His current place, above all names, is referenced many times in the New Testament (for example: Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1:4; 1 Peter 3:22)

But there’s another dimension to his departure, and it’s related to the way a couple got married in Jesus’ time.

The process would start with a father choosing a bride for his son, sometimes the son would be involved in this process. A meeting would be held with the prospective bride’s family to agree a ‘price’. This was not buying the bride, rather it was demonstrating the ability of the bridegroom (and his family) to adequately provide for his future wife. 

The price would be paid, and the agreement ratified with the couple sharing a cup of wine. This was a legal agreement – the couple were ‘betrothed’ but not yet married – a covenant which could only be broken by death or divorce. 

At this point the bridegroom would go away. This departure would be a fairly long time, possibly a year, during which time the couple would communicate with each other through a ‘best man’.  It was a time pf preparation. The bridegroom would be building their future home, a ‘mansion’ or addition to his father’s home. Meanwhile, the bride was preparing her wedding garments and, crucially, keeping her lamp ready because she didn’t know when her groom would return.

Here’s the thing – the groom couldn’t return until his father said the preparations were complete.

When he finally did return, he would get his friends together and arrive unannounced, often at night. The bride was then ‘caught up’ literally ‘snatched away’ and the wedding party would go back to the groom’s father’s house for a seven-day party. It was during this time that the marriage would be consummated while the guests celebrated.

Can you see the parallels?

The Church is a ‘chosen people’ who are the Bride of Christ. See 1 Peter 2:9 and Ephesians 5:25-32.

A price has been paid, and the covenant sealed with a shared cup of wine. 1 Peter 1:18-19; Luke 2:20

Jesus leaves to go and prepare a place. John 14:1-3. 

His return is known only to his Father. Matthew 24:36

(When Jesus says that he doesn’t know when he will return, he’s not abdicating his divinity, rather he’s placing himself as a son/bridegroom, an image his disciples will have been very familiar with).

We are in the middle of a betrothal/marriage process. A time of waiting and hope. But also one of certainty and confidence. The bride knew she was legally bound to her groom and him only, she knew he was preparing a place for her to be with him, and she knew he would return. She just didn’t know when.

When we take communion, we are reminding ourselves of the covenant that Jesus established, paid for in his blood. Our status is secure. While we wait for his return, we prepare ourselves with garments of righteousness – the process of sanctification. Our communication is with and through the Holy Spirit who teaches us about Jesus, and helps us in our sanctification as Helper, Advocate (defender), Encourager and more.

This seems to me to be a brilliant picture of the relationship between Jesus and his Church (and it’s the Church, the people of God, not just ‘me’). For sure, he has a position of power and authority, but this is relational, intimate and compelling.

And it brings yet more life to his statement that it truly is to our advantage that he goes away. It really is.

But there are parts of the Bible that are hard going! Particularly in the prophets where there’s much gloom and doom. They’re continually pronouncing ‘woe’ – mostly on Israel and Judah – but, interestingly, on other nations as well.

Then – I’d been thinking about Jesus’ words in the Upper Room where he was explaining that he would be departing but would send the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). The disciples hadn’t fully understood what he was saying, but the fact that he’d said he was going had clearly upset them. Jesus said that unless he went, the Holy Spirit would not come, so it was to their ‘advantage’ that he went. He then went on to explain more about the Holy Spirit, most likely because they were not very familiar with the Spirit and his work.

There’s a very human concern here about someone going away, apparently permanently. But when it actually happened, the disciples’ attitude had changed. Luke briefly describes Jesus’ ascension at the end of his gospel (Luke 24:50-53). Rather than being sad, they worshipped him (after he’d gone!) and returned to Jerusalem ‘with great joy’. By then they’d understood what Jesus meant, even though the Holy Spirit had not yet come in his place.

I wondered why that was – maybe Jesus had explained more on the Emmaus Road? Jesus had explained about the Holy Spirit – but what about Jesus himself? What happened to him?

In the Old Testament the prophet Daniel is given a vision of heaven – the language is ‘apocalyptic’ in style, but in the middle, there is a description of a son of man coming out of the clouds and being given all authority (Daniel 7:13-14). It’s like seeing the other side of Jesus’ ascension as he arrives into heaven for his coronation. He is given an everlasting kingdom to which all other kingdoms are subject. (See also Ephesians 1:20-23 and Philippians 2:9-11)

Jesus went into heaven to a place of the highest authority, from where he is currently ruling this world. 

