Journeying along the way 2 - Your Guiding Hand

St Nicholas Methodist Church Trinity Sunday Worship Link

Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

Your tender hand,

Your loving care

Prepare my heart

Your fruit to bear.

Plant in my soul

The seed of truth,

The truth you taught

From birth, through youth.

Your handiwork

In Christ I’ve seen

Against my image

O, so unclean.

You are the vine,

A branch am I

Gardner divine

None can deny.

Your power of love

Your grace, Your Care

Tend to my soul

Lord, this my prayer.

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.” Martin Luther

Journeying along the Way 1

Psalm 139: 23-24 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Into the Light

You who search and know all hearts, 

Who tries by fire the works I start, 

Who pierce my soul with sword of right

And brings my darkness into light; 

Discerner of my inner thoughts, 

Revealer of the things I've sought. 

To you I bring my all. 

My judgements and the way I live, 

My sentence framed, no gift to give, 

For in your  mirrored face I see

Myself, my sin, Your mystery; 

The secret things of my own heart 

Revealed through grace are but a part 

Of all I bring to you. 

My views of other’s secret ways 

Are not for me to speak or say 

But in your love to keep with you 

A silent vigil of what's true, 

You know the secrets of my heart,

You know I love in whole or part. 

Come shine reveal your truth.

If we seek God for our own good and profit, we are not seeking God - Meister Eckhart

Fruit of fhe Spirit 9 - Long-Suffering

1 Corinthians 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Your Spirit fruits within my soul

Such wondrous blessings, living goals

Of love and joy,  peace, gentleness

And even gracious kindliness.

Yet with these blessings you so give

Fruit bearing truths so hard to live.

Of Self-Control, Long-suffering

That on my own I fail to bring

Into the discipline each day;

I need your strength along my way.

Spirit of truth, you know my mind,

Where pain of waiting, my heart binds.

Still now my soul, seed in me peace,

That suffering long will bring, increase

Your deepening beneficial grace

That strengthens, ready to embrace

The opportunities of life,

And in your power,  to conquer strife.

“Joy is love exalted; peace is love in response; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in tough situations; and temperance is love in training.” Dwight L Moody

Faith in Time of Crisis 8

Image “In the shadow of your wings” by Rev’d Paul Collings

Faith in time of Crisis 8 By Dr J P Hunter

Psalm 91:1+2, 14+15. 

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honour him.

Meditation

This Psalm is about God’s protection for those who love him. The two opening verses contain four names for God and four metaphors to describe the protection He provides: shelter, shadow, refuge and fortress. This protection is based on the trust which the psalm writer puts in “my God”.

Then in verse 14 and 15 there is a change of voice when God is speaking and replies with His reassurance of protection. God knows that we all go through times of trouble in our lives. He does not promise to deliver from adversity so that we never meet any. He promises to deliver us in adversity. He will come alongside to be near us, to deliver and honour us. The key to this protection is our relationship with God. This relationship will have to built on love for God, that is keeping His commandments, faithfulness and seeking Him in prayer, thereby acknowledging His name.

Prayer

Almighty God, my refuge and saviour, shelter me in times of trouble. When I pray to you in my times of difficulty, be near me and answer me, for I put my trust in you. I strive to keep your commandments to love you and honour your holy name so I may live in hope. 

Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Jonathan Aitken, adapted.       

Hymn StF 455, verse 1.

All my hope on God is founded;

he does still my trust renew.

Me through change and chance he guideth,

only good and only true.

he alone calls my heart to be his own.

Robert Bridges (1844-1930 

based on Joachim Neander (1650-1680

Fruit of the Spirit 8 - Self-control

 2 Timothy 1:7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

You know how I can rush at things

Without much thought, as if on wings.

My mind it runs into each task,

Without request or even ask

For guidance from the calmest source

And listen for the way to course.

Yet in those quiet moments rare,

I sense your calming presence there;

A holy living inward balm

To ease my soul and still each qualm;

That calls a halt, that says remain

Just here, with me, live not in vain.

Come Holy Spirit tend my life

Release it from life’s edgéd  knife,

Weed out conceit, where I know best

That in you arms I stop and  rest.

Gentle Spirit come now  console

And through your fruit renew, make whole.

No conflict is so severe as his who labours to subdue himself - Thomas a Kempis

Fruit of the Spirit 7 Gentelness

Philippians 4:5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

‘When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.” Saint Francis de Sales

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild

Look upon this little child.”

Was the prayer taught in my youth;

Little did I know it’s truth.

Now as days and years have past

And time speeds it’s way so fast,

Midst the hardness of today

For that gentleness I pray.

“Pity my simplicity”

Was my nightly  earnest plea;

“Fain again to you be brought”

And within your arms be taught.

Lord, that gentle fruit come share

By your Spirit in me bear

“Make me Saviour what thou art

Give me an obedient heart.”

Lord, your promise work in me

Come as now I bend my knee,

That “the world shall always see

Christ the holy child, in me.”

Day 6 Fruit of the Spirit - Faithfulness

Monday Prayer Link - Methodist Worship Book

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

I hear your promise faithful one

And yet, my grip is weak, alone

I cannot seem to hold the faith

Nor in your presence stay and bathe.

To bear the fruit of promised grain

Or ‘bove earth’s grime, new life obtain.

O Faithful One, so great your love

That fills the void, O heavenly dove,

Who plants new seed, and brings new hope, 

Though long my way I slip and grope

Towards the light of your new day,

Come bear your fruit in me, all ways.

”The Ragamuffin who sees his life as a  voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness than the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all,” - Brennan Manning - the Ragamuffin Gospel