Author: missionspaul

Happy Mother’s Day!

I have been moved to read this morning the story of Hudson Taylor’s mother. Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) is widely known for his missions work in China. But it was his mother that sustained him through her continual prayers for him. The whole world acknowledges him for the hundreds of missionaries that followed him to China and the thousands and thousands of Chinese who would come to Christ through his ministry. And all of that would never have happened without a praying mother.

In my own family every one of us know who the intercessor is. Our mother. It’s what she does. She never lets go of God for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren!

It seems that mothers pray but they also teach their children to pray from an early age. They teach them prayers to pray at bedtime and around the dinner table. The quote of Psalm 22 from Jesus on the cross was one of his childhood prayers Mary had taught him to recite. Can you imagine the impact that had on his mother as she heard her dying son pray their prayer? Can you see her anguish? Hold it right there and let us read Jesus words in our next verses today …

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7 v 7-8)

And here’s what it means …

Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Asking is petitioning and demanding; Seeking is getting to the bottom of a matter and striving; Knocking is to beat down a door.. Jesus is not advocating for some sweet nice prayers. This is determined, persistent, longing heart ache prayers.

Hudson Taylor departed for China in 1853 and his mother was there to say goodbye at the docks in Liverpool. And from his journal we read this:

“My beloved, now sainted mother, had come over to Liverpool to see me off. Never shall I forget that day, nor how she went with me into the cabin that was to be my home for nearly six long months. With a mother’s loving hand she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side and joined in the last hymn we should sing together before parting. We knelt down and she prayed—the last mother’s prayer I was to hear before leaving for China. Then notice was given that we must separate, and we had to say good-bye, never expecting to meet on earth again.

For my sake she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted, and she went ashore giving me her blessing. I stood alone on deck, and she followed the ship as we moved toward the dockgates. As we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish wrung from that mother’s heart. It went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully, until then, what “God so loved the world” meant. And I am quite sure my precious mother learned more of the love of God for the perishing in that one hour than in all her life before.” (Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secrets by Howard and Geraldine Taylor. Discovery House, 1990, Pages 33-34.)

The anguish of a mother’s prayer needs to touch our hearts today as we pray for our world.

Twenty years ago I led my church through a time of earnest prayer impacted by what I had found coming from one of David Wilkerson’s sermons on Nehemiah. It was dated 15^th September 2002.

Here is the clip that you can hear his prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUh2xLmJy4

And this is an excerpt of the transcript:

