The numerous messages I’ve received thanking me for my devotional book Daily Prayer and its sequel Daily Prayer 2 constantly inspire me to write new material. Here’s a session from Daily Prayer exploring the mystery of God and the way we begin to fathom this in Christ. I hope it may speak to you.
Read
Remember, then, what you have received and heard; observe it and repent. If you fail to keep watch, I will come upon you like a thief at an hour which you will have no way of knowing. Those who triumph will be clothed in white robes, and I guarantee that their name will not be erased from the book of life; I will acknowledge them before my Father and his angels. All who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, let them listen. And to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia, write this: These are the words of the holy and true one, the one having the key of David, who opens so that no one can shut and shuts so that no one can open. Revelation 3:3, 5-7
Ponder
Have you ever lost or forgotten your house key? It’s infuriating, isn’t it? You can look through the letterbox, peer through the window, but you just can’t get inside. If you’re lucky, a neighbour or friend has a key; if not, you have to force the lock or smash a window to get in. For many, much of the Bible and the Christian faith feels rather similar – it gives a tantalising glimpse of a world they want to be part of, but which they cannot seem to get into. How can we believe in a loving Creator, they ask? What is meant by eternal life? Where and what is God? There are a multitude of questions that even the most committed of us struggle to answer. It has rightly been observed that no one has ever been argued into the kingdom of heaven. Even those of us who are Christians struggle to make sense of much in the scriptures, not least in the pages of the Old Testament. If we agonise over the problems and questions, valid though they may be, we will never reach a point of commitment and forever find ourselves on the outside looking in, and there is no way this time of forcing the lock to gain entry.
We need someone with the key, and that person is Jesus, the one who makes God real, the Word made flesh. It is only when we look at him that we are able to see what God is like, and it is through accepting his love and following his way that we find the door opened into the wonder of his kingdom.
Ask yourself
Do you lose yourself sometimes in trying to make sense of the mystery of God? Have you made faith too complicated?
Pray
Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you that you are the one who makes sense of it all – the one who enables me to grasp something of the mystery of God and to reconcile this with the riddle of life and the complexities of the world. I thank you that you are the key that unlocks the door, opening up for me the way to understanding and to life in all its fullness. Save me from getting lost in all that I cannot understand, from barring the door once again by restricting faith to my own limited understanding. Help me always to look to you and, through receiving your grace, may I follow your way until that day when I pass through the gates of your kingdom into the glory of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Remember
No one has ever seen God; but he who is close to his heart, his one and only Son, has made him known. John 1:18
Close
Sovereign God, for opening through Christ the way to know and love you, receive my praise. Amen.