Wellbeing Thought for Saturday 6th March 2021

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Saturday 6 March

Desire, discipline, delight

Three key stages in our relationship with God:

Desire: A thirst for God, often after we first become a Christian. But desire is not enough – we need to embrace…

Discipline: This includes thanksgiving, slowing down, being present, celebrating Sabbath, praying, reading the Bible, solitude and silence. Jesus is our supreme example: Often he withdrew to lonely places to be with his Father. Focus on finding the time, the place, the way. Two foundational ways are reading and reflecting on Scripture and speaking to God in prayer and worship. In addition to these two, it is essential to include a regular rhythm of meeting with other Christians to worship, learn and grow together.

It is important to remember that spiritual disciplines are not an end in themselves. They are like a trellis for the vine to provide structure and stability with the goal of producing great grapes. The more we embrace discipline, the more we will experience…

Delight. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37.4).

 

This continual, even daily progression from desire to discipline to delight will help you grow spiritually, no matter how long you have been a Christian.

> How can you start to increase spiritual disciplines in your life?
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Wellbeing Thought for Friday 5th March 2021

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Friday 5 March

The still, small voice

“My sheep listen to my voice.” (Jesus in John 10.27)

We are unlikely to hear God’s voice audibly. Rather, the God who has come to live in us wants to communicate to our spirit by his Spirit.

If we want to learn to listen to God we need to cultivate the spiritual discipline of silence (‘listen’ and ‘silent’ are anagrams!). It begins as an outward discipline but the goal is that it becomes an inward reality. Once we embark on silence we will notice the noise in us, which John Mark Comer describes as ‘a wild beast in desperate need of taming’.

Slowing down, Sabbath and solitude are essential for learning silence so we can hear the ‘still small voice’ of God.

Sometimes we can struggle to hear him because we haven’t yet learned to discern his still voice. At other times, God may have spoken to us, but we haven’t been listening! Perhaps we are looking for him to say something new, when he wants to bring us back to a previous statement we have ignored.

> Take some time to be silent. Welcome God’s presence. Notice if he is saying anything. If not, don’t worry – just enjoy his company.

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Wellbeing Thought for Thursday 4th March 2021

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Thursday 4 March

Listen and learn

The foundational way of God speaking to us is through the Bible (read 2 Timothy 3.16-17). When we read the Bible, we read the Word of God!

Wayne Cordeiro suggests we read the Bible with the SOAP method:

S: Scripture – deliberately pause on a verse or passage.

O: Observation – ask questions about what it’s saying.

A: Application – consider how this Scripture applies to you.

P: Pray – talk to God in the light of what you have found.

God speaks to us personally through the Bible, by his Spirit! Let’s take the time to immerse ourselves in it.

> Take a look at the Youversion Bible app (bible.com) and start one of the many reading plans. We also recommend the Lectio 365 app for daily Bible reflection and prayer.
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Wellbeing Thought for Wednesday 3rd March 2021

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Wednesday 3 March

God’s not in a box!

 

There are so many ways in which we can communicate with God! We will always discover new ways to pray, because can’t box God in!

Elijah was used to seeing God reveal himself in great power. Now, on Mount Sinai, God comes to him in a gentle whisper or a ‘still small voice’ (1 Kings 19.12).

Here are some ways that might help you develop your relationship with God:

  • Read and reflect on Scripture
  • Journal
  • Pray the Lord’s Prayer, taking a phrase at a time as a guide
  • Pray other biblical prayers
  • Sing worship songs to God
  • Pray the Prayer of Awareness or ‘Examen’ (see 26 Feb)
  • Pray set prayers or ‘offices’ such as the daily prayers of the Church of England.
  • Spend time in silence and solitude learning to be still to mediate on Scripture or just bask in God’s loving presence.

> Discover a different way of connecting with God this week!
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Wellbeing Thought for Tuesday 2nd March 2021

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Wellbeing Thought for Tuesday 2 March
A two-way conversation
 
In 1 Kings 17-19 we see how Elijah engages in honest conversation with God. When God asks him twice, “What are you doing here?” it’s not the he doesn’t know the answer! Rather, he is seeking to engage him in an honest conversation. We can lose perspective! How do you answer God’s question, “What are you doing here?”
We can be totally honest with God! Firstly, we’re talking to God our Father. Since God is “our Father in heaven”, we can pray with intimacy and honesty (Father) and at the same time with awe and confidence (in heaven).
Secondly we pray through the Son. We have open access into God’s presence because of Jesus and his sacrifice for us.
Thirdly, we pray by the Spirit. God’s Spirit has come to live inside us and is helping us to pray (read Romans 8.26-27).

> How honest are you with God in your life? Are there areas that you are keeping to yourself or only talking about with others, but not God? Bring them to him now. Speak honestly.