And I look at the whole religious scene today and all I see are the inventions and ministries of man and flesh. It’s mostly powerless. It has no impact on the world. And I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church, rather than the church impacting the world. I see the music taking over the house of God. I see entertainment taking over the house of God. An obsession with entertainment in God’s house; a hatred of correction and a hatred of reproof. Nobody wants to hear it any more. Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? Whatever happened to anguish in the ministry? It’s a word you don’t hear in this pampered age. You don’t hear it. Anguish means extreme pain and distress. The emotions so stirred that it becomes painful. Acute deeply felt inner pain because of conditions about you, in you, or around you. Deep pain. Deep sorrow. The agony of God’s heart. We’ve held on to our religious rhetoric and our revival talk but we’ve become so passive. All true passion is born out of anguish. All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish. You search the scripture and you’ll find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation… He would share His own anguish for what God saw happening to His church and to His people. And He would find a praying man and take that man and literally baptize him in anguish. You find it in the book of Nehemiah. Jerusalem is in ruins. How is God going to deal with this? How is God going to restore the ruin? Now folks, look at me… Nehemiah was not a preacher, he was a career man. But this was a praying man. And God found a man who would not just have a flash of emotion. Not just some great sudden burst of concern and then let it die. He said: “No. I broke down and I wept and I mourned and I fasted. And then I began to pray night and day. Why didn’t these other men… why didn’t they have an answer? Why didn’t God use them in restoration? Why didn’t they have a word? Because there was no sign of anguish. No weeping. Not a word of prayer. It’s all ruin. Does it matter to you today? Does it matter to you at all that God’s spiritual Jerusalem, the church, is now married to the world? That there is such a coldness sweeping the land? Closer than that… does it matter about the Jerusalem that is in our own hearts? The sign of ruin that’s slowly draining spiritual power and passion. Blind to lukewarmness, blind to the mixture that’s creeping in. That’s all the devil wants to do is to get the fight out of you and kill it. So you won’t labor in prayers anymore, you won’t weep before God anymore. You can sit and watch television and your family go to hell. Let me ask you… is what I just said convicting to you at all? There is a great difference between anguish and concern. Concern is something that begins to interest you. You take an interest in a project or a cause or a concern or a need. And I want to tell you something. I’ve learned over all my years… of 50 years of preaching. If it is not born in anguish, if it had not been born of the Holy Spirit. Where what you saw and heard of the ruin that drove you to your knees, took you down into a baptism of anguish where you began to pray and seek God. I know now. Oh my God do I know it. Until I am in agony. Until I have been anguished over it… And all our projects, all our ministries, everything we do… Where are the Sunday school teachers that weep over kids they know are not hearing and are going to hell? You see, a true prayer life begins at the place of anguish. You see, if you set your heart to pray, God’s going to come and start sharing His heart with you. Your heart begins to cry out: “Oh God, Your name is being blasphemed. The Holy Spirit is being mocked. The enemy is out trying to destroy the testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness and something has to be done.” There is going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening, until we are willing to let Him once again break us. Folks, it’s getting late, and it’s getting serious. Please don’t tell me… don’t tell me you’re concerned when you’re spending ours in front of internet or television. Come on. Lord, there are some that need to get to this alter and confess: “I am not what I was, I am not where I am supposed to be. God I don’t have Your heart or Your burden. I wanted it easy. I just wanted to be happy. But Lord, true joy comes out of anguish.” There’s nothing of the flesh that will give you joy. I don’t care how much money, I don’t care what kind of new house, there is absolutely nothing physical that can give you joy. It’s only what is accomplished by the Holy Spirit when you obey and take on His heart. Build the walls around your family. Build the walls around your own heart. It will make you strong and impregnable against the enemy. God, that’s what we desire. AMEN

This is anguish. Jesus wants us to have the anguish of Mary. The anguish of his own heart. Ask, seek and knock. Don’t give up.

“Why should anyone hear the gospel twice until everyone’s heard it once?” Oswald J Smith

This quote from a Canadian Pastor, author and missions leader sums up this blog and explains the saying of Jesus:

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (Matthew 7 v 6)

Jesus has warned of hypocrisy andt has just said that once we deal with the plank in our own eye we can be best placed to help someone else with the speck in theirs. But help we should.

In balancing all this up Jesus reminds us that there are some people who are just really difficult people.

You don’t want to be a dog or a pig for that matter in the generation of the Sermon on the Mount. To describe anyone like these animals was an insult. Dogs (Psalm 59:14-15) are wanderers looking for food and pigs (Psalm 80:13) are scavenging whatever is before them. Both animals destroy, walk over and ravage whatever is in front of them.

I love fillet steak. It is for me the best most succulent cut. I simply love it. I would never throw fillet steak to even a pet dog which over the years is very different to the dogs of Jesus day. Nor would I put it in the swill for the pigs.

Jesus is saying the same thing about pearls which could refer to the Sermon on the Mount teaching, the keys of the kingdom, His message.

This is a practice of discernment. You are not writing people off but you are discerning whether the person will receive what you have to say regarding helping them become a follower of Jesus. It is discernment within judgment.

And so back to the opening quote. How many more times are dogs and pigs going to be offered pearls when all they do is waste it? How many more times are you going to keep on feeding people who have no intention of changing, of growing and becoming like Christ when all along there are people waiting to hear God’s word from you?

