Day 16 – Issue 15

Be Still Know

Mark 11:9b (NLT)

‘Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’

Throughout my many years as a Christian, I’ve experienced a large number of high points such as times of transcendence in worship, of deep personal encounter in the Eucharist. However, while I can recall such moments, each has passed.

Jesus arrives to a rapturous welcome into Jerusalem. Its very nature and scale might have convinced him that his job was complete. His message received, people transformed and his messianic mission complete. However, high points come and go. Faith is tested in the harsh reality of conflict; the conflict of maintaining faith in challenging conditions. In such challenges the many historic high points, while remembered, are insufficient and cannot sustain us.

Early in his ministry, John records that Jesus knew what was within people’s hearts and so did not entrust himself to them. In a similar way while we are to fully embrace and extract all the grace made available to us in the high points along our way, we are not to mistake these as a permanent place of residence. The way of God, when we embrace it, concerns our maturing in appreciation of both God and ourselves.

It is at the point of pain, when I want to run from God, that the reality of my faith is shaped. Faith is forged and proven in the apparently abandoned places. Here I need to resolve to hold onto God and to resist my desire to let go and give up.

While our faith brings deep joy and comfort to our lives, there are also deep troughs and storms that engulf us. Like Jesus in Gethsemane we pray, ‘Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me’. Yet then we significantly join with Jesus again and say, ‘but not as I will but as you will’. This is the prayer of faithful surrender.

QUESTION: Is the storm determining the character of God, or might it be inviting you to discover your character and the nature of your faith?

PRAYER: Lord, not my will but yours be done in my life.