Missions Paul

Song of Songs 6
I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, v11.

God loves growth. Growing is painful. We struggle with what God loves. Pray through the pain today. You’re growing!

Song of Songs 5
My love thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him, v4.

God reaches into the place of reluctance and tiredness with love not condemnation and stirs the love inside of us. Through prayer open your soul to the inflowing of His love.

Song of Songs 4
You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, v9.

He does not want much, just a glance. Failure, disobedience and difficulty may only let you glance. But just one glance will cause His heart to be all over you. Open your eyes again in prayer today.

Song of Songs 3
I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go, v4.

Above all else, against all the strain, you will not let go. Thinking of how life was like without Him, pray for the determination to hold on to what you have discovered.

Song of Songs 2
See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone, v11.

Don’t be trapped in a season when it is over. Winter is where we have died. God is calling you to now move forward. Pray for this new season of your life.

Song of Songs 1
Over the next 8 days I am going to leave you with just one thought each day for you to think on. Please don’t just read it and forget it. Read it, think on it and pray it.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, v2

The kiss of the mouth is the kiss of intimacy that God desires to have with you. But He waits for your permission, for your desire, for your prayer. Pray for such closeness.

Ecclesiastes 12

Old man Solomon has looked back on life and concludes that without God everything is just meaningless.
He has it all, has experienced probably everything and knows more than everyone. However, it is meaningless.
The whole duty of man, the meaning of life, the purpose to it all comes down to 2 things: to Fear God and keep His commandments, v13.
It is as simple as this. But ever since, the Church in particular has thrown all its energy into making this as complicated and unachievable as possible.
So man has been taught a scary God who has created a hell for all the disobedient. Man has been taught not just 10 but 10 times the many commandments that appear throughout the ongoing generations and cultures.
A mild-mannered man was reading a book on being self-assertive and decided to start at home. So he stormed into his house, pointed a finger in his wife’s face, and said, “From now on I’m boss around here and my word is law! I want you to prepare me a gourmet meal and draw my bath. Then, when I’ve eaten and finished my bath, guess who’s going to dress me and comb my hair.” “The mortician,” replied his wife.
Is God this horrible husband who just orders his wife around and demands for her to be at his service? Everyone has met someone who tries to rule with this kind of fear. This is not the kind of fear we should have of God. The word means “to stand in awe of, to reverence, honour and respect.”
Here is what I have come to understand:
Fear is to believe He exists when it looks like He doesn’t.
Fear is to know I am a continuous sinner who is continually forgiven.
Fear is to worship a personal God who speaks to me but who is far off.
Fear is to love what he loves not what He hates and hate what He hates not what He loves.
Fear is found in the contradiction.
Have you been to the symbol of this contradiction?

Ecclesiastes 11

Cast your bread upon the waters …v1

Whatever you do today will probably involve work.
Whether it is a paid or voluntary place of work, or maybe you are caring for a family member, you wake today to work.
Solomon says get up in the morning and work, v6. He tells us not to stand around idly looking at the weather or the sky, v3-4. Also, don’t just channel all your energy into one source. Have a variety of things you can do. If you are working then develop a hobby, get another qualification, learn something new, for one day you may be thankful you did, v2.

Solomon is not asking us to throw a slice of bread into the sea. It has to be about some sort of trade of bread or grain to destinations and if you work hard at this then you will eventually find a return for it.

Cast your bread speaks of:

The Bible telling us to work.
The fact we know God works.
Working gives a return to us of value which not working does not.
Our work may take time before the rewards come, even many days of work, but it will come.

So enjoy your work today, whatever it is.

Ecclesiastes 10

If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success, v10.

Now we all know Solomon is not talking about sharpening axes and using them with skill! He’s an old man looking back on his life and seeing that much of life is sheer effort, sweating with little success because we have failed to work smartly.

It makes sense to sharpen the ax, but for some reason we don’t, we haven’t got the time, there is so much to do and it needs to be done yesterday. So we just keep working with dullness.
We know we should rest, play, slow down, but we don’t. We know we should eat healthy but we don’t. We know we should pray but we don’t. We know. But we don’t.
Something is wrong with our brain.
I wonder how much of our lives is spent with a dull blade? No one can deny our effort. But we could have been more focused, smarter, more balanced.
How much flexibility is in us? Do we think the same way, make the same decisions and do the same actions?
Recently I found myself literally staring at a puzzle which seemed to last for hours! It is part of the cognitive reflection test and it is used in place of IQ tests to see how patient candidates are and how good they are at making decisions. Here it is:

A bat and a ball cost £1.10. The bat costs one pound more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”
My immediate response was 10 pence. It is wrong.
I spent so much time coming up with the same answer.
I had to google it to find the answer!

So today like most days I pray for wisdom, sharpness, the willingness to change, to be flexible, to slow down, to breathe, to enjoy and engage, to work at a puzzle, to learn to not be driven by my first response, to google.

Ecclesiastes 9

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all, v11.

There are no guarantees in life. You may think you are in control but then something happens and you realise you are far from it.
The old man reflects and realises that the fast don’t always own the race, the strong don’t always succeed etc.
Life is not so predictable.
In 2001 Rudy Giuliani was a failed New York City mayor with a failing marriage. In the aftermath of September 11 he was declared “2001 Person of the Year”.
At the same time Ted Olson was the up and coming star in the U.S. as Solicitor General of the U.S. But the world watched him bury his wife, a passenger on
American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
One man weak who became strong. One strong who through no fault of his own was weakened by disaster.
With such unpredictability doesn’t it further show that the sooner we put our life into the hands of God the better?
So today, realise anything could happen, shocks and surprises are ahead of us, so give your life, your desires and decisions to the One who is never shocked and is always in control.