Hope For Today

Dear Friends,  Biblical fiction is one of my favourite genres to read, and Paula Gooder's book, "Phoebe" did not disappoint me. I really enjoyed reading the imaginative account of Phoebe. Phoebe is a deacon mentioned briefly in Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. In Paula's book, Phoebe journeys from Corinth to Rome to bring the Christians there a letter from Paul. It turns out that Rome was Phoebe's childhood home and we learn that there is another reason why Phoebe needed to return to Rome. At the end of the book, Phoebe prepares to visit Spain to spread the good news there. But it's not just a physical journey she embarks on as she also has a spiritual journey to take. The friendships she makes in Rome help her to grow spiritually, to receive God's love for her in a deeper way, to open her heart to being loved by others, to receive healing from her past and to also give and receive forgiveness. Some of the characters, such as Pa...

Dear Friends, I recently finished reading 'Made Like Martha' by Katie M Reid.  This book is based on a passage in the Bible about two sisters, Martha and Mary. The account of these two sisters can be found in Luke 10:28-42.  In her book, Katie, who would describe herself as a Martha character, explains how being made like Martha is not actually a bad thing. For too long Martha has been described in a negative way as opposed to her sister, Mary, who is held up as the ideal. Katie's book shows how we can learn good things from both these characters.  Katie writes: "Jesus never asked Martha to be Mary, and he didn't ask you to be either. he simply pointed out that you do not have to serve from a place of striving and worry, because he is already enough for you."   That will come as a relief to many of us! In her book, Katie writes about two mentalities. First, the hired help mentality which is a wrong mindset many of us have. We believe we...

Dear Friends, God - Our Ultimate Father This coming Sunday, Father's Day, can be a difficult day for many people, for a variety of reasons. Some may have never known their father, others may not have had a good father, for others their father may no longer be with them. Perhaps you are one of those who finds the day hard.  Today, I want to focus on God, our ultimate Father. No matter what our experience has been concerning our own father, God is available to each one of us as a good and loving father. His desire is for each of us to know what it truly means to be his child and to know him as Father. We all have some idea of what a good father looks like. The good news is that God exceeds and goes beyond that picture we have. He is the only truly good, loving and perfect Father. Psalm 103 gives a lovely description of God as our ultimate Father. 1 Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. 2 Let all that I am pra...

Dear Friends, I can't, but you can, Lord For a few years now I've become more interested in contemplative prayer and it is changing the way I pray. One form of contemplative prayer is breath prayers. These are great to pray at various moments during the day and help to bring me back to an awareness of God's presence with me. I recently read the novel 'Sensible Shoes' by Sharon Brown and I've utilised a breath prayer which came from this book. The prayer is this: "I can't, but you can, Lord." When I face new situations or need to move out of my comfort zone, fear can be a natural emotion for me. I'm so quick to think such thoughts as: "I can't do this. I'm not good enough. This is beyond me. I'll fail." Perhaps you too feel and think similarly when you face the unknown. The above prayer is really making a difference in the way I live and respond to different situations. First, I acknowledge I am not ab...

Dear Friends, From Lament to Praise Last week I wrote a post about ME Awareness. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week so I wanted to write a post which relates to this. Some of you will know I have spent several months in the book of Psalms, reading, meditating and praying them. They have been and continue to be such a blessing to me as I suffer from depression. I have found that the psalmists express so well my thoughts and feelings. Today I want to share with you one psalm in particular. It is Psalm 102 from The Passion Translation: "A prayer for those who are overwhelmed and for all the discouraged who come to pour out their hearts before the Lord." 1 Lord, listen to my prayer! Listen to my cry for help! 2 You can’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Stoop down to hear my prayer and answer me quickly, Lord! 3–4 For my days of happiness have gone up in smoke. My body is raging with fever, my heart is sick, and I’m ...

Dear Friends, ME Awareness Week Last week (6th - 12th May) was ME Awareness Week and I had planned to write a blog post about ME from a personal perspective. However, as we know, life doesn't always go according to plan and I wasn't able to blog last week. At first I felt frustrated at missing out on doing this, but then, I believe, God reasoned with me and so I came to see that there is no reason why I cannot share about it a week later. I believe that having Awareness Weeks for various physical and mental illnesses are incredibly important. As a society we need to be more aware of what others face, we need to understand better their struggles and learn how we can support them and show compassion for them in their difficulties. Whilst awareness weeks are good, let's not stop talking about these things when the week is over, but let's continue to talk and be open. It's not always easy to share because it means allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. But when ...