Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Romans 12:12 ESV Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.  Joy and hope go together like strawberries and cream! It's hard, if not impossible, to be hopeful and miserable at the same time. Christ's resurrection fuels our hope and joy. Patience and tribulation are more like chalk and cheese than fish and chips! Yet if we respond well to troubles, God will develop patience within us. After all, another name for patience is longsuffering- having the strength to suffer long and to bear up under it. How can we have forbearance in the face of suffering? Through the hope of the Gospel. Tribulations aren't the end of the story; resurrection life is. Prayer isn't so much natural as supernatural. Naturally we like to do things in our own strength. Prayer is an acknowledgement of our need of God's strength constantly. 'God of hope, may we rejoice in you as we ought, persevere through troubles, and cry out to you at all times, for we ask in Jesus...

 Luke 6:28 ESV bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  Our gut reaction when someone curses us is to curse them back. If anything, we like to give at least as good as we got. Jesus commands the opposite. Thankfully, an undeserved curse is like a flitting bird: it doesn't alight. It's still unpleasant. Nevertheless, we should respond with grace. When we're abused, we're tempted to abuse our abusers in return. 'Hurt people hurt'. Yet 'healed people heal'. If we know God's blessing and Christ's intercession for us, we will seek to respond in kind. As God has been good to us, we will seek to be good to others. By the Holy Spirit we can do this. 'Blessed God, may we follow in your footsteps and be blessings in this cursed world. For the honour of your name we ask this, amen'.

 Psalm 4:8 ESV  In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Taken in isolation, we might think this verse is telling us that God guarantees a good night's sleep! Elsewhere, Solomon says that managers struggle to sleep well compared to labourers because of all their concerns that keep them up at night. Even though David was king of Israel, he was happy to 'let God be God' and to leave his concerns at the bedroom door and sleep. I don't think we should let this verse guilt trip us if we struggle to sleep. It is true however that we don't need to let worry keep us up at night. Anxiety is pointless, it does nothing good for us. David's circumstances weren't always particularly peaceful. Yet he knew that his spiritual peace with God wasn't dependant on what was going on in his life. He had a conflicted life humanly speaking, but he was secure in God's love. We don't have to become monks or nuns to enjoy pea...

 Ephesians 2:10 ESV For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. It is by grace we are saved, through faith. Nevertheless, that grace is accompanied by works as evidence that we truly are saved. If we claim to have faith but have no works to prove it, we betray the fact we're frauds. God created us to do good works. Like men create robots to work for them, God has created us to glorify him in our lives. We do so by loving him and one another. Our works don't earn our salvation. They simply show that we are genuinely saved. Even the dying thief rebuked the other criminal for cursing Jesus in their dying moments. God has already prepared our good works beforehand. All we need to do is to walk in them. So there's no room for boasting. 'Father God, please help us to walk in the works you have prepared in advance for us to do. For the honour of Jesus we pray, amen'.

 Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, and follow your heart's desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do. Ecclesiastes 11:9 GNT This is a surprising verse. We might expect the wisest man apart from Jesus to call us to self denial. Instead, he appears to condone and even recommend self-indulgence! To be honest, the first half of this verse has to be tempered by the second half. Solomon isn't simply being licentious. He's calling us to have mindfulness.  I'm reminded of Jesus saying that he came to give us abundant life to the full. God isn't a killjoy. He is however, the Judge of humanity. As an illustration, we're free to learn to drive. If we drive dangerously however, we will be judged. If earthly authorities judge inappropriate behaviour, how much more does Almighty God?! 'Sovereign Lord, thank you for the freedom you give us to enjoy life. Help us though to consider the i...

 Psalm 86:1 ESV  Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. David was the lion, giant and enemy slaying warrior king of Israel. Yet for much of his young adult life he was chased around the wilderness by murderous, incumbent king Saul like a partridge in the mountains. He knew what it was to feel poor and needy. Even as king, David's son sought to usurp his throne and he had to flee for his life. Understandably he will have felt helpless. Even unbelievers sometimes resort to prayer when in trouble, how much more the 'man after God's own heart'?! God needs to incline to us. As the Most High God, he has to condescend to look out for us. For us to be condescending is arrogant. For God to condescend to answer our prayers is merciful and gracious. We know from David's life story that God answered David's prayer. Even though David was guilty of murder and adultery, God didn't give up on him. David repented and ultimately never gave up on God...

 James 4:7 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Submission seems like a dirty word to today's society. Yet it simply means to defer to another. If we refuse to submit to God that's infinitely more foolish than an ant having deference towards an anteater! If we're struggling spiritually, and even if we think we're doing well, we should submit to God. Without him, we can do nothing. With him is victory. The devil is a coward. Jesus's half brother James promises us that if we resist him, he will flee from us. We're not to be cowardly towards him. Sinning isn't inevitable for the believer. If we consider who we are in Christ and that the devil is under our feet, we will be more victorious. We can and must say no to satan's temptations. 'God Almighty, may we submit to you, resist the devil, and be victorious in Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray, amen'.

 Matthew 13:24-30 ESV Jesus put another parable before them, saying,  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.  And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him,  ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’  He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’  So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” Today, I heard an application of this parable that I'd never heard before. When Jesus talked about ...

 Galatians 6:14 ESV But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  Lots of people boast about lots of things. These include money, sex and power. The Apostle Paul was an intelligent man, but he didn't boast in his intellect.  The Apostle Paul determined not to boast except in the cross of Jesus. It's only by God's grace that we succeed. God's grace is supremely demonstrated at the cross. To boast in self is arrogant. We can't do anything outside of the grace of God. Only by Christ's death for us can we thrive. Paul wasn't allowed self congratulatory about his ministry. It was all for the glory of God. Because Jesus died for us, we should live to make him famous.  'Father God, may we only boast in Christ crucified, in whose name we pray, amen'.