When Friends Criticise
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matt 16:23
Criticism, especially very personal criticism, is not easy to handle. It can hurt, cause you to doubt yourself and maybe even maky you change your plans. If I’d listened to the critics I would not have gone to Bible College or written my book
I’ve heard it said that we should never dismiss criticism but always search ourselves to see if there is any truth in it. Maybe there’s something in that approach, but it’s not the way Jesus handled it when Peter tried to tell Him his plan of action was wrong.
Jesus recognised Peter’s concerns were not God’s concerns. He metaphorically, and perhaps literally, turned His back on Peter and looked to His Father instead. We can learn from this approach.
Do not listen to the criticism of man but to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Always take personal criticism to the throne of grace and leave it with God. Cast the burden of it on Him (1 Pet 5:6-9) and let Him deal with it in His way and His time.
Some Favourite Books On Prayer
Today I’ve added some links to a few of my favourite books on prayer.
The best way to learn to pray is by actually doing it. But the books listed on the right have all taught me something and helped me to grow in my prayer life.
Joyce Huggett’s Listening to God: Hearing His Voice
The Power of Simple Prayer: How to Talk to God About Everything
Dick Eastman’s The Hour That Changes the World: A Practical Plan for Personal Prayer
The Prayer Life
Another classic is DL Moody’s Joy of Answered Prayer
I’d love to hear about your favourite books on prayer.
New Year Resolutions?
This morning I was asked if I would pledge to grow closer to God this year.
It is admirable to have the desire and to endeavour to walk more closely with Jesus. But I think the questionner is beginning with the wrong perspective.
It’s not my promises which matter, but God’s: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ” (2 Cor 1:20). My resolutions will probably fail but, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Tim 1:12). Try as hard as I might, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).
Let’s simply put our loving trust in Jesus. At the end of the year we can look back and see what He has done with our lives.
Start The Year With Jesus
Tonight people will be partying. In the island state of Samoa the New Year will come a day earlier than it did last year because they have decided to switch to the other side of the International Date Line in order to be in line with their trading partners in Australasia. They are going into 2012 with a sense of hope and optimism that this one small change will fuel economic growth. Their weekends will now coincide with other nations in the region which means there will be more time for business activities between Samoa and other countries. It’s a clever little trick.
Many other people around the world will also be starting the New Year thinking about economics. They will be concerned about how long their jobs will last, if they will be able to pay the post-Christmas bills and whether or not they can maintain their living standards.
But for one night they will party, trying to send their anxieties to oblivion and attempting to be optimistic about the future – surely 2012 has to be better than 2011.
I used to belong to a church which every year held a New Year’s Eve party. It was full of fun and games and the whole church family joined in. Two things separated it from the kind of parties going on elsewhere. The first was a lack of alcohol. The second was that, at the stroke of midnight, we prayed and gave thanks to God. We started the year with Jesus.
There was none of the flamboyant frothiness and wishful thinking that somehow chiming in a New Year was going to change everything. Instead there was a sense of gratitude that whatever we’d been through in the past twelve months Jesus had walked with us through it, and the certainty that whatever we would face in the coming year He would always be at our side.
As 2012 begins I pray that you will know the love of Jesus throughout.
Confessional Prayer
A friend recently asked me, “what does it mean to live a godly life?”
I didn’t feel that I gave her an adequate answer so I’ve been pondering for a couple of weeks.
I pretty sure that I’m not the best person to ask as I certainly don’t manage to live what I would describe as a godly life. I also think that a century ago we would have been able to see living examples of godliness in the Christian community which aren’t there now. We have lost a great deal of our desire to be holy.
However, several things have come to mind which may help us to understand so I thought I might share them.
When I spent some time with Wycliffe Bible Translators at their UK HQ I remember being shocked by a Bible study one of the translators on furlough did for us. She was sharing a psalm (I don’t remember which one though I could probably find it if I sat down and read through them all) and drew out the point that God was far more interested in who we are than where we are. Up to that point I was trying to please God by finding out where He wanted me to go and what He wanted me to do. It’s a trap I continually fall into. But the truth is that when He wants us to go or do it’s because He wants us to grow. He is often gracious to use us to advance His kingdom in some way but the important thing for us is not the doing but the becoming, learning lessons in the environment where He has placed us.
As I said, I can’t find that psalm quickly but the message of Micah 6:8 is the same:
He has showed you, O (wo)man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
I think that is one definition of godliness.