His rule, though, is not like an earthly ruler. He is building his kingdom. He is building his church. 

Back to the Bible in a Year. The ‘woes’ that the prophets pronounce are on the people of God for their disobedience, and the other nations for their treatment of the people of God. At that time God was preparing the world for the arrival of the Messiah, so ‘when the fulness of time had come’ (Galatians 4:4) he sent his Son.

In the same way, Jesus’ rule over the nations is to prepare for his return. He warns of ‘wars and rumours of wars’, and nation rising against nation (Mark 13:7-8). We’re not to be surprised when the world cannot find peace.

All this is at a global level. But Jesus has all authority and rules over everything and everyone. That includes you and me. Jesus’ building up his church means adding more people to it – but also transforming Christians into his likeness (see 2 Corinthians 2:18 and Colossians 3:10). 

He’s given us a great promise to say that he’s working out everything for our good.

The story of Joseph in the Old Testament is a great example of this. Sold into slavery by his brothers at a young age, falsely accused, imprisoned. These events took place over many years. But God was using these things. Eventually Joseph was given authority second only to that of Pharoah. Later, after reconciling with his brothers, he told them, ‘you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50:20). The good that Jospeh saw was the preservation of his family (people) from the famine. In the bigger scheme of things this was God keeping the promise he’d made to Abraham which ultimately led to Jesus’ birth.

All things working together for the good of God’s people as well as furthering his purposes.

There’s much more to say about this – but for now we can be confident that whatever is going on in our lives is God working things out in us and for us. That confidence is a response of faith and trust.

It truly is to our advantage that Jesus left this world – for one, he’s ruling the world and our lives to work out his good purposes; and he’s sent his Holy Spirit, to live and work in us, as a guarantee of our promised inheritance.

To the praise of his glory!

Well 2025 didn’t turn out as I expected!

My wife broke her leg in January and couldn’t weight-bear for a couple of months. After that the process of recovery is slow as muscles are brought back to strength.

So I became chief cook and bottle washer. I developed a cake-making skill, just about managed to keep us alive with cooking skills, and lost some weight. And for the first six weeks I had to give her an injection every day! I’d add that to my CV, but I don’t feel particularly called in that direction.

Looking back at my plans for the year, one thing I did do was to read the Bible all the way through. What did I learn? Several things. I probably wouldn’t use that plan again as there was a point where we were reading Isaiah alongside Jeremiah, which was not easy!

But in the positive side, it was a great blessing. To grasp the grand sweep of Scripture. To find those unexpected passages. To sense the presence of God in the Word of God every day.

And overall it spoke of the faithfulness, the goodness, the sovereignty and the holiness of God.

It finished only a few days ago, and I find I’m missing it. The plan included a weekly break which was helpful – even necessary!

So I’m starting another one for 2026. This one has five sets of readings per week. It looks thought out – day 1 was Genesis 1-2, Psalm 19 and Mark 1.

So here’s to 2026, and whatever it might hold!

And more posts ….

I don’t know if you’ve made any resolutions yet? Over the years, I’ve worked out that 1^st January is probably the worst time to start – which is why I waited to post this!

I’m always impressed by Paul’s prayers for the churches e.g. Ephesians 1:15-23 and Colossians 1:9-14. They speak about growth – in knowledge, wisdom and understanding of God and what he has done for us. To grow like this requires habits (they used to be called ‘disciplines’!) that help us keep God central in our daily lives.

So here are some of my plans for 2025:

The Bible in a Year

This year, at church, we’re offering a challenge to read through the Bible in a year, but not starting until the 6^thJanuary (so avoiding eh New Year’s Day issue). The plan we have in mind is a 6 day a week one, so there’s chance to catch up if we miss a day. 

However, the aim of reading through the Bible is a year is not to read the Bible in a year. That would simply be ‘tick a box’ exercise. 

