Enemies and prayer Jesus taught his disciples about how his Kingdom works in the Sermon on the Mount (1). In it he gave specific instructions about actions towards enemies. His instructions don’t make any sense unless he’s really my king. The world teaches me to overpower others. I should be allowed to…
Leave a CommentCategory: Energising Spiritual Practices
Actively engaging in the dark parts of the world to bring healing and reconciliation takes energy. It takes more energy than you have. You cannot be an ambassador of reconciliation based in your own strength.
The people through history who go before us and have walked with Jesus as examples of hope and healing are most often people with practices and habits that humbled them to listen to God and follow him. Follow the creator on his mission to reconnect all things. This is what spiritual practices are for.
Spiritual practices create space in our day and habits in our lives to hear God. Time to know how much he adores us and embraces us fully. It’s only in knowing that we are loved and accepted that we can go out and love and serve others without selfishness.
I don’t know who said it but the quote I’ve been hearing in my head the last months is that “We humans need to hear and feel how much God loves us. Once we have that, we can stop doing stupid things to try and feel that love and acceptance from someone else and we can get on with loving other people.”
I think making space to find out that God really does love us is the goal of spiritual practices. Once we have that, we can get on with the reconnecting, peacemaking and reconciling part of God’s mission in his world.
The Christmas season is a reminder that we are not alone, God has entered this world to suffer with us, and overcome the darkness. All are invited to be his people and he will plant in our the seed that becomes the light of the world. This is my prayer…
1 CommentIn response to all of the calls for prayer in the face of violence: Martin Luther King, Jr, “The Answer to a Perplexing Question” (Strength to Love, p 138): “The idea that man expects God to do everything leads inevitably to a callous misuse of prayer. For if God does…
Leave a CommentHey everyone, recently I’ve been listening to “Abide In Christ” by Andrew Murray. Going through the 30 daily reflections of this book has been like a breath of fresh air for my prayer life. If you prefer text, I’m sure you could find a free PDF version through Google. This…
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