When I look back on my years as a Pastor I roll my eyes at the hours and hours spent on some people who were never going to be held accountable and grow as a disciple, One of the things I would tell my younger self is be careful who I give my pearls to. Seek discernment more. Share your fillet steak with people who are going to appreciate it.

One of my favourite cartoon characters has got to be Charlie Brown. The Peanuts cartoons are so funny because they carry messages that hit at the heart of our lives. For example: In one cartoon strip, Charlie Brown’s best friend, Linus, asks his eldest sister Lucy, “Why are you so anxious to criticise me?” Lucy responds, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.” To that Linus snaps, “What about your own faults?” Lucy in her self-righteousness responds, “I have a knack for overlooking them.”

“It’s far easier to call someone else a hypocrite than it is to admit you’re one.” Carey Nieuwhof

Here’s what Jesus said next, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7 v 3-5)

This week I was involved in interviewing candidates for the ministry on zoom. I sat there at my desk wearing my nice shirt and playfully commenting on the attire of my colleagues who were interviewing with me. Commenting on their lockdown hair, their flowery shirt or boring non-colourful jumpers, their backdrop, showing off their enormous library or just a blank wall. It was fun. There I was with my nice shirt judging others and then I stood up to give my colleagues a laugh which revealed I had been wearing shorts throughout the interviews. Thank God for zoom!

The cartoon and my story are funny and so is the image that Jesus portrays. The message however is not, many are hurt today maybe even outside the Church that they used to belong to because of a plank pointing at their speck!

As Mahatma Gandhi famously (and sadly) said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” The problem the Church has is not that we are unknown the world around us but it is because we are known by people who don’t like what they see.

We need the Church to stand up and say ‘hey its okay, you think you’re bad, look at me, I’m wearing shorts!’

So what is needed?

We need more self-awareness

We naturally just don’t see our faults. We don’t hear the tone of our voice, the words we use, the look on our face. We don’t see our repeated actions, our addicted ways and the damage we do to ourselves and to others. We don’t see the attitude, the self-centredness nor the self-righteousness. There is no awareness. We cannot see the plank. “Search me O God …”

We need more vulnerability and integrity

I don’t know about you but I actually wouldn’t want someone trying to do eye surgery on me who didn’t know what they were doing! Neither would I want someone approaching me unable to see because of a plank in their eye trying to locate the speck they say they had seen in mine. I want someone to come to me and say, “Hey! I’ve been here and actually my life was worse. I had to deal with something far bigger than what is wrong in your life. This is how I got rid of my plank. Now let me help you.”

We need to slow down our response

Responding seems to be more measured, taking the whole into account, there seems to be time for a pause, a deep breath and think. Reaction seems rushed, there is no time for anything measured and can easily become an overreaction. Did you ever consider that the way you react to someone’s fault may be a worse “sin” than the “sin” you are trying to correct?

“Are you wearing shorts Paul? Then why are you making fun of someone’s jumper?”

Meghan is a _______; Piers is a _______; Trump is a _______; Ravi Zacharias was a _______.

And we reduce that person down to 50 years of their life or to that 5 minute conversation we had with them and bring their name, the person they are or was to a conclusion.

It is easy to do that from a distance. We are probably never going to meet Meghan, Piers, Trump and we will never meet the dead.

But we do it to those closer.

That neighbour is a _______; my last church was a ______; my new Pastor is a ______; my boss is a _______;

Uncomfortable that this is, Jesus takes his sermon away from the hypocrisy and anxiety of this world to how we treat people.

He doesn’t warn us of discernment. We should do that with all the named people above. Neither is it to come to the conclusion that someone is indeed guilty. That again applies to any list of names that we have. So let’s see what Jesus says:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7 v 1-2)

It is to stand in the place of God, the final authority on all things and speak as if God was speaking.

Don’t send people to hell.

Don’t write people off.

Don’t dismiss a person as worthless.

Don’t cut off a return back to the good.

This is not just to do to others as we would want to have done to us.

