Every Day with Jesus

Job’s story is tragic but influential. Ezekiel names him with Noah and Daniel to help illustrate how bad Jerusalem’s situation is, and James references him alongside the prophets to encourage perseverance. Job teaches us about God’s will. In a moment, Job lost his family, went bankrupt and suffered a painful health condition. On his own admission he could not make sense of his life but recognised...

We are born with a seed of purpose sown in our heart. Life experiences cause us to consider laying hold of that seed, yet there’s no guarantee it will germinate and grow. I was 19 before hearing Jesus’ story and accepting His invitation.

It can seem discouraging to recall that from the moment we’re born we are approaching the grave! We can brood on this or live making the most of our time. The pandemic reminded me that worry couldn’t help me since the psalmist says that my life on earth is set by God (Psa. 139:16). Worry can’t add one hour to my mortal vacation (Matt. 6:27). So, I just got on with life. My wife caught Covid, which...

God’s purpose is to reveal His goodness through His disciples. Each has a story of hope for a world consumed by conspiracy theories and negative headlines. We may instinctively expect bad news, or look at life through rose-tinted spectacles, and are shocked with our experience.

God’s kingdom is elusive. Nicodemus’ reasonable request for clear answers to heartfelt questions is met with mystery. The will of God often appears more of a riddle than a solution. We eagerly look to God, yet as easily as the wind passes us by we can miss the moment of His presence. Our whole journey with God is to grow in sensitivity to His Spirit’s movement. We read God’s Word to become familia...

We now turn from God’s Word to God’s will, starting with the Lord’s Prayer. This was Jesus’ response to His disciples’ request (Luke 11:1), the only prayer Jesus gave His followers. It is at the heart of my daily devotions and I pray these words of Jesus several times a day.

Our Farnham offices lie in the shadow of Waverley Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery in Britain. Following the Rule of St Benedict, the monks meditated on Scripture and prayed seven times a day, beginning with Vigils before dawn and concluding with Compline around 8pm. There is a growing interest in monastic communities today as Christians explore ways of living, learning and serving together b...

In critical situations, we call out in an attempt to summon help. God invites us to request His support when challenged. One way to prepare for such situations is to decide where we take our stand; God’s Word or our understanding? We are invited to shelter in God’s shadow (Psa. 91:4) to successfully extinguish temptation the moment it captures our attention. Its fires ignite quickly and rapidly co...

The verses quoted address the hardest aspect of walking God’s way. Jesus says that it’s the character of our heart that determines the quality of our Christian walk (Matt. 15:16–20). So we daily engage with God’s Word to align our heart with Jesus’ instructions. These qualities are also regularly picked up in the epistles, which act as practical instruction manuals for Jesus’ disciples, the first...

One of the great challenges that confronts the Christian is the fact of suffering in the world. Whilst we may question why an all-powerful God allows such adversity, we can see that it is common to all humanity. It’s a mistake to assume that Christian faith itself is sufficient to ward off disappointment and apparent disaster.

In emphasising reading God’s Word daily ( EDWJ’ s purpose), there’s a danger that we assume we’re critical to the understanding and communication of God’s Word. Whilst it’s true that the Word needs proclaiming (Rom. 10:14), God’s creation itself always remains as a clear revelation to His reality (Rom. 1:20). Our challenge is never to lose sight of God’s Word but to order all of life so.

'Goodness’ entered the English language as ‘godnes’, indicating confidence in God’s divine goodness. We always want God to be good to us. Our difficulties arise when what we encounter doesn’t match our imagined path in life: a divorce, loss of a job, an unwelcome health condition.

This week we will conclude our reflections on God’s Word by looking at Psalm 119. It declares that God is all-sufficient and revives our spirit. It begins by inviting us to do three things: to walk in God’s ways (vv1–3), to write Scripture on our heart (vv11–12) and to daily profess it with our lips (vv13–15). In every sandwich, the essential part is the filling; in feeding our heart, Scripture is...

Imagine if you were to drive your car with your eyes fixed on the rear-view mirror. It would be very dangerous for you and others. Yet, many of us live our lives looking backwards, not forwards. We feel safe with what we know and have no real desire to discover the freedom of the unknown. The familiar is comforting; the future uncertain.

We need confidence to navigate life effectively, a confidence in God (Jer. 17:7). It is both the assurance we place in the truth and reliability of someone or something, combined with an ability to rely on it, come what may. It means our glass is always half full! Jesus invites us to live as ‘glass half full’ people, finding God’s goodness in all eventualities of life.

The word ‘apologetic’ suggests an expression of regret for something to someone offended by words or deeds. Add an ‘s’ and we have ‘apologetics’, ‘a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity’.* – not apologising, but offering a clear, reasoned case for Christianity.

One of Jesus’ promises is that in turning to Him we receive rest (Matt. 11:28). A quick Google search reveals the rapid rise in anxiety. Many who experience Long Covid report a degree of personal anxiety that they hadn’t previously known. The media reports an increasing antidepressant use.

We recently had friends around with their five children, the youngest just one year old. As we sat around the room, we had fun adopting the same pose and watching how the baby would pause, look at us and then seek to copy our action; for example, all sitting with our arms in the air.

A Christian disciple is someone who’s been turned around by God’s grace. No longer tossed and blown about by what others think, their deceitful scheming (Eph. 4:14), but rooted in God’s Word from which we draw our daily nourishment (Ps. 1:3). Filled with God’s Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16), we become points of presence so that wherever we find ourselves we can give birth to God’s purpose.

Once we make God’s Word part of our daily diet, we can expect our lives to bear good fruit. Paul lists the fruit as, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’, where forbearance is an old-fashioned word for patience (Gal. 5:22–23).

Yesterday revealed we must build on God’s Word, the foundation for our life. Today we learn that it is also the diet we need for the spiritual stamina to survive our mortal life. Jesus reminded Satan that, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’ (Matt. 4:4). So we are to feed from, as well as to build upon, God’s Word. Failure to fe...

Scripture tells us to always be alert. Our Christian faith is under continual scrutiny and attack (1 Pet. 5:8), from direct assaults on Christianity’s underpinning values to attempts to misinform us through the many distractions presented by a prosperous, free society.

Paul is unashamed to point to his own life as an example of how God calls us to live (v10). I wonder how confident we would be in suggesting that family and friends inspect our lives in detail to discover what the impact of serving God looks like? We know how challenging it is to find consistency in our walk of faith. As Selwyn Hughes constantly stressed, the reality of belief is always measured i...

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit (v1), enters the wilderness – a barren place incapable of sustaining life, where he fasts for 40 days. In Scripture, 40 represents purification. Noah sailed for 40 days whilst God purified the earth; the people of Israel wandered for 40 years as they were purified in order to enter the Promised Land. At this point of His purification, Jesus was tested by Satan. His c...

As a child I remember travelling on steam trains. The engine takes hot steam from a boiler, which expands under pressure and the heat energy is converted into work. It’s much like the life of every disciple. We require the fire of God’s love in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3) to inspire us to live creative lives of service. The fire is maintained by encountering Christ in Scripture and the prayer such...