This week’s promotional discount is on my 2003 book Daily Prayer, the most popular of my many publications, slightly ahead of No Ordinary Man and Prayers for All Seasons. Normally retailing at £14.99 (or £12.99 for the pocket edition), this week, until 20 September, you can purchase it at a 10 per cent discount – a saving of £1.50 – using the code DAILY10 when ordering the book from the Kevin Mayhew website. Just type the code into the relevant box at the checkout between the dates given.
Meanwhile, here’s the fourth of seven sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion. This one reminds us that faith must show itself in deed as well as word if it is to be seen as authentic:
Living the good news
Read
I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to lead a life commensurate with the calling to which you have been called, patiently dealing with one another with humility and kindness in love, striving always to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3
Ponder
What would you make of it if the former US President, Bill Clinton, were to produce a book called My Life as a Monk, or if the Archbishop of Canterbury were to come out with a title The A to Z of Safebreaking? You would, I think, rightly surmise that you were being taken for a ride. If, however, these were to produce the respective titles The Lewinsky Affair: My Side of the Story and Joys and Sorrows of an Archbishop, then you’d take the books seriously, for you’d know that each author was writing from experience. It’s all a question of credibility, and the same is true when it comes to living and witnessing to the Christian life.
We are told by Christ himself to share our faith, to witness to the truth of the gospel, and that is an important part of discipleship, but the effectiveness of our outreach will always depend on the transparency of our lives: how far what we say measures up to what we do. If our words say one thing but our lives another, then our testimony will always be taken with a pinch of salt, however much we urge people to judge the message rather than the messenger. We cannot hope, of course, to present anything like a perfect picture but we cannot afford to put across one radically different from the one we purport to represent. Do that, and no matter what we say or how often we say it, there will be few people willing to listen.
Ask yourself
What aspects of your life reinforce the gospel? What aspects undermine it?
Pray
Loving God, through Christ you demonstrated the wonder of your grace, living among us, sharing our humanity and giving freely of yourself. You didn’t just speak of love; you showed it in action. Forgive me for so rarely doing the same, my life instead belying my words.
I talk of forgiving others, yet I nurse grievances; of being content, yet I am full of envy; of serving others, yet I serve self; of loving truth, yet I deal falsely. I speak of commitment, but I am careless in discipleship; of faith, but I am full of doubt; of vision, but I am narrow in my outlook; of being a new creation, but I continue in just the same way as before. Forgive me and help me not simply to talk about faith but to demonstrate it through the person I am. Grant that my words and my deeds may be one, so that I may witness effectively to your renewing, redeeming power. Through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.
Remember
Conduct yourselves wisely in relation to those who do not share the faith, making the most of every opportunity. Colossians 4:5
Close
Living God, help me to proclaim the gospel not just through words but deeds – through what I say, what I do and who I am. Take what I am, and make me what I long to be, so that others, when they meet with me, meet also with Christ and know his living presence for themselves. Amen.