This week, until the end of today, 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 last of the sessions I’m posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.
Pointing the way
Read
A man named John was sent by God. He came to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He, personally, was not the light; rather he came to testify to it. John 1:6-8
Ponder
It’s funny, isn’t it, how swiftly a little recognition can go to our head? A footballer scores a couple of goals and suddenly he sees himself as the next Wayne Rooney. A singer gets through the auditions for The X Factor and immediately starts to dream of becoming the biggest thing since Kylie Minogue. A contestant causes a stir on Big Brother and before you know it they’re hyping themselves up as a national celebrity. We live in a culture which is all about ‘me’ – about thrusting ourselves forward, blowing our own trumpet, winning plaudits, making a name for ourselves.
Compare that with the example of John the Baptist. He was making a name for himself, undoubtedly. His preaching, teaching and ascetic lifestyle out in the wilderness were causing a stir, raising eyebrows among the religious authorities and attracting crowds in their droves. And as speculation grew as to who he could be, so his fame increased. It would have been easy for John simply to bask in the adulation, but he didn’t. In fact, he did quite the opposite, pointing firmly and unequivocally away from himself and towards Jesus, the one whose way he was sent to prepare. That’s what concerned him: witnessing to Christ and helping others to know him for themselves. How about us? Do we share that same goal? Does anything we do or say point others to Jesus? Ask yourself, prayerfully and honestly, of what does your life speak: you or him?
Ask yourself
Whose glory are you most concerned with: your own or God’s? What in your life points to Jesus? What stops the message of his love from showing through you?
Pray
Remind me, Lord, that I am called to witness not to myself, the Bible or the Church, but to you: to what you said, what you have done and who you are. Forgive me for losing sight of that and unconsciously putting across a different message. Forgive me for confusing incidentals with what really matters. Help me to seek your glory before my own, to put you first and myself second, so that, in all I do, I may truly honour your name. Amen.
Remember
This is how John responded to the priests and Levites sent by Jews in Jerusalem to ask, ‘Who are you?’ He declared without any equivocation, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ They pushed him further. ‘Who are you then?’ ‘I am a voice crying in the wilderness,’ he answered: ‘“Make straight a way for the Lord.”’ John 1:19-21a, 23
Close
Live in us, Lord, work through us, shine from us, so that who and what we are may in some small way help to prepare your way into the hearts and lives of others. Amen.