I’m reading a book on prayer by Moody at the moment and something he said struck me. He talks about the importance of confession and says how valuable it would be if we frequently repeated David’s prayer in Ps 139:23-24. We need to let God search our hearts and show us our sin. It’s no good simply looking for sin within ourselves because we often don’t recognise it – the heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9).
I think those two thoughts – walking humbly with God and asking Him to search our hearts are probably the key to living a godly life. I also think that as we learn to live a godly life, His plan and purpose for us will naturally unfold. It’s no good being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing if we’re not right with God.
Life After Publication
I can’t believe where the last 2 months have gone. I’ve had a few speaking engagements and sold all the prepublication copies of Prayer: Reaching the Mountain Top
At the moment I’m doing a lot of thinking. What does a writer do when they’ve completed their first book into which they have poured heart and soul? There’s a strange sense of emptiness which, I would guess, is not dissimilar to empty nest syndrome – the loss one feels when the kids leave home to go and make it in the big wide world.
It’s easy to drift and feel purposeless, especially as my personal half-century is rapidly approaching. What do I do with the next 50 years?
That, of course, is an impossible question to answer. Each day is a new beginning – a gift to be lived for the Lord as best as we are able. Each day is an opportunity to learn something new.
The passage of Scripture which has gripped me over the past week in a fresh ways is Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
That is an astonishing passage – the concept that genuine change can take place through an act of the will, putting off the old self and putting on the new. Like taking of our old clothes, used for messy jobs and covered in splashes of paint and grass stains, and putting on our best clothes, the ones we wear to weddings or job interviews.
If only we genuinely believed this and acted on it our lives would be transformed.
Lynda Scotson Meets Margaret Fishback Powers
It was a privilege this week to meet Canadian poet and author, Margaret Fishback Powers.
She is the originator of the Footprints poem so beloved by many Christians. We talked a little about writing, speaking, and our latest books.
She graciously accepted a copy of Prayer: Reaching The Mountain Top and insisted that I inscribe it for her.
It was sad to hear of the ill health her husband Paul has been suffering over the last couple of years, but encouraging to hear and see how well he is doing as a result of surgery and answers to prayer.
Prayer is the bedrock of our faith without which we cannot continue to serve the Lord.
Prayer: Reaching The Mountain Top now available on Amazon
As from today Prayer: Reaching The Mountain Top is now available on Amazon.
Click here to find and buy:
Prayer: Reaching the Mountain Top on Amazon
>
It’s Here!
My first author copy of Prayer: Reaching the Mountain Top
arrived today.
I have a tremendous feeling of success – and not a single copy has been sold … yet.
However, the writing of this book, all about how to develop a more satisfying prayer life, had it’s beginning back in March 2007 when I began my blog on prayer: Prayer College.
The seed thought for that is even older. I passionately believe that the church is largely failing in its task to disciple people into prayer. We just expect that once someone is a Christian they will become a pray-er by some form of osmosis, absorbing an understanding of prayer by being around others who pray.
But even the disciples who lived side by side with Jesus, the greatest pray-er the world has ever seen, didn’t find it easy to learn to pray. No! They asked Him, “teach us to pray.” And He responded.
What about us? Where do we go to learn how to pray? There are plenty of Bible colleges, and they are often excellent institutions. But I’ve never found one which includes a course on learning to pray.
So, Prayer: Reaching the Mountain Top
is the next phase in helping Christians to discover the joy of prayer.
Prayer: Reaching The Mountain Top – OUT NOW!
Prayer: Reaching the Mountain Top: A Practical Guide to Developing a More Satisfying Prayer Life
is available on AmazonExcerpt From The Introduction To Prayer: Reaching The Mountain Top
Reading a book on prayer is rather like reading a book on training to climb a mountain. It may be very interesting, but it’s rather pointless unless you do something with it. My goal is to give you material you can try out, put into practice, and so transform your prayer life.
To that end, I have included ‘exercises’ for you to have a go at. Some of them may be very simple, while some will seem quite challenging. But they are each aimed at taking you a little further up the mountain. They have all been part of my own prayer journey at some point. So please don’t skip over them and simply move on to the next bit of the book, but complete the exercise before you continue. It may be that you don’t find every exercise helpful, but you won’t know until you try, and you may be quite surprised by what is beneficial to you.
