 

It is surely a journey of discovery, how to truly pray in the name of Jesus and allow your own self to be open fully to the Heart of Love as you pray. All pride and ownership must be let go of then, for it is truly God with you, working through you, bringing the miraculous to the the impossible, to the hopelessness, to the helplessness of our lives.

We must each find our own way to live in Christ, to immerse ourselves in the Trinity, to pray not as we want, but as He is. Amen