Guide us Lord!

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts” Zechariah 4.6.

These words are from the prophet Zerubbabel and have always spoken to my heart. I find them useful as an "arrow" prayer to say at various times. Especially before meetings that look as if they have the potential to be stressful and conflicted. We need to keep on track and not be blown around chaotically by our human desires. The words remind me of what God wants.

It seems this week I have had various conversations about this very thing. How to keep on track! I have problem in that I know what God wants from me I just need to find my way though to the delivery of his vision. It is my human fallibility that can get in the way. The prayer reminds me to put God's way of thinking first. To seek not my own objectives but to look for what God wants. His agenda is so often different to ours. It reminds me that the Glory must go to God and that we don't need to strive in order to achieve that. In fact if we find ourselves striving then we can ask ourself are we seeking God correctly? God has been sustaining the universe for all these thousands of years without me being number one, or head honcho! But what we can bring to situations is our genuine desire to seek God's will and to support it. Are we seeking the right sort of power in our life? I don't need to be first to speak or last to speak. Although God does want me to speak if I can contribute something to the meeting.

Although it was "meetings" that started me thinking - "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit" applies to all parts of our life. Do we make bringing God's spirit a priority in our life, or do we wake in the morning to play with our gadgets, to plot our finances with the Financial Times? Or to feed our News habit? Or to plan our retirement? Maybe? But although those things might have a right place. God first, our loved ones next is how we should prioritise. Then things will fall into place and we will find a more grace filled living experience.

If we "seek first the kingdom of God" we are putting the Spirit first. In prayer this week also I heard God's voice in Galatians 5. At verse 16 he says "What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature." - one commentary I read points out that if we focus on the Spirit, God's love and Holy Spirit, helps us to push out the sin in our life. The sin is displaced by the presence of the Spirit. So I feel God is saying have more of the Spirit and you will naturally become less sinful.  That means we need to worry less about our besetting sin and let go of it and run straight toward's our God  who is love. He will give us his love, joy and peace which can't fail to change us.

Dear Lord, help me to have more of you in my life. I seek you Lord, show me your face. Amen

.

Let the Spirit Direct your lives

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour in your sight, O Lord - my redeemer, my rock! Psalm 20:15

The above is a good prayer to start a prayer time with or even to use as just a short plea to God asking him to guide our day.  After all what we say and think are precursors to our actions.

My perception is that my days are better if I have made time to think and pray in the morning. The truth be known it might even make me better tempered!

St Paul advises us to "Let the Spirit direct your lives" (Galatians 5:16) and if we are going to do that we need to find the time to let that happen. We so easily fritter our lives away watching adverts or waiting for computers to boot up or gazing at the back of a cereal packet. All things we have chosen to do in a way albeit unconsciously perhaps. Can we find a little time for God in the midst of this?

But if we take St Paul's words seriously the Holy Spirit should be what gives our lives strategic direction. And listening for it's guidance should be what makes our Christian life move into a more authentic level of being.

In this life when we have so many choices, may one of them be to try and listen to the Spirit.

I can promise that doing this will change your life, lifting it to a different level. Letting God's love break in.

There are plenty of examples in the news of what happens when people make decisions without listening to the Holy Spirit. It's easy to look at the extreme examples of violence and hateful behaviour and say it's clear that whatever they were listening to it wasn't the voice of God. Inevitably too there are cases of so called religious people doing hateful things. Let's make it clear that kind of action is from the deceiver and is the opposite of what God wants.

To listen to the Spirit is to listen to the voice of God who is love. He will inspire us to walk joyfully in his peace, to love as he does.

Dear Lord, help me to see that your Spirit is for me! Help me to listen for your voice for my life and above all help me to respond. Amen