I am thinking today that the Shulammite Bride in the Song of Songs merits some further thought. She couldn’t accept that she was, to her lover, ‘the most beautiful of women’ Song of Songs 1:8, because she had been out working in the fields. It was probably not just that she had got sunburnt, but […]

Have you ever tried to give someone a compliment, only to find that it has been deflected away. This could be an attempt at false modesty, a genuine mistrust of ‘unnecessary’ flattery, or it could even be a fear of becoming conceited or proud. You will hear things like, “Oh really? Well it was nothing […]

Monday mornings can be hard, after the weekend, with the prospect of going back to work, or school, or the thought of the challenging things that have to be done this week. Any of these can result in feeling pressure or anxiety, or maybe just feeling flat and heavy. Over the last few days we […]

Today the picture I have in my mind’s eye is of the sluice gates in a canal lock gate, (which I shall refer to as the paddles from now on). This is going to be like a pictorial P.S. to yesterday’s blog. So, if you can, imagine that you are in a canal boat going […]

I wrote yesterday about the fact that the Holy Spirit loves gratitude and thanksgiving, that when he sees our gratitude, He rushes in to do what He loves to do; to ‘shed abroad the love of God in our hearts’ Romans 5:5, in even greater measure. That set me thinking about the Holy Spirit, and […]

Over the past couple of days we have been considering the promise that we read in Isaiah 40:31, that those who ‘wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength’, and in that verse we are given the beautiful picture of the eagle mounting up on outstretched wings, in effortless flight, ‘they will soar on wings […]

Yesterday we wrote about the fact that thanksgiving helps us when we need to renew our strength because it slows us down and helps us to focus on the Lord and who He wants to be for us in the situation. It helps us to fill our gaze with the beauty of the Lord as […]

In Isaiah 40:31 we read that wonderful promise, ‘Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.’ In the passage those who do this ‘waiting on the Lord’ are contrasted with youths and […]

We know from Romans 5:21, that grace trumps sin, any time, and anywhere. In fact the revelation of grace in the early church was so powerful that Paul had to ask the question ‘Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?’, and the answer of course is ‘By no means! We died to sin; […]

Last week we were reflecting on the thought that the Lord is inviting us to overflow with thankfulness and gratitude (Colossians 2:7) and we considered how this may take the form of a bubbling spring welling up, or perhaps a quieter strong flow of a deep river. This week, more treasures have emerged on thanksgiving […]