This week, until 6 December, you can purchase Daily Prayer 2 from Kevin Mayhew Ltd at a 10 per cent discount, using the code DAILYPRAYER10 when ordering the title from the company’s website. With the book normally retailing at £19.99, that’s a saving of £2. Just type the code into the relevant box at the online checkout between the dates given.
Meanwhile, here’s the second of the sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.
Don’t be ashamed
Read
I am not ashamed, for I know the one I have believed in, and I am certain that he is able to safeguard that which I have entrusted to him, until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12
Ponder
Let me ask you a couple of questions. First, are you ashamed of being a Christian? And, second, are you ashamed of Christ? On first hearing, those questions may sound pretty much the same, but there’s actually a world of difference between the two. Let’s take them one at a time. Are we ashamed of being a Christian? Well, speaking personally, sometimes my answer would be yes. When I hear people arguing for a seven-day creation, when the Bible is used to support misogynism or homophobia, when tele-evangelists appeal for donations to feather their own nests, when Christianity is equated with ultra-right-wing policies, when a street preacher harangues passers-by with warnings of the fires of hell, when churches argue over petty points of doctrine – yes, in these and numerous other instances I’d almost prefer not to be considered a Christian at all. If this is Christianity, I feel like saying, then count me out.
Am I ashamed, though, of Christ? Absolutely and emphatically not. In the man who lived and died for others, who not only spoke of love but demonstrated it, who taught with wisdom and authority, who reached out to the poor, the sick and the broken, who had time for the despised and rejected, who refused to cast the first stone but offered forgiveness and new beginnings, who gave his life for all, I see one with whom I am proud to be associated, one whom I truly wish to follow and make known. Never confuse the book with its cover, the message with its messenger. We may rightly sometimes be ashamed of what’s said and done in Christ’s name, but never be ashamed of him.
Ask yourself
Have you ever felt ashamed of being a Christian? Why? In what way does this differ from being ashamed of Christ?
Pray
Lord Jesus Christ, I’m tempted to keep quiet about my faith sometimes, to hide it away, for I know what many will think when they hear the word ‘Christian’. They will jump to conclusions; associate me with stereotypes that have little, if anything, to do with what I actually believe; assume that I hold the same views as those who use religion to justify prejudice, obscurantism, superstition, self-righteousness and intolerance. Their perception of Christianity will colour their judgement and shape their response to me before I have any chance to make an impression in my own right. Save me, though, from ever allowing that to make me ashamed of you, from failing to live in such a way as to make you known. Remind me, each day, of your love, goodness, grace and mercy, and help me through word and deed to testify to what those truly mean, for me, for them, for all. Amen.
Remember
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
Close
Grant, Lord, that who and what I am may break through any negative assumptions people have about Christianity and help them instead to glimpse something of you. Amen.