Reading the Bible in a year is a means to bigger aims. These would include: 

• to increase our knowledge of the big picture of the Bible,
• to allow regular exposure to the Bible to influence our minds, countering the influence of the world around us,
• to work through the plan with others, so we can encourage and support one another,
• and, most importantly, to grow in our relationships with God as we listen to him through his written Word and respond in prayer.

Prayer

The 6^th January coincides with a week of prayer, which is becoming something of a tradition. Putting the two together creates an opportunity to develop regular habits, so we might continue the prayer habit throughout the year alongside our reading.

Scripture Memory

I still manage to keep up with verses and passages that I’ve learned. Currently that’s 125 verses! Including the Prologue to John (John 1:1-18) which I memorised earlier this year. Flushed with that success, I’d like to memorise Ephesians 1 sometime this year (but not starting in January!). It would be good to find one or two others to do this together.

And more..

I’ve got some other ideas, but I’m not sure I want to go public with them just yet!

Someone recently said that daily time with God is like eating. We eat food every day because we need to. Sometimes it’s gourmet, sometimes it’s in great company. Quite often though it’s just ordinary, but we still eat because it sustains us. Jesus said ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). His word sustains us and is necessary for living.

May 2025 be a year of growth in our knowledge of God!

In ancient times, shepherds were not very high up the social scale. They had to look after sheep day and night. The job was hard, dirty and dangerous. Their lives were spent mostly outside amongst animals. They had to take their flocks to safe pasture and protect them from predators – wild animals or other shepherds – particularly at night. They would have been a fairly rough and tough group of men, considered ‘unclean’, and so tended to be shunned by others.

It was to this group of people that an angel appeared. Angels in the Bible often appear as terrifying beings. As in this case, when a single angel appeared to the shepherds they were ‘filled with great fear’. But he reassured them and brought them a message of ‘good news of great joy’. He then described the birth of a baby, but in an unusual way. Normally when a baby is born, we say ‘John and Mary have had a baby’. But here the angel says that a baby has been born ‘to you’ – and the message is to ‘all mankind’, so the baby was born for us also.

What followed then was possibly the greatest choral concert ever seen with a multitude of angels bursting on the scene. Interestingly, this happened in the sheep fields just outside Bethlehem, but not where Jesus was, the shepherds being the only witnesses.

Afterwards the shepherds went ‘with haste’ to see the newborn baby. Now, over the years, we’ve had many babies born in our church, and the proud parents will bring them to a Sunday service as soon as they can. My observation is that, in general, the ladies of the church will flock around the new baby, while the men … well they don’t.

But here we have a group of rough men rushing to see the baby! Maybe they felt special in some way as the angel’s message was directed at them, the baby was born for them, the angel choir was for them. In the history of the Jews, there had been no word from God for 400 years, but now here was a message from God announcing a long-awaited Saviour. Whatever the reason, it was enough to make them rush into the town to look for him.

When they got to where Jesus was, it was indeed as the angel had told them. They will have seen a baby amongst animals, in the dirt and roughness of hay and straw. Exactly the same as them. This was their world. He had come as one of them, amongst them. 

They spent some time with Mary and Joseph, relating what had happened, no doubt Mary and Joseph will have told of their stories. The reality of all this must have been mind-blowing. No wonder they left praising God!

In the Prologue to John’s Gospel (John1:1-18) verse 14 says ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. That is, the Word – Jesus – who was both God and with God, had put on flesh – become a human being – and dwelt (the word is ‘tabernacled’ or ‘put up his tent’) among us. 

The message for the shepherds was that he was born for them and that he came amongst them in their world. He identified himself with them.

But the message was for ‘all mankind’. So Jesus came and identifies with us, even today. He was born for us, for you, for me. Truly Emmanuel – God with us.

Some years ago I heard it put this way – God entered into our ‘mess’ to bring ‘shalom’, peace and contentment that comes from a right relationship with God.

Have you ever looked at the lyrics for ‘God rest ye merry, gentlemen’? Notice where the comma is. It could be phrased: Gentlemen, God rest ye merry. That’s because, when the carol was written, ‘merry’ meant pretty much the same as ‘shalom’. So this is asking God to rest (keep) us in peace and contentment through knowing him through Jesus. (see John 17:3).

So, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!

Psalm 40:4

Very often, when we come across a verse like that, we tend to focus on being ‘blessed’ – and how we should trust in the Lord. Rightly so.

