Category Archives: Daily Reflection

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6:19-24

Image by 401K (2012)@flickr and made available under this licence.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife, Claire, and I went to speak to a financial advisor. Our lives are about to change significantly; in about two weeks we will welcome our first child into the world. As a consequence, we thought that it would be a good idea for us to ensure that our finances are in order, and to make sure that we can provide not just for ourselves, but our new son. I don’t particularly like talking about money; I always feel uncomfortable since, on a global and a historical scale we (and by that I mean all of us in the western world) are comparatively wealthy, and I always have at the back of my mind Christian teaching on wealth. Yet confront these issues Claire and I must as we think about our family’s future.

Jesus, in the passage above, outlines how Christians should regard their ‘treasure’. He is very clear that we must not store up for ourselves treasures on earth. We must ensure that we do not fall into the easy (and compelling) trap of materialism. Acquisition of wealth and possessions for ourselves might seem attractive, but ultimately it is pointless, since it decays, degrades, devalues and can be stolen. Instead, we should aim to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven, since our treasure there is not subject to the same weaknesses of earthly wealth.

Focusing our attention on earthly wealth is harmful, both to God’s kingdom, and also to ourselves.

It is harmful to God’s kingdom since acquiring and storing wealth purely for ourselves does not enable us to support the poor, the needy, the sick and the starving. It is people like these that were right at the heart of Jesus’ ministry; he went out of his way to support those seen as outcasts from the rest of society. As Christians we have a duty and a responsibility to continue Christ’s work of supporting people such as these. Giving our money to charities that work to support them is a vital task of building God’s kingdom here on earth.

Storing up treasures for ourselves is harmful to ourselves, since it exposes the darkness of our hearts and brings into question the depth of our confidence in Christ. As Jesus says above, ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. If we place our focus on earthly treasure, then our heart is stuck in the sinful, earthly realms. But if instead we seek to store up treasures in heaven by following Christ, loving our neighbours and committing to always place the needs of others before ourselves, then our heart is lifted to the realms of the kingdom of God. We cannot serve both God and money; we must decide where our priorities lie.

Is it wrong, therefore, for me to be investigating life insurance, pension provision and mortgages as Claire and I prepare for the arrival of our son? Well, this is the difficult question to which I keep returning, and which I know different people will have different views on. My own view is that it is eminently sensible and desirable. I believe that we are commanded to provide for our families and to secure our financial future. Indeed, Paul writes to Timothy, ‘Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever’ (1 Timothy 5:8). Additionally, Proverbs states, ‘Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest’ (Proverbs 6:6-8). With this in mind it seems like a sensible idea to plan for our future. As for spending money on treasures that are solely about the instant gratification of a consumerist society – well that’s an entirely different matter.

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Crossring: God's Word Today.

Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth

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16 “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

Prayer and Fasting doing battle with Envy in a Bulgarian fresco. By Edal Anton Lefterov (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s interesting, therefore, that during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his followers how they should fast. Jesus takes it for granted that his followers will fast, saying not if you fast but when you fast. He identified fasting as part of the Christian experience. Fasting is not a common experience for Christians today, however. Perhaps, in the light of these verses it should be something that we do far more often. A quick flick through the Bible shows that in both the Old and New Testaments, fasting was a common feature of a Godly life. Fasting seems to have been particularly linked with prayer. We see in the book of Daniel that he records, ‘so I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes’ (Daniel 9:3). In Luke’s gospel, the prophet Anna ‘never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying’ (Luke 2:37). The prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch are recorded as praying and fasting: ‘So after they had fasted and prayed…’ (Acts 13:3). When Paul and Barnabas selected leaders for the churches in Acts, ‘with prayer and fasting, committed [them] to the Lord’ (Acts 14:23). Clearly there is precedent for fasting. No doubt it helps a prayer to focus their mind on their prayers, whilst also demonstrating personal self-discipline and commitment to seeking God’s will through prayer.

Should we choose to adopt fasting in our own faith life, Jesus offers some clear guidance in the verses above. Just as we must ensure that our giving and our prayer are focused on God and not intended to be outward signs of piety, intended to encourage people to look our us and our religiosity in awe, so we should not seek to draw attention towards ourselves as we fast. We should not be dramatically somber or disfigure our faces, to make it plain that we are fasting. People who fast in this way are hypocrites who have received their reward in full. Instead, we should keep our outward appearance exactly the same as usual and avoid making our fasting obvious to those around us. If we fast in this discrete fashion, our Father in heaven will see us and reward us.

I wonder if, like me, you’ve been challenged by these verses? I wonder if you will consider fasting from time to time? If we aspire to be like Christ, we could do far worse, since he, after all, fasted from time to time. If we wish to deepen our prayer life, fasting could be beneficial. We must ensure, however, that our fasting is not intended to draw attention to ourselves, but purely to deepen our relationship with God.

Listen to this reflection/download Podcast:

Crossring: God's Word Today.

When you fast, do not look sombre

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For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:14-15

Gordon Wilson and his wife Joan, by Bobbie Hanvey Photographic Archives, John J. Burns Library, Boston College. (Bobbie Hanvey) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

One person who stands out for me as I have struggled with forgiveness is a man called Gordon Wilson. He and his daughter were in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland when the Provisional IRA let off a bomb. Wilson was injured and his daughter, Marie, was fatally injured. Writer William Ury wrote about Wilson as follows:

In an interview with the BBC, Wilson described with anguish his last conversation with his daughter and his feelings toward her killers: “She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, ‘Daddy, I love you very much.’ Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say.” To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, “But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She’s dead. She’s in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night.” As historian Jonathan Bardon recounts, “No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact.” (Quote from Wikipedia).

