Making the most of the moment

I have just listened again to the UK Blessing, the wonderful song given to the nation at the height of our first lockdown over a year ago. Surely this song, written by Kari Jobe and others, came from the throne of God to remind us all that in the midst of the pandemic, God is for us and is blessing us.  Many nations blessed their people with this song. 

I realise that every country faced their pandemic differently but I hope these British centred words will apply even to your situation. 

I am still surprised when someone who is a CEO of a large organisation recounts how they had to work from home in 2020 and try and home school their children at the same time. I know people like me had to do this but surely CEOs and other were important people were exempt? Pandemics and lockdowns are great levellers. 

One of the things we learned from that first lockdown was that there were no exceptions for the rich and famous. Everyone from the Queen to the humblest worker had to stay home. We were in this together and as Christians we had to adapt and adapt fast to how to do our lives and Church in a new way. We had to learn quickly that the message of the Gospel was still the same, still relevant, and the hope it brings needed like never before. Whether we met in a church building or online, God was still with us. We all had to learn where our hope was truly based – on Jesus Christ and his promises and not on our own efforts.  

In the UK, we are coming out of the worst of this pandemic and with the vaccine programme in full swing, we are all hopeful that we will not be going back that way again but have we learned the lessons that God was teaching us from the past year? 

Did we make the most of the pandemic and discover that God really is our provider?  Maybe you lost your work, your business or even your home. Has God been faithful?  There is much talk of mental health and how this has been affected. As Christians have we found that God is our strength, our strong tower, our encouragement?   Has our prayer life fundamentally shifted and our relationship with God closer than ever? As we have been unable to meet our family and friends, have we learned to value relationships more than we did before? Maybe you lost a loved one and were unable to be with them at the end, has God been your comfort?

I do hope the answer to these and many other similar questions is ‘Yes’ because as we go forward, it is not going back to the old ways but into a new season, a new era even. None of us knows what that looks like but the lessons learned during the last year are essential for this new day. God is faithful and we are going to have to trust him as never before. 

I have no idea how it’s all going to look a year from now but I believe God wants to do something new and extraordinary, something we haven’t seen before and it will require us to be turned inside out so our worlds can be turned upside down with the presence of Jesus. 

The key now is how to live in this moment well, how to make the most of this time so we can advance and not hanker for the old. If God pours out His Spirit in revolutionary ways are we willing receptors or closed wells? All I can do is keeping pressing in, keeping prioritising my relationship with Jesus and be ready. It will be hard, because unlike lockdowns, the distractions are now great. Already I can feel so many ‘old’ things demanding priority in my life. It’s not that they’re wrong, they just need to take their rightful place.

The question is - have I made the most of the last year so I am ready and willing for the new season ahead? Only you can answer that.

Strength to take the land

Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,

 even if you were told. Habakkuk 1: 5

I woke up this morning with the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Verdi from his opera Nabucco running through my mind. I didn’t know anything about this opera, I just knew the tune. The opera is based on the Hebrews in exile in Assyria singing with longing for their homeland, similar to Psalm 137. 

It then occurred to me that when God led the Children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they had no idea what the Promised Land was like. No one had ever seen it, not even Moses. They had no vision. Even when the spies returned after their expedition to scout out the land, 10 of them saw the Promised Land through the eyes of slaves, not as Children of Israel. It was all about identity. 

They didn’t see God as the covenant keeping God of Abraham or themselves as his people. Despite God having released them from slavery through mighty miracles, they didn’t see themselves as holy and dearly loved, a treasured possession. They were just worthless slaves.

That leads me to ask, how do we look at our situations? Through the eyes of slaves to sin or as children of God with an inheritance to take hold of? 

This last year has shown us that like the Children of Israel, none of us have been this way before. None of us have endured a pandemic and none of us really know what the way ahead looks like.  We can look at it as slaves bound by fear and insecurity believing we are never going to be free of the virus, or we can look with eyes of faith as children of God. He is laying before us an opportunity, never given to previous generations to press into something of God that will be so spectacular we wouldn’t believe it, even if we were told. 

Bill Johnson says that if Israel had walked into the Promised Land a few weeks after leaving Egypt, they would not have had the maturity to maintain the inheritance. The Lord will put us in situations so we have to push through to build spiritual strength, trust and faith in God so when the answers to our prayers and longings are released, we have the maturity to give all glory to God. 

These last 13 months have been a time for perseverance, patient endurance and seeking God.  Many of us have had time and space to build up our spiritual muscles, to learn to trust God in the wilderness for provision and presence. This will mean when we stand on the edge of our promised land, we will have faith and courage to cross over and a deep trust in God believing him to see souls saved, strongholds demolished and our nations turn to Jesus. 

The prize is enormous but if we have used the last year to fix our gaze upon Jesus, to know his voice, to hear his strategies, to catch the whisper of heaven and see a glimpse of his glory, we will have the maturity to give all glory to God when his sovereign power sweeps our nations. 

We know God wants to save our nations but all glory must go to him. When thousands are saved, blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, the lame walking all that must be heard is an anthem of praise, thanksgiving and adoration to our God from his amazed, awe-struck, blood-bought children, overwhelmed by his goodness and love. 

Christmas is cancelled?

Christmas is cancelled.  Christmas is off for many people in UK and Europe. Disappointment, anger, resentment is bubbling up. We can’t celebrate Christmas as we would like with family, eating turkey, drinking and generally enjoying ourselves. 

What is God doing?  

As I wrote before, God did not send this virus but he did permit it. I believe through this pandemic, God is turning our hearts to him; gently taking away everything that intrudes between himself and people, starting with his own people and then with the world. Christmas after all has become a parody of the celebration of the birth of Jesus. For most people they have no idea what they are celebrating; they just want to celebrate. 

I am as disappointed as anyone that we won’t be seeing our family whom we haven’t seen in months. I love it when we get together and I have the pleasure of cooking a delicious dinner for everyone before we settle down to open presents and play games. But if I let disappointment rule in my heart and emotions, I’m going to miss the greatest opportunity to know God better, to find him as Lord of my life overwhelming every frustration and pain with his presence.

This is our time to know God, really know him, his goodness, kindness and love and share this with all those around us who have no hope to fall back on as we do, because that is what knowing God gives us – hope. We may have to socially distance this Christmas but that doesn’t mean we can’t communicate – we just have to communicate differently.  

This Christmas, carol services have moved online and I suspect many people will search and find one and hear not only the familiar carols, but also the good news that Christmas is about God becoming man and dwelling amongst us. I believe that with hearts feeling tender and sore from the disappointments of this year, people will be open to the Gospel as never before. They need hope to lighten the darkness of the pandemic which seems to be throttling the nations. This is a unique opportunity for our family, friends and neighbours to hear the good news from the comfort of their homes. 

I am praying for our church services to touch many people in our town and area like never before. Normally our carol services are packed with lots of fun things happening that maybe distracts the congregation from the heart of Christmas – the good news of a baby born to save the world from their sins.  This year my prayer is that the message of Christmas is broadcast loud and clear across the nation. 

Despite everything, we have so much to be thankful for and as God’s people may we climb out of the pit of disappointment and run into the arms of our Saviour, finding there the comfort and hope we all need. Then let that hope spill over from our lives into the lives of those around us. 

Happy Christmas – be blessed.