But I got to wonder about the other part of the verse.¹

It’s is saying that we are blessed if we place our trust in the Lord, but not if we follow a lie. Put another way, we are either trusting in God or following a lie – the two are mutually exclusive.

This is, of course, fairly obvious. One definition of Truth is ‘that which in accord with reality’, so a lie, or untruth, does not. It follows that anyone going after a lie is moving away from reality.

This is not just academic, but has an impact on the way we live our lives. Whether we follow truths or lies, they each have consequences.

Jesus said in John 8:31 that ‘the truth will set you free’, while lies lead to enslavement, which is what Jesus went on to say (‘everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin’).

I got to think about what kind of lies we are prone to follow these days. Here are some that we meet everyday, to the extent they have become ‘normalised’:

• The universe is billions of years old and came about as some sort of cosmic accident.
• Human beings appeared very late in this timescale and are the cause of most if not all environmental problems. The earth’s ecosystem was working very well until human beings came along and spoiled it.
• Changes in the climate are largely humanity’s fault so humanity should, and can, correct this. Otherwise, we face an unprecedented catastrophe.
• Our identity is based on how we feel, not on objective facts.

There are lots more, but these seem to be the ‘big’ ones.

Addressing each of them in turn would take up too much space, but underlying them all is the idea that we don’t need God. We can explain things and run our lives exactly how we want without any reference or need for a Creator. Romans 1 speaks about how we suppress truth and exchange it for a lie – the inference being ‘the’ lie that God (if he exists) is not good, so we need to become independent from him (See Rom 1:18, 25); an idea that came from the devil right from the beginning.

But that idea has consequences. No Creator means no purpose or meaning to our lives, or for that matter, anything. If the world now is how it always has been, there is no hope for the future – wrongs will never be put right. If we can choose who we are, we lose real identity as we become subject to the fickleness of our feelings. If we are solely responsible for the state of the world then we will live in fear and guilt.

Thinking that we don’t need a Creator leads to loss. We have lost purpose, justice, hope, identity and peace.

On the other hand, the Bible presents truth in the form of a person, Jesus, who said that he was the Truth (John 14:6). Of course, anyone can say that – but he is the only one to demonstrate it by predicting his crucifixion and resurrection, then three days after a brutal execution comes back from the dead, just as he said (and just as had been prophesied for centuries beforehand). What he says is true. More than that, he is the incarnation of Truth.

He is the author of creation – all things were made by him John 1:3. The account of the creation is given in Genesis 1 and 2. It was declared to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31).

Human beings were part of that creation, from the beginning, made male and female (Matthew 19:4).

The Genesis account goes on to describe ‘the Fall’, an act of rebellion by the first couple resulting in catastrophe for the whole creation. In Romans 8, Paul explains how the whole creation is subjected to futility and is in bondage to corruption (Romans 8:20,21).

It’s interesting to see how a good lie contains elements of truth. Humanity is the cause of the problems in the world, but as a result of our rebellion, not simply our nature.

But God has not abandoned his creation. Speaking of Jesus, Paul writes how he holds all things together (Colossians 1:15-17). Similarly in Hebrews 1:3. Not only that, but he works out everything according to his will (Ephesians 1:11), so all things have a purpose.

While on earth, Jesus demonstrated his power over creation when, for instance, he controlled the weather Matthew 8:26.

And because the world now is not what it originally was, there is the hope of restoration. There is the promise of a ‘new heavens and a new earth’ where the old things are put away (see Isaiah 65:17 and 2 Peter 3:13), described more fully in Revelation 21:1-4.

These are all big topics, but in summary, God made everything good with men and women being a high point in creation. We have rebelled against him, but in Jesus he has made it possible to recover that lost relationship, and at some point in the future he will restore all things. Paul addressed the philosophers in Athens in much the same way – see Acts 17:22-31.

The consequences of following the truth are clearly the opposite of believing a lie: there is meaning, there is a purpose to our lives, we can know who we are, there is a future for us and the creation which gives us hope.

Of course, we have to be careful – finding and living by the truth is not always easy in a fallen world. Interestingly, we had a sermon recently which emphasised the importance of critical thinking and how we need to ‘test every spirit’ (1 John 4:1, see also 1 Thess 5:2).