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Working from Rest

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(This is a reflection from the LICC Bible Reading Plan “Working from Rest”. Click here to find out more…)

 

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(Exodus 20:8–11 NIV11-GKE)
The command given the most ‘air-time’ on Sinai details sabbath rest. Through it, the Lord nullifies the entire system of anxious production and the need to ‘get ahead’. Work is placed within limits. One of the results of the current pandemic is that, for many, the boundary between work and rest has become blurred. Constant emails and texts mean we never switch off. Our boundaries have been eroded.
For reflection: What limits might God be asking you to put around work?
Prayer: Thank you for the sabbath and the priority you, Lord, give to rest. Help me to honour that priority. Amen.
———————-
Sabbath rest is communal – it is offered to all sons and daughters, all cattle, all immigrants, all who have left the anxiety-driven system of Pharaoh. God’s people are no longer defined by competition, achievement, production, or acquisition. Their new identity is one of community, relationship, and rest.
For reflection: From where do you draw your sense of identity?
For prayer: Lord, please help me to recognize and affirm my identity as one shaped by community, relationship, and rest. Amen.

Wellbeing Thought for Monday 1st March 2021

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Monday 1 March

Spiritual renewal

 Have you ever allowed your petrol gauge to get into the red zone? Not only could you run out of petrol, you could also damage the engine. The same is true for your spiritual life: If you don’t refill your spiritual tank, you will get depleted on the inside and eventually do damage to every part of your life.

After his spiritual high, when he won a victory over the Baal priests, Elijah the prophet went into a deep hole of spiritual depletion. This can happen to us, too! When we give out without receiving from God for ourselves we can end up with spiritual burnout.

God lovingly restored Elijah. This involved a 40-day journey to Mount Sinai.

The Lord desires us to spend time alone with him. Henri Nouwen wrote, “We don’t take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.”

We live after Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Spirit, so we don’t have to go on a 40-day pilgrimage to do that! We can learn to practice the presence of God in our everyday life.

Thank God today for his presence. Invite him to help you become more aware of him in your everyday life. Consider how you can make time in your daily schedule to seek him. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4.8)

 

Wellbeing Thought for Sunday 28th February 2021

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WEEK FOUR: SPIRITUAL WELLBEING

Sunday 28 Feb

True rest and refreshing

Holidays can be good for our replenishment, but they don’t necessarily satisfy our need for spiritual rest and wellbeing. Saint Augustine famously said, “Your Lord have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find yest in you.” Selwyn Hughes writes, “If God is not satisfying our souls, we will seek something else to satisfy us.”

Our spiritual wellbeing is of critical importance to every other area of our lives.

God’s forgiveness, peace, presence and rest is available to all who accept what Jesus is offering them! The Bible promises that all who believe in and receive Jesus are born again, made spiritually new and alive through his resurrection power.

No matter how long we have been a Christian, we need to keep coming to Christ and ‘drink’ regularly, because – in the words of John Wimber – ‘we leak’!

If you have never experienced Jesus coming into your life, then why not invite him today? You could pray like this: “Lord Jesus, I admit my need of you and invite you to come and forgive me. I believe that you died and rose again so that I could receive new joy, purpose, hope and wellbeing. Please come into my life and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I commit to following you and your ways all the days of my life. Amen.”

If you follow Jesus as your Lord, why not turn this prayer into thanksgiving and recommit your life to him?

 

 

 

Wellbeing Thought for Saturday 27th February 2021

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Saturday 27 Feb

Sabbath

The concept of Sabbath is often misunderstood; it means ‘to stop’. The biblical creation account tells us that God rested on the seventh day – delighting in his creation. Often this biblical command to ‘keep Sabbath’ has been made into an unhelpful, stifling religious duty. Jesus responded to that by saying that ‘the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2.27). It’s a gift from the Creator to his creation. Our goal should be to work from rest, not to rest from work: “People who keep sabbath, live all seven days differently” (Walter Brueggemann).

> Do you take a weekly Sabbath? What could you do on that day that refreshes you?

> Take some time today to review what you’ve learned this week. Which one step could you take into greater emotional wellbeing?

 

Wellbeing Thought for Friday 26th February 2021

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Friday 26 Feb

Slow down to be present

Slowing down is essential but it can be hard. Our fast pace can make us especially vulnerable to burnout if our identity is rooted in what we do rather than who we are. A wise Christian leader counselled a younger one, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

Slowing down is part of becoming the person God has designed us to be. Only when we slow down can we learn to be present.

The Christian approach to mindfulness is being present to the One who is always present to us. It is about learning to ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46.10). The Prayer of Awareness (developed by St Ignatius of Loyola) can be helpful in this. It consists of five steps:

(1) Thanking God for specific good things. (2) Searching my heart for anything that has come between me and God. (3) Reviewing the day just gone – have my actions and circumstances taken me towards God or away from God? (4) Confessing anything that I have become aware of in steps (2) and (3), not allowing any sense of condemnation, but receiving his forgiveness and love. (5) Abiding in God’s presence and love.