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Day 5 - Issue 20 - 06/01/17
1 Peter 4:12 NLT
'Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.'
January the sixth is the feast of Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem. It is also Christmas day for the Orthodox and Coptic Church. I have written before of the faith and commitment of the Magi in leaving home, crossing a desert in the hope of finding the sign they looked for. It took a large amount of faith to pursue their interpretation of a cosmic invitation, saddle up and cross a desert in a hope that their faithfulness might be rewarded. Scripture reveals that it was.
I realised some years ago that I had settled too easily into the assurances my Christian faith offered me. For every question I appeared to have an answer, and when challenged I responded by simply arguing my perspective with arrogant confidence. Life’s events subsequently pitched me into a maelstrom in which I became my own greatest inquisitor. I had no desire to abandon God in light of circumstance, yet I could not with integrity repeat parrot-fashion theological statements that made sense to my head while missing my heart by a country mile.
Like the Magi, I had to determine the extent to which I was willing to embrace the discomfort of dislocation. Leave what I had come to love and where I’d sunk my roots, mount up and head in a direction that was as uncertain as the nightly reappearance of my guiding star.
Yet, faith is always a journey, and never a settled location. Once we discover we have settled, we are unlikely to find the essence of God and will merely pursue the form of faithful worship and service with none of the excitement of God’s presence. When I want things settled, ordered, in many ways finalised, the Holy Spirit shows up and, much like the pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21), invites me to get up and journey further. Behind me lay a series of experiences, relationships and learning, all of which provoke me to pursue God wherever he might lead.
QUESTION: Are you willing to follow God, even if that means trials and hardships?
PRAYER: Jesus, you suffered, but you knew the joy that was before you. Help me see the joy of serving you and others.
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By Premier1 Peter 4:12 NLT
'Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.'
January the sixth is the feast of Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Magi in Bethlehem. It is also Christmas day for the Orthodox and Coptic Church. I have written before of the faith and commitment of the Magi in leaving home, crossing a desert in the hope of finding the sign they looked for. It took a large amount of faith to pursue their interpretation of a cosmic invitation, saddle up and cross a desert in a hope that their faithfulness might be rewarded. Scripture reveals that it was.
I realised some years ago that I had settled too easily into the assurances my Christian faith offered me. For every question I appeared to have an answer, and when challenged I responded by simply arguing my perspective with arrogant confidence. Life’s events subsequently pitched me into a maelstrom in which I became my own greatest inquisitor. I had no desire to abandon God in light of circumstance, yet I could not with integrity repeat parrot-fashion theological statements that made sense to my head while missing my heart by a country mile.
Like the Magi, I had to determine the extent to which I was willing to embrace the discomfort of dislocation. Leave what I had come to love and where I’d sunk my roots, mount up and head in a direction that was as uncertain as the nightly reappearance of my guiding star.
Yet, faith is always a journey, and never a settled location. Once we discover we have settled, we are unlikely to find the essence of God and will merely pursue the form of faithful worship and service with none of the excitement of God’s presence. When I want things settled, ordered, in many ways finalised, the Holy Spirit shows up and, much like the pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21), invites me to get up and journey further. Behind me lay a series of experiences, relationships and learning, all of which provoke me to pursue God wherever he might lead.
QUESTION: Are you willing to follow God, even if that means trials and hardships?
PRAYER: Jesus, you suffered, but you knew the joy that was before you. Help me see the joy of serving you and others.