“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19)
There are certain phases in the lives of God’s people. Some are quite obvious; others less so, only clear with time. Moses’s life can be divided into three phases: first a royal life adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter ( Exodus 2:10); second, forty years of meandering in exile as a low level herdsman; thirdly, the liberator of a nation who leads it to the promised land!
The Apostles Paul’s life saw two major phases. There is the Saul - the persecutor of the Church; who in the next phase converts to spend the rest of his life winning souls for Christ!
Jesus’s life had also phases. He starts out as as a son of a carpenter, quite anxious to fulfill the calling on his life. When at 12 he stayed behind in a Synagogue talking to the leaders and his parents had to look him up, he shrugged, “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? ( Luke 2:49). But it was not his time. Led back home, he “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” ( vv 52). This was all for a purpose as that phase prepared him for his ministry which he launched at the age of 30.
What is the phase of your life? You might be like a Moses wandering out in the wasteland, seemingly aimlessly, but it is just a phase! There is a phase of being lost as was with the once Saul before conversion to Paul. Jesus had that phase of apparent insignificance but God was preparing him for a greater task ahead.
We should embrace whatever phase we are going through with the full knowledge and comfort God is with us, teaching us something, greater, for yet another more important phase in our life!
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, as life goes through phases I pray that this phase of my life you take me through it with grace, growing in your knowledge and wisdom, for the life ahead, this I pray in Jesus’s name.
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17/05/2024 - 18/05/2024 All day“And I in righteousness I shall see your face; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with seeing your likeness” (Psalm 17:15)
One of the defining aspects we see in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is that He began the day with prayer. “Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). As he was always surrounded by crowds and after such a busy day before of preaching and engaging the Pharisees in debates this must have been a therapeutic moment for Christ when he would have some good time to himself.
But there was also more. For Jesus being away in a secluded place would also mean a chance to pour out His heart to God, meditate in quietness, plan for the day ahead and listen to the Father. Jesus must have looked up to this moment every day knowing its benefits. Conversations with His Father must have been real and intimate, bringing a certain soothing and uplifting of His spirit. You do not wake up and stick to something on a daily basis that is a drag – this must have been his best time of the day!
Martin Luther the leader of the protestant reformation is reputed to once have said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Here is the point. In the olden days before the arrival of locomotive transport those who were setting out for a long journey on foot had to start early with the first cock crow before the punishing sun came out. One of the things they had to start with also was a good meal, which was fuel needed to give them energy through the long walk to their destiny.
There are no rules about waking up to pray as first thing- or even saying prayer at a defined hour of the day. God is everywhere and ever with us. He is accessible at any time of the day. But there is something special about prioritizing our lives that the first thing we do is to talk to God. Just like the early traveller we need fuel, for the long day ahead!
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, what a joy and privilege to make time at the start of any day, talk and hear from you, for the power I need through the day, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
