A word from God

I've been reading Adrian Plass's An alien at St Wilfrids. At the climax God gives the main character a 7-fold list of things he needs to change in his life. God, give me a 7-fold list of things you want to change in my life. A dangerous request I know, but it’s like the one where one guy asked the other to pray that he might really experience what it means to be crucified with Christ – and that was such a liberating experience.

Well, Michael, says God, first you need to deal with idolatry. Focus on me. You’ll never be your best for me if you continue to dabble in the sin of idolatry. Cut it out. Secondly show a whole lot more patience with your family. Think hard, count to ten and relax before speaking. And then speak in a calm, peaceful manner. Thirdly, focus more on your relationship with me. You’re reading the Bible regularly right now, that’s good. But get deeper. Let it affect your life. And pray. You say that praying for others was your high point of the recent conference you were at. Well, keep up the praying. Yes, it may be more difficult when you’re not in a spiritually charged worship service with your friends, but it’s still just as important. Pray at all times and on all occasions and in all manners. For others. As praise and worship. Pray. Nurture that relationship with me. And fourthly, nurture your relationship with your wife. Your spiritual relationship. Don't forget that the relationship between man and wife is a model of the relationship between Christ and his people. So develop that spiritual relationship. You got Willard’s study guide yonks ago. What about using it? You encourage other couples to pray and worship together. Look to yourself as well. Fifthly, organise your private world better. Show regularity and self-discipline. Sixthly, pursue your calling. I have called you. You are mine. Follow me. I’ve given you many signposts. Don’t get sloppy. I’ve got work for you to do. Follow me. And seventhly, relax. Relax in my love. I want you to be at peace and be a channel of my peace. So relax. You know when you’re relaxed and when you’re not relaxed. When people spend time with you may they come away peaceful, as though they’ve met with a bit of me. And I’m going to give you an eighth one as well: pray for your family. Hold them together in my arms. Be a spiritual leader to them. Lead your children closer to me, into my arms. I’ve a lot for them to do, and I want you to help them start that path. Got it, Michael? Will you obey? Will you follow? Will you put me the first in your life? You’ve defragged the computer. Now defrag your life.

God be merciful to me a sinner

God be merciful to me a sinner. God be merciful to me a sinner. God be merciful to me a sinner.

The illogic of grace as someone put it. If God worked logically he’d zap us all rather quickly; well, me at least. You sin – you get punished. The End. Simple cause and effect. But God chooses to show mercy. He chooses to forgive. He chooses to give me a second chance. And a third chance, and forth, and fifth and 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 etc. The Christian life is not a matter of believing certain things but of living a certain kind of life. A life centred on loving God and responding to his love.

How can I love God? Well, first and foremost, as Scripture says, by doing what he says. “If you love me you will obey my commandments.” So why do I find it so hard to put this key revelation into practice, and so routinely fail to do what I know God wants?

Secondly I can show my love of God by respecting him and all that he has made. If I claim to love God but do not give two hoots for the world he has made and the millions made in his image across the world, I am no more than the Newhaven fog horn letting off steam.

Loving God is not giving mental assent to the “truth” I love God. Loving God is a matter of action. Just as having faith in God is not a matter of giving mental assent to a bunch of doctrines. It is a matter of action. Why do we get so bogged down in the mechanics of the Christian life that we omit to live it? Like having a brand new iPod, and working out as exactly as I can how it works and why it can achieve what it does – but failing to fill my soul with the beautiful music it was designed to produce.

God have mercy on me a sinner. God have mercy of me a sinner. God have mercy on me a sinner.