Thought for the Week - 6th March 2022

 Dear Friends,

‘How are you going to maintain your spiritual life?’ That was one of the questions asked when I was training for ministry at Bristol Baptist College over 25 years ago. It is an interesting question to revisit regularly, thinking about what it is that sustains us in our walk of faith in Jesus Christ. In our ever-increasing busy world just what are the things that help us to connect with God? Over the years I have used various resources to sustain my own spiritual life like daily readings such as Encounter with God, and Everyday with Jesus. I’ve done a Bible in a Year reading plan, and read through the Psalms and other books of the Bible. I’ve used other resources like The Rhythm of Life, a Celtic Daily prayer guide, The Little Office Book, a simple and adaptable form of daily prayer, and I’ve also tried various apps designed to help to sustain and maintain one’s own spiritual fervour and discipline in spending time with God. Time is such a precious and limited commodity. There are only ever sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, but how much of that time do we spend in God’s presence and when? In the book Streams in the Desert – 366 Daily Devotional Readings by L.B. Cowman, she writes, ‘the morning is a critically important time of day. You must never face the day until you have faced God, nor look into the face of others until you have looked into His. You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone’. The psalmist reminds us of the importance of spending time in God’s presence when we read, ‘I walk in the strength of the Lord God. I tell everyone that you alone are just and good’ (Psalm 71:16, Living Bible).

Grace and peace

Neil

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