My experiences pale into insignificance when compared with those of Gordon Wilson, and yet he found in himself the ability to forgive those who had not just injured him, but who killed his beloved daughter, Marie.

Forgiveness is difficult, but in the two verses above, which immediately follow Jesus’ teaching of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus makes it clear that we are expected to forgive those who wrong us. We are not to bear grudges, to return wrong doing with wrong doing, or to withhold forgiveness from others. No, we are called instead to forgive others. This can be not only difficult, but upsetting and costly. It requires us to face up to difficult circumstances, to reflect on painful times, and to love people whom we might ordinarily despise, people who could well have made our lives into a living nightmare.

Jesus is clear, though. If we do not forgive others, God will not forgive our sins. If we cannot bring ourselves to forgive then it is questionable just how much we have the true Spirit of Christ within us, how much we have allowed our lives to be transformed by our faith. God does not say this out of spite. Far from it. Our Father in heaven knows just how costly forgiveness is; he gave up his only son to death in order that we might be forgiven. Jesus has the scars of the nails that fixed him to the cross in his hands and feet that demonstrate the costliness of forgiveness. Yet at no time did God falter in his plan, at no point did Jesus falter in following his Father’s mission. It was his death and resurrection that enabled us to be forgiven, to be made right with God, and to gain new life in God’s perfect kingdom.

Think today whether there is anyone in your life whom you need to forgive. It might be someone who is in your life at the present moment, or it could be someone who wronged you in your past. Ask God for his help as you strive to forgive them for the pain, the hurt and the suffering that they caused you. And be at peace knowing that if you forgive those who have wronged you, God will forgive you too.

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Crossring: God's Word Today.

Forgive other people

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5 ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 ‘This, then, is how you should pray:

‘“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:5-13

The Lord’s Prayer by navalatanjjnn, and made available under this licence.

Here in the UK we’re just weeks away from a General Election, when we get the opportunity to vote on who would like to represent us in the House of Commons. I would say that we’re ‘gripped by election fever’, but actually, the truth is that I have seen little to suggest that this is the case. What I have seen is politicians of all parties laying out their plans and policies that they will seek to implement should they be elected on May 7th. There has been a little mud slinging, but so far the politicians seem to be generally behaving quite well. It is almost inevitable, though, that at some point at least some politicians will be branded as hypocrites – saying one thing whilst doing another. It might be retaining staff on zero hours contracts whilst railing against this kind of employment. It might be sending their children to independent schools whilst advocating equality. It might be fiddling their own expenses whilst condemning the wealthy for using tax avoidance strategies. If they are to avoid such criticism, our politicians must lead lives that are whiter than white and live by the rules that they seek to apply to the rest of us. If they fail to do so then it is inevitable that they will be criticised for being hypocrites.

In today’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns against hypocrisy when praying. He urges his followers, ‘when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray … to be seen by others’. There were some contemporaries of Jesus who took great pride in their own supposed piety. They were keen to be seen as diligent and ardent prayers. They wanted others to look at them in awe, to think that they were godly, spiritual and devoted to a higher cause. For them, prayer was a very public affair. How else would they gain the admiration of others? Jesus is very critical of such people; their hearts are not in their prayer, their motivation is wrong; they are hypocrites. They do not pray to get closer to God but to gain the respect of others. They, however, have already received their reward in full. God listens to them but their prayers will go unanswered.

Genuine prayer is between God and the prayer; there is no need for any additional audience. Personal prayer is just that – a private moment, an opportunity for an individual to reflect, to share their concerns with God, and to listen to him in a moment of peace, calm and tranquility. This is why Jesus tells his followers that when they pray, they should ‘go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen’. This is genuine, heart felt prayer; not some religious act to gain credibility from others, but a two way process based on love, expressing love for God by talking to him in recognition that his love for us means that he listens and responds to our prayers.

Jesus then gives an example of a prayer which provides a structure that we should use to guide our prayer. Now known as the Lord’s Prayer, it provides a useful pattern on which we should base our own prayer. It begins with an expression of adoration for God, recognising him as our Father before glorifying his name. Next it shows that we should pray that God would help us to align our desires with his plan, namely asking that he will equip us to play our part in bringing about his kingdom whilst following his will for our lives. Jesus then suggests that we ask God to provide us with all that we need to live, before turning to the difficult issue of sin. Jesus suggests that we ask God to forgive us our wrong doings, whilst also affirming before God that we have forgiven those who have wronged us (perhaps the hardest element of the prayer). Finally, Jesus tells us that we should ask God to help us to avoid temptation whilst also asking him to rescue us from sin and the devil.

Prayer is something with which many Christians struggle – myself included. If this is you, why not find a quiet room today and shut yourself away, free from distractions, just for a few minutes, and lift your thoughts to our father in heaven. If you get stuck, why not simply recite the Lord’s prayer and then reflect, in a moment of stillness, on God’s majesty and his love, which he demonstrated so significantly by sending his son to die for us.

Listen to this reflection/download Podcast:

Crossring: God's Word Today.

Do not be like the hypocrites when you pray

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