🎄Hello lovely people, I have been absent although I'm not too sure you will have missed my ramblings that much! Yes I have had Covid and it's just been a busy term ... 'chasing my tail' (and never catching it) comes to mind.
I also note that during this time I have lapsed in my more active daily chats with God and my dependence on Him. Not that I have deliberately done this or have any doubts about my faith ... but sometimes it subtly just happens doesn't it? It's all about time and energy. It's very easy to slip into just a little bit less discipline with reading good stuff (esp the Bible), praying and listening to good music. Those around may not even notice the difference but before long other things crowd in and what was a good habit in daily spiritual discipline can fly out of the window big time ... it will become noticeable!
I'm thankful to say that I've been conscious of it (eventually) and concerned enough to want to pull my spiritual socks up and sort myself out ... well actually the truth be told, I can't sort myself out as that's the whole point ... left to my own devices and strength, I fail and lapse, case in point. So, it's about my focus and mind then priorities each day. I need to rely on God's help with this but allow His help. Every christian / saint will experience times of despair and distance, it comes with the territory of being human ... read the Psalms, they're full of inner turmoil but they are also full of overcoming ... crawling out of the churning darkness and back into the sunlight. I'm so thankful for the certainty that light always dispels the dark.
Yes it's a busy time but the busier I get, the more impatient and grouchy I get ... how is that nice or helpful as we approach Christmas?! So ... I need stillness and quiet times, even if it's just a few minutes every now and then. Just to re-set and re-foucs my mind on what is good and loving. I don't want my children to get so caught up in the chaos of the festivities that they loose out on the 'real magic' of Christmas; the real meaning and amazement of that journey which took a young woman and man with their donkey along the dusty roads to a Bethlehem stable. How courageous they both were; how trusting and faithful in and to their God .. God who allowed Himself to become human; to experience the fragility of birth and total physical dependence on a fallen human whom He had created! Mary must have had such a special heart for her to have been entrusted with such a high calling ... she caressed and fondly kissed the son of God as her own baby boy. On this miracle sits all the hope and salvation of mankind and creation!
In preparation for home group this week, I started to read the chapter of the book we're looking at (Music of Eternity by Robyn Wrigley-Carr) and was immediately challenged and struck by some of the words. I'll share them here:
"Advent is a season of waiting, expectancy and hope ... it's a time to cultivate an inner stillness ... our need for silence is paramount. Without silence around us, the inward stillness in which God educates and moulds us is impossible. Remember, silence is more than non-talking. It's a complete change in the way we use our minds. We lead very active lives. Our mental machinery is made so the more active our work ... Yet nothing so improves that active work as such quietude, the sense of Eternity and restful reception of the Holy Spirit ... Only in such silence can we look out of our workshop window and see the horizons of the spiritual world. (We need to) recover our spiritual poise ... to wait on the Lord and renew our strength - not for our own sakes but for the sake of the world. 'In the beginning was the Word' - God's self-expression ... look at Christ again, for the contemplation of Christ is the first part of Christianity".
The Eternal One says: "In returning and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and trust you will find strength" (Isaiah 30v15). Let us be quietly confident and trust the one who flung stars into space but we rejected, so rather than give up on us He did the only thing that could be done to secure a perfect redemptive plan ... He came to earth as a dependent baby; He lived a perfect life; He died as the perfect substitute for us ... just so that we could be with Him for eternity! What love! What an amazing, miraculous relationship ... let's celebrate it thoughtfully; in moments of stillness yet with hearts full of wonder, awe and enough love to share abundantly.
Psalm 42v5: “I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again, my Saviour and my God”.
Seasons greetings
Ingrid x
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