I am sorry. [ Matthew 5 v 23-24 ]

Sometimes the hardest word to say is, sorry,why I wonder is this? could it be pride, there is a certain amount of humbling of oneself in this, also if we say we are sorry the person we are apologiesing to may not accept it.It was John Wayne in one of his movies who said,dont apologies it is a sign of weakness,but in fact it is I believe the very opposite ,it is a sign of strength. True humility is a precious quality ,which we are called to show in our lives, James reminds us in his letter that ,/ God opposes the proud but favours the humble [4 v 6 ]. Sometimes it is easier to say sorry to God than to people, because He will accept our sorry, if we are sincere, but people are different,they may not accept our sorry ,no matter how sincere we are, even though this is true, I believe God will be pleased when we say sorry, and in the end this is what is most important. [ Father in heaven grant us the grace to be humble enough to say sorry to those we have hurt or wronged, in Jesus name we ask this, Amen ]

Simply trusting. [Matthew 6 v25-34 ]

I was sitting at my desk at work yesterday, and I was thinking about a problem,related to work, so I offered up a prayer about it,as soon as I had prayed the answer came.I am becoming more conscious of God looking after me, the words ,dont worry,come into my head more and more.I am not saying I have conquered the worry thing completly, but hopefully I am making progress, in trusting God.Is worry a sin? I am not sure, but one thing for sure, worry is something we all do. I am sure we dont need to be ruled by worry, the challenge is for us to believe what our Saviour tells us in Matthew 6 v 25 -34, there the emphasises is on trusting our heavenly Father to look after us. An old Gospel hymn goes, /Whenever I am tempted, Whenever clouds arise, When song gives place to sighing, When hope within me dies, I draw the closer to Him, From care He sets me free. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He cares for me/, let us all do that today. [ Loving Heavenly Father we ask for your forgivness for worrying, help us today to simply trust You in every situation, in Jesus name we ask this Amen ]

Turn our eyes upon Jesus. [ Psalm 121]

There was a childrens Chorus we used to sing it went like this,/ When the road is rough and steep, turn your eyes upon Jesus , He alone has power to keep ,turn your eyes upon Him /. Consider those simple words, what they mean for us today, we are under attack from the enemy of our souls, our fleshy nature is continually raising its head, and the world with all its false promises is beckoning us. What on earth can we do? well ,let us turn eyes upon Jesus, for He alone, let me stress this again, He alone has power to keep, all those things that we have to cope with, are to much for us , and that is why we must look to Jesus , every day, and every hour of every day. We all are dependent children, our strength, security, enabling ,rests totally on Jesus, not in ourselves, so today let us turn our eyes upon Jesus.[ Dear Lord Jesus we look to You today to help us in every situation, Amen ]

Why [ Hebrews 10 v25 ]

Why attend church?, one reason is because we are told to, Hebrews 10 v25, / And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, there are reasons not to attend, the service and speaker is boring. Christians are not always nice, some who profess to be Christian can be so unkind, some are bitter, unforgiving, I remember reading these words once, / To live with saints above that will be grace and glory, but to live with them below now thats a different story/. As a Christian of many years, I was a full time minister at one time, I know there will always be reasons not to meet with our fellow Christians,but think about this ,Jesus meets with them,[Matthew 18 v20 ]surely if He is prepared to meet with His followers, with all their faults should we not.[ Dear Lord Jesus you command us to love one another, help us to do this by meeting with our fellow believers, and encourage them, as Your word commands, Amen ]

Love is more than red roses.[ 1 Corinthians 13 ]

On this St. Valentines day many of us express our love by sending red roses, or a card or whatever, I believe it is important to express our love, in these ways. I myself am a bit of a romantic, I love romantic songs, as I write this I am playing a Rod Stewart song. Having said that ,love is more than red roses, love is commitment, of holding in there when you may want to run away, love is remembering your wedding vows, and being faithful to them.Love is forgiving and forgetting , love is being there for the one you love ,love is sacrificial, love is, you get the picture, God will honour such love, for He Himself is love. [God we thank You that You love us to bits, more than we will ever realise, help us to love like You, we ask this in the name of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us , Amen ]

Im not the man I used to be[ Romans 12 v 1-2 ]

Im not the man I used to be, but am I better man? , one likes to think so, in Romans 12 v2 we read,/Dont copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think/.I find the words, /let God/, interesting, as one who believes in the sovereignty of God, that here ,as Selwyn Hughes writes,/ because of the great respect God has for every human will, He will not force Himself upon us/. Let God, it seems an absurd thing to say, let us face up to what that means, and do it, let us yield to God, by changing the way we think, if we do we will be better people. As we read of the history of Israel in the wilderness, how continually they manifested stubbornness, if only, if only,they had changed the way they thought they would have got where they were going sooner. If only we would let God change the way we think, things would be so different in our churches , families,and in our individual lives, if only.[ Father in Heaven, we confess our stubbornness, our reluctance to change the way we think, help us to see that if we let You change the way we think , we would be better people, help us to submit to You, we ask this in our Saviours name , Amen ]

Hang in there, and hold on. [ 2 Corinthians 12 v 1 - 10 ]

Some things go on ,and on , and on, we pray nothing appears to be happening, is there an answer? is there some formula ,that this problem may be solved?. Lets be honest there are no easy answers ,sometimes it seems all we can do is hang in there, if we turn to the scriptures we find an honest record. The Bible tells ,it as it is, that the great people had their unresolved problems to cope with, Adam had Cain, Isaac had his daughter-in- laws, Jacob had his injury to his hip, Moses had Israel, now this is just the beginning of the Bible. So we learn that even though people love the lord, and He them, these people had problems that remained unresolved. I remember a promise I recieved many years ago, in 1 Corinthians 10 v13,it reads ,/There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it/. We must do more than hang in there , we need to hold on to this promise, and trust God to fulfill it. [Dear God we acknowledge that sometimes we get weary with some problems that will not go away,help us to hang in there, and help us to hold unto You , and what You have said unto us, in Jesus name we ask this, Amen ]