But rather because we have not been written off we act in the same way and leave room for mercy and grace. Equal measure.

Anyone who has worked with me knows about my to-do lists. You probably have them yourself. I feel safe when I have my list because I know I haven’t missed anything. I have covered everything even the need to write another to-do list for tomorrow!

We know the saying, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you should do today” or some variant of that. So we make lists of all the things that cannot wait so that we cannot be accused of procrastination. We feel satisfied.

That is until we realise that our today is so full of things to do and people to call and places to be that it has become a hugely manic day that we hardly have the time to breathe in. The adrenaline rush of getting the things done on our list only urges us to work harder and faster to get to the bottom of the list. However we often end the day discouraged because the to-do list is never completed.

Jesus has something to say about this, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6 v 34)

The enemy of your soul is out to attack your today. He’s not interested in tomorrow but today. He’s planning to mess it up, cause problems, to do everything he can to make it into a bad day. He uses yesterday to do that and he knows if he can destroy today he has broken your tomorrow.

But God wants to keep today good. At the beginning of time at the end of each day God saw that it was good. He loves today. He loves the opportunity of now.

He’s interested in the right now, this day. The most important time for God is now. In partnership with God we must work at keeping today good. Despite the circumstances and situations that are not good. To get to the end of this day and be able to look upon our Lord and say ‘It is well with my soul’ ‘Today has been a good day for He provided for all that I needed within it and He will do the same tomorrow.’

If we spent less time worrying about tomorrow and more time keeping today good then we would be better prepared for tomorrow.

I have learnt the hard way that there are things that I must put off for tomorrow because they will ruin my day if I tried them today. My to-do list is not daily anymore. I don’t just focus on my next 24 hours. I take control of what is demanding my attention and place it in the tomorrow of my life. That maybe the next day, week or even month. I do it so that my day is protected and I have space to breathe, to look up and to speak to Jesus. Once I master this then the anxiety of what needs doing is placed securely away from my mind.

So that’s it. 10 ways to help you not worry. They all involve writing things down. I find once it is on paper (I still have to physically write) then my mind can relax. That what could cause worry is there in my notebook and not taking head space because I am afraid I will forget it. Then I can enjoy my day. People ask me why I don’t seem to worry. My answer is this: all my worries are in my notebook and not in my brain. My thoughts are about the activity of today and doing my best to keep it good. If I do worry today it will be that I lose my notebook of worries!

10 ways to help you not worry

1. Write down your decisions. Jesus says, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? (Matthew 6 v 25) Therefore … The verses prior to this Jesus has instructed us on treasures, eyes and masters. There are decisions of the heart, the eyes and that of our lifestyle that will impact on whether we worry or not. This is an uncertain world we live in and the decisions we make are crucial.

2. Write down your VALUE

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6 v 26) In overcoming your worry the value you place upon yourself is crucial. Answering the question what does God say I am will help when perhaps circumstances and people are impacting negatively on your value.

3. Write down what you KNOW is true.

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6 v 27) Jesus is not advocating a care-free, careless life. But he is saying anxiety will not change anything that cannot be changed. So write down what you KNOW. Write down what is certain and what you can control and what is not certain and uncontrollable.

4. Write down your self-awareness of who you are.

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin.” (Matthew 6 v 28)Worry won’t stop until you have lost all self-awareness of who you really are. Let who you are be enough. Flowers just flower. Take your eyes off who you aren’t and what you don’t have and be comfortable in your own skin.

5. Write down the person you want to be.

“Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.”(Matthew 6 v 29) One of the effects of worry is causing you to think you are not capable to deal with what may happen next. If you don’t know who you are and who you are journeying to become then you will always be disabled by the thoughts you will not have enough and be enough in that situation.