God has not left us alone though. He has given us his Spirit, who guides us into all truth (John 16:13), and the Word (the Bible) John 17:17 and 2 Timothy 2:15.

And back to Psalm 40:4 – the one who makes the Lord his trust is truly ‘blessed’!

1. It’s known as ‘antithetical parallelism’, a device in Hebrew poetry where a truth is emphasised by stating the opposite.

The final part of Jesus’ prayer is bracketed by ‘forgive others as God has forgiven you’. In a sense, that’s looking backwards to sins we have committed.

So in that context, we are told to pray ‘Lead us not into temptation’. Which is a forward look to potential sins.

The first thing to say is that God does not tempt us to sin – James 1:13 – but he does allow us to go through various trials. In fact, it’s pretty much a certainty that as Christians we will go through different kinds of trials or testing. Though we also have the promise that we will not be tested beyond our ability to endure it – 1 Corinthians 10:13.

The first chapter of James is quite helpful with this. It opens with the statement that we should count trials as ‘joy’ (James 1:2) – because when our faith is tested we grow stronger. But James also identifies the source of our temptations. Not God, but our own desires, our sinful natures. 

So the prayer could be worded ‘lead us not to the place of testing’. Rather, Psalm 23 for instance describes other, positive, places where God does lead us: ‘beside still waters’ and ‘in paths of righteousness’. 

This leading is not ‘dragging’, against our will – it is more like guiding. Our own hearts or desires will tend to take us away from God. Through his Word and the inward prompting of the Holy Spirit, he will lead, or guide, us away from temptation and towards righteousness.

It is not just our inward desires that can tempt us. Clearly there are temptations all around us, though they will almost always find footing in our minds.

The second part of this prayer ‘deliver us from evil’, refers to an external source of temptation. The word ‘evil’ is not an abstract word – it is a personal word. It is often translated as ‘deliver us from the evil one’. While this could mean an evil person, it most likely refers to the devil. So, deliver, or rescue, us from the devil. 

The devil is a spiritual being who is more powerful than we are but is powerless against Jesus. As an example, Jesus tells the disciples that Satan wanted to ‘shake’ them, something Peter says he will be able to resist (Luke 22;31-34). It turned out that he couldn’t as he denied Jesus three times. Nevertheless, Jesus delivered him by praying for him (Luke 22:32), restoring him after his resurrection (John 21:15-19) and subsequently making him the leader of the church in Acts 2:14ff. Peter could not withstand the devil in his own strength, but with Jesus’ strength the devil was disempowered and Peter was raised to be a witness and apostle in the church.

‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us form evil’ is a prayer for protection from influences and forces that are stronger than we are, but over which God has ultimate power.

Some versions of the Bible include a doxology (praise) after this final part of Jesus’ prayer:

It’s unlikely this was in the original manuscripts, but it is a very appropriate way to finish this prayer as it brings our focus back to our all-powerful, glorious Father who will love, care for, provide and protect his children.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

Matthew 6:12

This is the penultimate petition on Jesus’ model prayer. It clearly carries some importance as immediately after giving the prayer, he returns to the importance of forgiving others.

He says that because God has forgiven us, we must forgive others, then goes further saying that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us.

Does that mean that God will stop forgiving us? That we can therefore lose our salvation? No, because our salvation, or justification, is a one-time event which cannot be undone (see Romans 5:1, 9; 8:1; 10:10). Also, if God waited to see if we forgave others before he forgave us, then our salvation would be based on our works – which is not the case (see Ephesians 2:8-9).

Rather, it has to do with our ongoing relationship with God. Remember the prayer starts with ‘Our Father’. The context is that of children praying to their father. But is possible for us to spoil that relationship. We can grieve the Holy Spirit by our behaviour (see Eph 4:30). God made us in his image, which means we are like him, so we should mirror him in everything we are and do. The work of the Holy Spirit in us is to restore that image, which was corrupted by the Fall, and if we resist his work by choosing to not reflect his image, he is grieved. In the context of forgiveness, God has forgiven us so it follows that we should do as he does and forgive others.

