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No.3) Prayer

Have you ever broken anything? I don't mean something small either- I mean something big and expensive. Hurts, doesn't it? The feeling of horror as you watch the item fall, suspending in mid air by some kind of ghostly slow motion. Then SMASH as it hits the floor. The sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you realise that there is a very good chance that this thing is not going to perform the function that it used to do- and would be better suited on the mantelpiece than being used: a worthless ornament. The overwhelming feeling of anger that erupts as you look for someone to blame followed quickly by the frustration at realising that you yourself are to blame! AGGGGGGHHHHH!!!

I had this recently when I managed to drop my NEW camera. I was not happy. One moment I was taking it off of the tripod, the next it was decorating the carpet. My first response was a rushed prayer, you know the kind of thing:

AGGGHHHHELPNOWAYCANITBEBROKENPLEASEHELPLORDMAKEITBETTERLETTHISBEADREAMDON'TLETITBEBROKENPLEASEPLEASEPLEASENO...

This continued for about 20 seconds whilst I picked up the camera for a quick inspection. A couple of failed photos later proved the inevitable- it was well and truly busted. I got my Dad to try in vain to fix it before turning to my last hope- household insurance. With a £100 excess. Damn.

I can't say I was happy!

Looking around again for people to blame, I put God in the dock- asking why he hadn't helped me. Why? What possible reason did he not answer in the way that I wanted? Did I not have enough faith? Did my feet smell or something? Why?

Whilst thinking back to these events recently (with a NEW camera- which I'm being VERY careful with!) I suddenly had the answer. Sometimes God does not answer prayer how we want. He wants the best for all of us, and since when did know that? God has the plan- not us. Through dropping my camera, he's taught me to be more careful. Do not be discouraged when God doesn't answer- be encouraged when he does! Think about this amazing God reaching down into our sinful world to answer prayers- now that's awesome!

Although it can be annoying at times, God does not always answer prayer in the way we ask. That's probably a good thing. I leave you with this: when I was younger, I prayed to be a superhero- just think what would have happened if he'd answered that one!!!

Superman Daniel Wilton

No 1) Sin

Sin. God hates sin and we as Christians should too. The only problem is that there’s so much of it. We ourselves are drenched in sin. By all reckoning, God should hate us too. Avoid us as if our sin is extra bad, Soul Survivor not-washed-for-a-week B.O.

The weird thing is that he doesn’t. Sure, sometimes he can’t abide the “smell” of us, but he still loves us. More than we could ever know. There’s two problems with all this though: Why does God love us? and How can he forgive us? (Because he definitely does!) I don’t think we’ll ever know the first one (at least not on this Earth) so I’ll focus on the second one. God sent Jesus to die for our sins- we all know that:

Mark 10:45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

That means that we’re forgiven! Yay! Celebration! Wooooooohhhhhhhh!

But wait! Didn’t I just say that God hates sin? Why do we still sin then? And why don’t we just carry on regardless if we are truly forgiven?

We sin because we are human. God gave us the amazing ability of free will but we abuse it. Everyone has sinned. Except one man- a Nazarene who’s name begins with J. Ever since Eve took the apple (although I’m not blaming her!) the human race has sinned but with sin comes knowledge of sin. We know when we sin. I sin a lot (being human- hard to believe I know!) and 99% of the time I know it. Even if I don’t know at the time, I do later on. We could all say: “oh well, we’re forgiven, it doesn’t matter” but no, it does matter. Every time you sin, you break God’s heart, you spit in his face. Do you really want that?

Its no use saying that you're blameless either. I've heard people say that the concept of heaven and hell is unfair as a mass murderer could accept Christ and go to heaven whilst a normal person goes to hell. I have an analogy here!

Think about snow, not hard considering the recent weather! Think about fresh, clean, untouched snow. Beautiful yet, at the same time, you really, really want to walk on it. But as soon as you walk on in, the magic is lost. the more that you walk on it, the more dirty it becomes, the more mucked up. Even if you try to put it back the way it was, hide it, it's still ruined. Just like our lives really; we ALL sin, doesn't matter if you lied to someone or killed them. You've still walked on the snow, still destroyed any chance you had of getting to heaven. But what if, if you asked him to, God puts the snow back to how it was- a perfect life again. But he does more than that, he gives you a contact. A man who will come and put fresh, untouchable snow down, taking the old snow away. God doesn't keep a record of the sins, he knows you sin and he hates it, but he forgives you all the same. You can walk on the snow, but Jesus was punished instead of you. Allowing you to get to heaven and have a relationship with God. God sees sin as sin, not as law. The law says that murder is worse than stealing. To God it doesn't matter, without Jesus you still can't reach heaven. 

So, accept that you sin, let God forgive you and celebrate that he loves you. Try not to sin and strive for a perfect life but don't forget that you will fail eventually. Jesus is the only way to heaven and to a loving relationship with God and that's what's important in this life. It's who you know, not how you live!

No.2) Trust

When I was younger, I would always want to go on the monkey bars at the park. The only problem is that I was too small to reach the bars and my Dad used to have to lift me up so that I could reach them. Once I was on the monkey bars, I was terrified that my tiny fingers would fail to get a grip around the slippery metallic poles and that I would fall. My Dad would always encourage me- telling me how far I was from the last bar: “only a few more to go”, he say, “you're almost there!”. I was still terrified! But once I'd made it across, I'd be over the moon, wanting to do it all again. I would always be so thrilled at doing it- by shear determination and strength (or so I thought- I must have been very young to be so stupid!). Looking back, it was obvious what was happening: my Dad would be stood there- ready to catch me. Every time I came close to falling, his hands would hold me again and lift me back up.

The thing is, although I knew that my Dad was there and I trusted that I wasn't going to fall, I don't think I really believed it. There was still doubt. 

We often live our lives like that, scared that something bad will happen as we swing from each “monkey bar” of our lives. Knowing that God is there, trusting him sometimes (usually when all is going well!) but not always having complete trust. 

It's very easy for me to say this as I sit here writing this, I have no major problems in my life, and I can say now that I trust God to catch me if I fall but I wonder if I would be the same if say, my family had been killed, my possessions stolen and my health taken away. Job went through much suffering and he must have had a tough time having trust in God. 

Job 13:15 Because even if he killed me, I'd keep on hoping. 

   I'd defend my innocence to the very end.

Just wait, this is going to work out for the best―my salvation! 

The message 

If I had been Job, I think I would've fallen at the first hurdle, not trusted God and try to sort out my problems by myself. We shouldn't get lazy- just asking God to sort out all our problems but he should be our first port of call. It's not hard to send a quick prayer up if something's going wrong. God is an agony aunt, a relationships councillor, a psychiatrist, a career advisor, a financial advisor... well you get the idea! And do you know the best thing? (no, it's not that he's free!) he's your best friend too. He will always be 100% truthful and can help you through your really tough times. 

If you are going through tough times, it is definitely worth talking to God about it- he understands more than anyone what you're going through. Don't be afraid of leaning on God when things go wrong- he is more dependable than anyone!

I'll end with this passage, I know it's corny, but it's still good!

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed He was walking along the beach with the LORD. Across the sky flashed scenes from His life. For each scene He noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonging to Him and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of His life flashed before Him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of His life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of His life.

This really bothered Him and He questioned the LORD about it. LORD you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.

The LORD replied, my precious, precious child, I Love you and I would never leave you! During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you