6. Write down in big letters GOD CARES

It is absolutely essential that you build in and around your life the evidence that you truly believe that God cares for you. The Bible is packed full of verses that God cares. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? (Matthew 6v 30)

7. Write down what you need

“So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” (Matthew 6 v 31) Whenever I have told my children not to worry about something it is because I have had a greater confidence in their future than they have. Basically I know I will be there for them. I will resource them. I will be there. The voices around you and within you may sound an uncertain message and yet God is for you and with you and the One who saw your beginning will make a way to the end.

8. Write down what you know about your Heavenly Father

Jesus says, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6 v 32) In battling those anxious, worrying thoughts, there is nothing better than the Word of God. If Jesus used it in his temptations then surely we should too! On the door of my study for many years I had written down lots of verses of what the Bible said God is and who I am; I wrote down my decisions, my value, what I knew to be true, my self-awareness of who I was, the person I wanted to be, the evidence that God cared for me and what I needed. I thought if Habakkuk had to write it down (2:2) then so should I.

9. Write down what is of most importance.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6 v 33) The time has come to declutter. You need to simplify. Strip back the many things in your life for the important one. To seek first His kingdom. This is your priority. Stop chasing and start being who God has made you. Being right in who you are and what you do is to seek His righteousness. Write down what comes first.

10. Write down a list for tomorrow

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6 v 34) If we spent less time worrying about tomorrow and more time keeping today good then we would be better prepared for tomorrow.

WRITE IT DOWN!

Yesterday a Pastor was sharing a short devotional word in one of my regions prayer meetings. He is nearing retirement but you wouldn’t know it looking at his energy. He described how desperate he has been for a word from God for his church. So much so that for 25 days last month he spent every afternoon on his face before God in prayer until he got his breakthrough and heard what he should do. I tell you this as I read this next sentence from Jesus as he guides us away from worrying.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6 v 33)

Your circumstances may mean you cannot give up 25 afternoons in prayer but you can find a way instead of worrying to choose the prayer Jesus taught us, ‘Let your kingdom come’.

Is your kingdom one of sweat, toil, pain and headache, where there is much effort and little return? Are you worrying about many things? Then write down what is most important. For the famous Jesuit, Thomas Merton, it was to desire God. He wrote this prayer that anyone can pray:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in solitude)

St Augustine said, “God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands our full – there’s nowhere for Him to put it.” The time has come to declutter. You need to simplify. Strip back the many things in your life for the important one. To seek first His kingdom. This is your priority. Stop chasing and start being who God has made you. Being right in who you are and what you do is to seek His righteousness. Write down what comes first.

A couple of weeks ago and what prompted me to dwell on these verses from Jesus, someone said to me, “You don’t ever seem to worry.”

I hadn’t thought about it before. I was worried that I didn’t know whether I worried!

I know I get tired. I know I get annoyed. I know so many things about me that I wouldn’t want to put in print. But the truth is, I don’t seem to go through those bouts of anxiety that cripple some. It isn’t because life has been easy and I have had everything I have ever wanted. But I think it is because of what I have been sharing in these last several days in writing things down.

I remember one season of my life as a Pastor of a church I was feeling pressure to be somebody; I was worrying about the church income; there were criticism coming in; I faced a tribunal from someone who shared the ministry with me; and I knew anxiety was taking over. So on the door of my study I had written down lots of verses of what the Bible said God is and who I am; I wrote down my decisions, my value, what I knew to be true, my self-awareness of who I was, the person I wanted to be, the evidence that God cared for me and what I needed. I thought if Habakkuk had to write it down (2:2) then so should I.

In our next verse, after telling us not to worry about what we need, Jesus says, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (Matthew 6 v 32)

The Message says, “People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.”

In battling those anxious, worrying thoughts, there is nothing better than the Word of God. If Jesus used it in his temptations then surely we should too!

So here are some of the things on the back of my study door which I have still kept in my files. Here are some of the things I would read before I opened the door to face my world at that time.

THIS IS WHO I WORSHIP TODAY ….

Jehovah-tsidkenu (Jer 23:5-6 God our righteousness) = This name reveals how only He can restore me to Himself.

