Guest devotional - Stay Close!
A few weeks ago during our week of prayer and fasting, we invited voices from our community to write daily guest blogs. We had some really positive feedback from these, and so welcome to the first in a series of our ‘guest devotional’ blogs! This month Robin Hancock is our contributer. He and his wife Su are members of our community, with Robin being an integral part of our Community Pantry team. We hope this devotional blesses you as a way of breathing in God’s presence today.
Focus verse: John 15:5 "apart from me, you can do nothing"
Dallas Willard, in his book 'The Divine Conspiracy' (p310). writes: "I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did".
This brought to mind for me a picture of two things combined; the first one the Footprints in the Sand poem, by Mary Stevenson;
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, is when I carried you.”
The second picture I had was of the little boy walking along the sand, throwing the star fish back into the sea, after the great storm of the night before. A man walks up to him and says “What difference can you make, there are thousands of them?” The little boy says, while throwing them back one by one; “Well. It makes a difference to this one. And it makes a difference to this one. And it makes a difference to this one…”
You see, like the Footprints in the Sand poem, we need to be walking along that beach hand in hand with Jesus, we need that closeness with him in order to be effective for him in our daily life. Jesus said, "apart from me, you can do nothing". (John 15:5). With one hand we hold tight to Christ, and with the other, we try our best to do what He would do, if He were living our lives.
And like the boy on the sea shore - we might not be able to help everyone, but by following the example of Jesus, we can make a difference to those God brings our way on a daily basis. This is all dependent on us staying close to Jesus in prayer – to breathe in His presence.
Interestingly Jesus sets us the same example, in John 5:19 Jesus says: “the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing”. Jesus points out that he is totally dependent on God his Father, he's not going to make a move unless it is in the Father's will that he make that move.
Like the Footprints poem, I have no doubt that there are many moments in life where Christ carries us through the most difficult times. However I do have I have to ask myself “Might those times have been easier, and would he have had to carry me, if I had been in a closer relationship with him?”
Questions for reflection:
~ Is there anything I'm doing that might be coming between me and God?
~ Do I need to ask God to help me to remove those obstacles that are stopping me having a closer relationship with him?