Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 1 Samuel 2:2 NLT  No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.    The Lord is uniquely holy. There's no one holy like him. Even a woman of integrity like Hannah wasn't perfect like the Lord. I love the humility of Hannah here. She might have been all proud and self congratulatory. Instead, she worshipped God.   There is no-one besides the Lord. He enabled Hannah to conceive Samuel (with her husband's help!). She gave God the praise. Just think: if Hannah hadn't have been barren before, we probably wouldn't have got her epic hymn of praise to God! So we can be grateful that he works all things out for good, even barrenness. There is no one solid and dependable like God our Rock. 'Lord our Rock, we acknowledge your holiness and ask that you would empower us by your Holy Spirit to be like you. In Christ's name we ask, amen'. 

 Philippians 4:7 ESV   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.    This verse gives some helpful context to the previous one. The previous one basically says 'dont worry; pray!' This verse tells us why? We don't combat anxiety with prayer so we can pay ourselves on our backs. We do so in anticipation of this promise here. God doesn't give us peace only when we pray 24/7 and reach 0% anxiety. I feel like there's a hint of danger in this verse. If God's peace needs to guard us, then we have an enemy who is seeking to steal our hearts and minds. The devil can't have our souls who are in Christ, but he will seek to steal our peacefulness in the Lord. If we trust in Jesus, we're at peace with God, whether we feel like it or not. Yet God wants us to feel at peace in the midst of the devil's onslaughts. We can be with God like a kid hiding behind his dad from the school bully! 'Abba,...

 Philippians 4:6 ESV  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.     I love how the Bible doesn't tiptoe around anxiety. It doesn't offer us a pill to numb the pain. It commands us not to be anxious. I'm glad the Bible gives us a positive alternative to anxiety: prayer! Say for example I'm worried about a lack of work. I can prayerfully apply for jobs instead of laying around worrying. We're not simply to let go and let God. Say we're looking for a spouse for example. They're not going to drop from heaven: as well as praying for them we should look for them. Bear in mind that we may be the answers to our own prayers! If we want God's Kingdom to come, God might call us to call others to put King Jesus on the throne of their hearts. That's not even a 'might' really, it's a definite! 'Gracious God, please forgive us for worrying and disbelieving...

 Psalm 143:10 ESV  Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!    In the past, I have sometimes agonised as I have sought to discern God's will. We can ask God to teach us. His word reveals that we are to trust him and to do as we please, mindful that there's judgement for what we do in the end. If the Lord is our God, we needn't fear his judgment. When we believe in Jesus, we're not judged for punishment, but for how God's going to reward us for our (God given) faith and obedience towards him. Jesus took our punishment on the cross. God's will in summary is for us to love him wholeheartedly, and to love one another as we love ourselves. So if what we're considering isn't loving, it isn't God's will for us. If we have a choice between two legitimate options, we can prayerfully trust God with the outcome of whatever we decide. God doesn't abandon us to our own devices. He pours out his Spirit upo...

Psalm 8:3-4 ESV  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?    There's a lot of talk about mindfulness nowadays. Yet do we ever stop to consider what God himself is mindful of? Amazingly, these verses reveal him to be mindful of us!  When we consider the majesty of the heavenly bodies- sun moon and stars- it should amaze us that God is preoccupied with us. Of course, God is primarily and rightfully concerned with his own glory, for he is worthy, but he loves to display his glory in humble people. The Psalm goes on to prophecy that God himself became a man so that mankind can be reconciled to God. God himself humbled himself to a lower state than angelic. He became human so that we can know God personally.  We can't do justice to an answer to the questions in these verses. We know that we are naturally unworthy of God...

 1 John 4:15 ESV  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.     Who is it who abides in God? We might assume it's religious people who try their best. The Apostle John gives a different definition. All we need to do to abide with God is to confess that Jesus is the Son of God. We might assume that this makes him subservient to God. Yet the Son is equal with the Father. Jesus isn't the Son in the sense that he has a beginning. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He's always been and always will be.  It's through the Son's death on our behalf that we get to abide with God. God loves us. He doesn't save us to leave us to our own devices, but to have communion with him. 'Father God, we confess Jesus as your Son. May you abide in us, even as we seek to abide in you. For your glory we ask this, amen'.  

 Romans 8:1 ESV There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.     Romans seven is about how we continue to struggle with sin as Christians. So Romans 8:1 comes as a breath of fresh air. Despite our sinfulness, we're safe in Christ Jesus.  Romans eight goes on to say that we are to live by the Spirit, not by the flesh. This doesn't mean to say we'll be perfect. Nevertheless, we should be seeking to kill sin with God's help. The devil wants us to feel condemned. Thankfully he only has power to accuse us. God is willing and able to acquit us of the punishment we deserve for our sinfulness. There's no condemnation in Christ. He didn't come to condemn us, but to save us. He will return as Judge, but if we're trusting in him we'll be accepted by him. 'Almighty God, we're so grateful that you don't condemn us when we're in Christ. We entrust ourselves to him. For your honour and praise, amen'. 

 Philemon 1:6 ESV   and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.     I don't think the Apostle Paul is just on about intellectual knowledge in this verse. I think he's wanting Philemon to appreciate that he has everything he needs in Christ. The same is true of us too. Of course, we're to ask God for our daily bread. Yet spiritually, we have every blessing we need in Christ. We can rest in his love. Philemon had a slave before he became a Christian. The slave had run away and become a Christian. Paul urged Philemon to welcome him back as a brother and a servant. There's no slavery in the Kingdom of God. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We're to respect one another as brother and sisters in Christ. 'Gracious Lord, please help us be mindful of all the blessings we have in Christ, in whose name we ask this, amen'. 

 Proverbs 18:10 ESV   The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.    Note that the righteous man's righteousness isn't what makes him safe. It's the name of the Lord that's a strong tower. I'm sure this doesn't mean we use the name of Jesus as a mantra. The name of the Lord Jesus means that God is our Saviour. The truth of those words is what saves us. Because Christ saves us, we are safe. Some people have a form of godliness but deny its power. They're moral people, but they're trusting in their own self righteousness rather than the righteousness of Christ, credited to our bankrupt spiritual accounts. There's no safety in self. What we run to says a lot about us. When we're addicted, we tend to run to whatever our addiction is. The Lord would have us to run to him for refuge. 'Lord our God, may we run to you, and so find safety. In the powerful name of Jesus we ask this, amen'.