Jehovak-m’kaddesh (Lev 20:8 The Lord who sanctifies) = He lives within me to empower me to live a holy life.

Jehovah-Shalom (judges 6:24 God is Peace) = God has brought peace and contentment and satisfaction between Himself and me.

Jehovah-Rophe (Isaiah 53 God heals) = He cures or heals me not only in physical terms but spiritual and moral)

Jehovah-Jireh (Genesis 22:14 The Lord who sees) = He knows my needs and makes provision.

Jehovah-nissi (Exodus 17:18 God my banner) = God is my battle deliverer.

Jehovah-rohi (Psalm 23 God my Shepherd) = He feeds, leads, protects and cares for me.

THIS IS WHO I AM FOLLOWING TODAY?

He is Spirit                  –           He has no body, Therefore He is invisible.

He is Changeless        –           He is no different today to how He was 2000 years ago, 4000 years ago to the beginning of time.

He is Omnipotent      –           God never uses the word impossible. His power is unlimited.

He is Omniscient        –           He is a know it all. He knows everything.

He is Omnipresent     –           He can never be confined to one place. He is everywhere.

He is transcendent    –           He is beyond and not contained by what He has created.

He is eternal               –           God sees all the picture. Sees the past, present and future time.

He is Holy                   –           He is different and separate to anything else.

He is Love                   –           He loved and gave His Son.

He is Wisdom             –           He does the right thing in the right way at the right time for the right purpose.

THIS IS WHO IS ABOVE, BEYOND, BEHIND AND ALONGSIDE ME TODAY

Psalm 8              –           He has set the moon and stars in place

Psalm 29          –           The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.

Psalm 33          –           He gathers the waters of the sea into jars.

Psalm 46          –           He has brought desolations on the earth

Psalm 47          –           He reigns over the nations

Psalm 68          –           The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands

Psalm 89          –           ‘who is like you O Lord God Almighty?’

Psalm 93          –           You are from all eternity

Psalm 97          –           Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side.

Psalm 68:35                You are awesome O God in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Where is He?   =          In His Sanctuary

Where is He?   –           In this Church

Where is He?  =          In my life

1 John 4:4                    HE that is in ME is greater than he that is in the world.

It didn’t mean that I didn’t ask for wisdom to make the right decisions. We have to take responsibility for our lives and be good stewards. We need accountability to talk to friends about what we are doing. But I found that the more I knew about my Heavenly Father the less I worried.

Write it down … I hope it helps you as it has me.

The Global Report on Food Crisis 2020 reported the highest global number of acutely food-insecure people on record. It revealed 135 million people in 55 countries and territories were in need of urgent food, livelihood and nutrition assistance as a result of conflict, weather extremes or economic shocks.

Can you imagine 135 million people in front of you?

I have had the immense privilege of visiting 2 famines with aid where on the minds of everyone were food, water and clothing. I will never forget both occasions. Would I go again if given the opportunity? Without a thought I would go, for many reasons.

Famine is the extreme. We must not turn a blind eye for in doing so we will be disadvantaged.

But on the hillside that day of Jesus’ sermon, though they were not in a famine, there were many worrying about tomorrow.

“So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” (Matthew 6 v 31)

They ate off their fields. What I planted will it grow?

They lived in a difficult terrain and there were areas of wilderness that made their journeys difficult. Will I be able to sustain myself for this journey?

They made their own clothes. Will what I made protect me for this next season?

Jesus’ instruction is how to live with uncertainty.

These questions are not from selfish or greedy people grabbing at more. These are people with needs but where their world is uncertain.

Are you living with uncertainty today?

Many can find themselves uncertain from all they knew, from people they loved and their purpose for life. Uncertain about their past and future whilst trapped in the grip of an enemy. Uncertain about who they are and where they fit into this life.

The things you face today and the uncertainty of your life may have chased you into a place where you are now surrounded by enemies of fear, doubt and of pain.

