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Going Deeper with God Luke 2: 22 – 40 Memory Triggers. Yesterday we had a wedding in the church and the bride’s mother offered the church these flame lilies. Flame lilies are the national flower of Zimbabwe. Geoff was born in Zimbabwe and though they occur in Zimbabwe they also occur in other parts of Southern Africa as well as in parts of Asia. These lilies brought back a flood of memories from both my past and Geoff’s past. The start of a new year and the end of an old year tends to be a reflective time. A time when we think about endings and beginnings, the old and the new, a time when we take stock of where we have been and come from and where we are and the direction we are going in. I wonder what your new year’s resolutions are. Most commonly people resolve to exercise more and to eat more healthily! Reflection is a good thing. When I was at school History was my favourite subject and at university History was the subject I majored in. There seems to be a view that is reasonably widespread that History is an irrelevant subject and hence it has disappeared from the curriculum at school for all but a small number of students who choose to take it. I have never understood this thinking. How can we as individuals, as a society work out where we are going if we don’t know where we have been? How can we plan for a future when we are ignorant of the past that has shaped the direction of that future? How can we learn from our mistakes if we don’t know what they were? I believe that history is a kind of stock taking, a process of reviewing that enables us to set realistic goals and as such is a necessary discipline. The end of one year and the beginning of another I believe is an excellent time for some spiritual reflection also. Where have we been in our walk with God this past year and where are we headed? Are we happy with the course we are on or do we want to fine tune or even change our direction? Do we feel our relationship with God is where it should be, would we like to go deeper with God? Today we have read about two historical people who are not often included in nativity scenes, but who were very much part of the nativity story: Simeon and Anna. They were people who chose to go very deep with God, they were quiet people who had water tight relationships with God. So far in the nativity story as we have celebrated it we notice that Mary saw an angel; Joseph had a visionary dream; the shepherds saw a host of angels; the magi saw an extraordinary star. All these divine manifestations were needed to alert these various people to the arrival of the Christ child. Today a different thing happens: No choir of angels, no shooting star, no dramatic dreams. Two people Simeon and Anna recognise the 8 day old child immediately and acknowledge his saving power. What did they have that enabled them to recognise God in their midst without wondrous signs and miracles? The key to their ability to recognise the God given Saviour Jesus lies in their prayer life. We read that they were righteous and devout. We all want to have a close relationship with God but we are not always sure how to go about building such relationship. The answer lies in our prayer life. Many of us know that but even then that doesn’t help us much for we often feel insecure about prayer and praying. Its perhaps the thing we find hardest to do. Yet it is the only way to build, deepen and grow our relationship with God. Look at Simeon he is devout, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, he is moved by the Holy Spirit; he waits on God’s timing. All this is suggests that Simeon had a strong prayer life. Simeon went very deep with God. Look at Anna. She has had a hard life. Yet she worships God night and day, praying and fasting, giving thanks to God and has been filled with the Holy Spirit manifest in her life through her gift of prophecy. All this suggests that she too lead a life of prayer. She went very deep with God. Too difficult for you and me? Not at all! Prayer like exercise is a discipline. If we want to exercise and don’t it is not because it is too difficult to exercise it is because we are undisciplined. Similarly if we want to go deeper in our relationship with God we must pray and if we are not praying then it is not because it is too difficult to pray it is because we are spiritually undisciplined. Yet like exercise the benefits of prayer way exceed the time and effort it takes. Through prayer you will find that God will become more real to you, more familiar. You will notice God at work in your life, his provision in big and small ways. You will find peace and joy and love in your life. So what’s your exercise programme? Sorry but that is not my area of expertise, you will have to go to the gym for that. What’s the prayer plan? Well now I may be able to be of some assistance to you. Here is my suggested 6 point plan: 1. Start each task you tackle with a simple one sentence prayer. Keep it simple and the same. “Jesus guide me in this please.”This way you will integrate your relationship with God into your life through everything you do. 2. Stay connected to your faith community. Find someone who will pray with you from time to time. See morning prayers every day at church Monday to Friday. Saturday? Sunday? 3. Find a special time in the day to pray. Not too long and achievable space and time e.g. 5min. Same time every day and not negotiable. 4. Make it a habit. Takes 4 weeks to form a habit. First 4 weeks are crucial. 5. Follow a pattern e.g. ACTS adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. 6. Read a verse from Scripture. All begin with S: · Start each task · Stay connected to your faith community. · Set a special time · Steadfast · Systematic ACTS · Scripture
Be as consistent with this as you are at getting up in the morning. Try to always do this, but keep it achievable or you will run out of steam. Anything else you might like to do around prayer is extra and should happen at a different time. Do this and watch your relationship with God flower into the kind of relationship Anna and Simeon had with God. You are never too old to start. Anna was 84years old! Do this and you are future proofing your spiritual life. No matter what challenges and difficulties you will face this year, you will have a happy new year for you will come to know God in ways you have never known him or experienced him before. The Annas and the Simeons amongst us today will vouch for that I am sure.
When I looked closely at these lilies I noticed they had 6 petals and as I reflected on what I was planning to say about prayer I thought the lilies could be a useful memory trigger for this prayer plan which has six points to it.
1. Start each task 2. Stay connected to faith community. 3. Set a special time 4. Steadfast for at least a month. 5. Systematic approach ACTS 6. Scripture
May
God bless you richly with his peace, his love and his joy, as you deepen
your prayer life and in so doing deepen your relationship with him in the
course of this year. |
