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 third of the sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.
In word and deed
Read
Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but rather the one who does the will of my heavenly Father. Matthew 7:21
Ponder
When I was ordained, years ago, I chose the following as one of the hymns for the service:
Dear Master, in whose life I see
All that I would, but fail to be,
Let thy clear light for ever shine,
To shame and guide this life of mine.
Though what I dream and what I do
In my weak days are always two,
Help me, oppressed by things undone,
O thou, whose deeds and dreams were one!
Written in the late nineteenth century by the Congregationalist minister, John Hunter, those words for me sum up the magnetism of Jesus that attracted the crowds to throng around him in such numbers. Here was a man who, unlike any other, practised what he preached, whose deeds reinforced his words, whose life exemplified his message. That’s why people listened to him, why they wanted to hear more, why they left everything to follow him, why they took seriously what he said: because his words and deeds tallied. Take either of those on their own and, while they would have caused a stir, their impact would soon have faded, but put them together and you have an irresistible combination, an example of a truly integrated life. What Jesus said, he did, and what he did made sense of the things he said.
For us there will always be a gulf between the two, but it is a gulf we must do our best to cross if we hope to be effective in our mission. Unless we are seen to live up to our principles, and until we show the love of Christ as well as talk of it, our message will fall on deaf ears. When the two speak with one voice, then they will speak of him.
Ask yourself
In what ways are your deeds at variance with your words? What do you find hardest about practising what you preach? Which speaks loudest: words or actions?
Pray
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for not simply speaking of love but for showing what it means; for not merely talking of forgiveness but for offering it freely. Thank you that, in all things, you practised what you preached, your words and deeds being as one. Help me to walk your way in turn, to demonstrate my commitment to you by putting it into practise, so that everything I say and do will likewise be consistent with the faith I profess. I know that my words and deeds will never fully be one, for I am weak, foolish and faithless, but by your grace work within me so that they may at least approximate more closely. Grant that people may see in my life a little less of me and a little more of you. Amen.
Remember
Brothers and sisters, what use is it for people to claim they have faith if they have no works to show for it? James 2:14a
Close
Help me Lord, through who I am, to witness to who you are, to the glory of your name. Amen.