Those around you may not know how things will become certain for you or how you will get free from this enemy plaguing your life.

Why does Jesus tell us not to worry?

Whenever I have told my children not to worry about something it is because I have had a greater confidence in their future than they have. Basically I know I will be there for them. I will resource them. I will be there.

The voices around you and within you may sound an uncertain message and yet God is for you and with you and the One who saw your beginning will make a way to the end.

Finally, think on what the minister Matthew Henry (1662-1714) said after being robbed:

Lord, I thank You:
That I have never been robbed before.
That although they took my money, they spared my life.
That although they took everything, it wasn’t very much.
That it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.

Right now, write down your needs based on: a) will what I have invested grow? b) will I get to where I want to be? c) will I survive the journey?

And know that the One who told you not to worry is alongside you and also waiting for you tomorrow.

And if it helps … be thankful you are not one of the 135 million today!

But even if you are … be thankful that if God is anywhere in the world right now He is definitely with you!

Every anxious thought is an attack on your faith that God cares for you.

It is absolutely essential that you build in and around your life the evidence that you truly believe that God cares for you. The Bible is packed full of verses that God cares.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? (Matthew 6v 30)

How much more!

A little while ago I felt inspired to write a message to myself from God. It is inspired by the many Bible verses I have either written down or underlined telling me that God cares for me. I simply entitled it A letter from God. I hope it encourages someone today …

I am one who comforts you. I bought you and complete you. I delight in you and claim you as my own, rejoicing over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. I will never fail you or forsake you.

Your death is swallowed up in victory. I disarmed the evil rulers and authorities and broke the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Your citizenship is in heaven. Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you where I will remove all of your sorrows, and there will be no more death or sadness or crying or pain.

You are worried and troubled about many things; trust me with all your heart. I know how to rescue godly people from their trials. My Spirit helps you in your distress. Let me strengthen you with my glorious power. I did not spare my Son but gave him up for you. Won’t I give you everything else? March on, dear soul, with courage! Never give up. I will help you. I will uphold you.

Trust in me always. I am the eternal Rock, your Shepherd, the Guardian of your soul. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

So, don’t worry. I never tire or sleep. I stand beside you. The angel of the Lord encamps around you. I hide in the shelter of my presence. I will go ahead of you, directing your steps and delighting in every detail of your life. If you stumble, you will not fall, for I hold you by the hand. I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

Wars will break out near and far, but don’t panic. I have overcome the world. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. I surround you with a shield of love.

I will make you fruitful in the land of suffering, trading beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and praise for despair. I live with the low spirited and spirit crushed. I put a new spirit in you and get you on your feet again. Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning. If I am for you, who can ever be against you?

I throw my arms around you, lavish attention on you, and guard you as the apple of my eye. I rejoice over you with great gladness. My thoughts of you cannot be counted; they outnumber the grains of sand! Nothing can separate you from my love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Your fears for today, your worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep my love away.

You sometimes say, “The Lord has deserted me; the Lord has forgotten me.” But can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? Even if that were possible I would not forget you! I paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, my sinless, spotless Lamb. No one will snatch you away from me. See, I have written your name on my hand. I call you my friend. Why, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are valuable to me.

Give me your burdens; I will take care of you. I know how weak you are, that you are made of dust. Give all your worries and cares to me, because I care about what happens to you.

Remember, I am at hand. Come to me when you are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. I delight in you, and I can be trusted to keep my promises.

I wrote it because I believe God cares for me but the attacks of worry challenge that truth.

This might shock some people but as a child my hero was Kevin Keegan and so I always wanted to play for Liverpool, preferably alongside him! Then I wanted to be a snooker player. After that came being a world famous actor. I remember dabbling with the idea of being a nurse but after being laughed at in school I ditched that.

You may think my desires were crazy. My brother at 16yrs was filmed on the BBC telling the world he wanted to be a millionaire by the time he was 21yrs! There was a context to that which doesn’t make it as humorous so I will leave it out.

We all have gone down the same path of wanting to be like our heroes.

It isn’t long into life that we experience the expectations of others of what we should be. I remember parents bringing their little boy to me at the front of a church to pray that God will make him a doctor. I bent down and whispered to the boy asking if he would like to be a doctor and he gently replied NO. So I prayed for the parents to be better parents!

One of the effects of worry is causing you to think you are not capable to deal with what may happen next. If you don’t know who you are and who you are journeying to become then you will always be disabled by the thoughts you will not have enough and be enough in that situation.

Let’s see what Jesus says next. Remember he is speaking about the flowers in the field.

“Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.”(Matthew 6 v 29)

The following is a rather long passage but I have edited it. I’ve copied it from the Message as it might help such a long reading! 2 Chronicles 9: 13-29

“Solomon received twenty-five tons of gold annually… King Solomon crafted two hundred body-length shields of hammered gold—about fifteen pounds of gold to each shield—and about three hundred small shields about half that size… The king made a massive throne of ivory with a veneer of gold. The throne had six steps leading up to it with an attached footstool of gold… There was no throne like it in any other kingdom. King Solomon’s chalices and tankards were made of gold, and all the dinnerware and serving utensils … were pure gold… The king’s ships … made a round trip to Tarshish every three years, returning with a cargo of gold, silver, and ivory … King Solomon was richer and wiser than all the kings of the earth—he surpassed them all. Kings came from all over the world to be with Solomon and get in on the wisdom God had given him. Everyone who came brought gifts… parades of visitors, year after year. Solomon collected horses and chariots. He had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen in barracks in the chariot-cities and in Jerusalem.”

Jesus says NOT EVEN Solomon.

Not at any time of all his gold, or of him sitting on the throne, or him being adored by many or of him being the most powerful king there was. NOT AT ANY TIME. NOT EVEN. He tried but he failed to be better than the flower in the field. Every single time the flower in the field outdid him.

We may spend our whole lives trying to be somebody else, one of our heroes, or just one of our neighbours, or that perfect person in the church. We may view ourselves as just a flower in a field. Perhaps we are hard on ourselves and we are a wilting flower. Maybe we don’t feel useful anymore. The heart of Jesus says the flower, you, has more than the person who has achieved the most.

You are enough.

I don’t have to be Kevin Keegan. I can be comfortable being me.

It is time for more true disciples of Jesus to be small in the Christian culture of big is best.

My name is Andrew Paul. Andrew means man, masculine, macho. I am not that person. I have never been called Andrew except at a security airport desk. I have tried to be that person but I just look ridiculous. Some want me to be that person to fit their mould of leadership and they are disappointed. But when I try anxiety wins.

My name is Paul. I try to be small because that is its meaning. But also because I find Jesus leads me to the bruised reeds and smouldering wicks of which Matthew will write about later in his gospel. There are many bent flowers in the field. I am one of them. I sit in the fields with those who mourn today, with those who have nothing because the deceiver took from their life. I sit with the abused, the leper, the dying. I sit with the persecuted where corruption and cruelty are part of their daily life. I weep often. But as I try to decrease more and more, as I become smaller it is there in that place that I find a very big God and when I do I smile and laugh, for He is good and His love endures forever.

I am trying to be true to who I am. You may worry that you are not what people think you are. That is perfectly okay. The problem comes when you announce you are great but you are not great at all. Don’t do that. But don’t pander the needs of others who always need a guru in their midst. Resist. Be who you are. But come and be small with me, it is great down here in the field of flowers, God is great! We don’t have to be the Solomon’s of this world. We can be someone different. But write down who you want to be and when worry comes with its temptation then you can simply say I will not be that person, I will not give my attention to being the best, seen to be the wisest, the most blessed materially, the orator, the one with the most qualifications, the greatest stories. I will be a flower in the field and know that NOT EVEN all those titles and positions are dressed like me. God has made me who I am and that is more than good enough for Him.