Forgiving others can be very hard to do, which is why we need the reminder of how much God has forgiven us. Jesus illustrates this in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-35). Here, there is a servant who owes his master an astronomical amount (equivalent to billions of pounds). How he got into such debt is not the point, the amount represents something which is completely unpayable. And that is the point. Our ‘debt’ to God is beyond our ability to pay. It’s not simply financial, it’s the debt of treason, the consequence of our sin. RC Sproul describes sin as ‘cosmic treason’. CS Lewis says ‘Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms’.

The other day, I was reading the account of Jesus in Gethsemane, just before his arrest. He sweat drops of blood – a sign of great stress. Here is the perfect man, the Son of God, recoiling from the terror of the punishment he was about to face. That indicates the depth of our sin – and the fact that he determined to go through with it shows the enormity of his love for us. While we may never really grasp the real gravity of our sin, we can at least understand that God’s forgiveness is for something we could never repay. And however much other people sin against us, it will still not compare to our sin against God.

And that is the point of the second part of the parable. The forgiven servant refused to forgive a smaller debt. While it was not insignificant in human terms (in the parable it was measured in thousands of pounds), it was tiny compared with the original debt owed by the servant.

In other words, whatever we think others might owe us, it is nothing compared to the debt God has forgiven us. 

And it’s because of that that we should be willing to forgive others. A willingness to forgive is an indication of our own forgiveness. James writes that while we are saved through faith, our faith is demonstrated by our works. (James 2:18). That is, our behaviour or outward actions. 

In Ephesians 4, Paul makes this very practical. He says that a Christian is someone who has ‘put off their old ways’ and ‘put on a new self, created after the likeness of God’ (Ephesians 4:22-24). He then lists several ways this might be demonstrated, finishing with ‘forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you’ (Ephesians 4:25-32).

So when we pray ‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors’, we are both asking God for forgiveness, and committing ourselves to forgive others.

Daily Bread

Continuing with the Lord’s Prayer, we get to the next petition which switches the focus. So far, the prayer has been God-centred – His name, His holiness, His will. In summary, the prayers have been ‘in heaven’.

But now it’s very much down to earth. Give us this day our daily bread. Daily bread is a recognition of our dependence on food. And at the most obvious level, Jesus is referring to our dependence on our Father to provide us with our physical needs. In the West, the majority of us are ‘distanced’ from the source of our food – we don’t see it grow or processed – which can lead us to be ‘distanced’ from the source of that food, namely God himself. 

So this prayer is not about reminding God that we need bread every day – he knows that already – in fact that is the very context of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:8 see also Matthew 6:31, 32). Rather it is to remind us of our dependence on God and to acknowledge and thank him on a daily basis.

Manna

It’s also likely, when Jesus’ hearers heard the word ‘bread’, that their minds will have gone to the provision of manna in the wilderness. The book of Exodus recounts how the whole nation had just been released from slavery in Egypt, and were now wandering in a wilderness. They were hungry and cried out for food. God provided in a miraculous way with manna – bread from heaven – which came every day except on the Sabbath. Many lessons here. It was God’s provision, all they had to do was gather it. It was sufficient – no-one went without – but they couldn’t hoard it (except for the day before the Sabbath). It foreshadowed God’s ultimate provision of our greatest need in sending Jesus (I am the bread of life John 6:48-51).

The people’s reaction is interesting. At first they were obviously grateful. But some had to test God – What if we try to keep some for the next day (it went bad), what if we don’t gather enough for the Sabbath (you go hungry because there is none on the Sabbath). 

Then after a while, they got bored with it. So they complained. They wanted more variety, something that was more interesting. In recounting this is Psalm 106, the psalmist writes about a ‘wanton craving’ (for meat). God’s response was to give them what they wanted, but he also sent a ‘wasting disease’ amongst them.  

God’s provision for us is always sufficient. To want something more or different is to distrust him and think that we know better.

The Word

There’s also a relationship between bread and the Word. In his testing in the wilderness, Jesus (quoting from Deuteronomy) said how ‘man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). Our lives consist of more than food – we need to hear from God himself and are also dependent on him to speak to us. The primary way he does this is through the Bible – his Word. But I’ve found that whenever we talk about this, there seems to be an immediate reference to how God can use other ways as well and the focus shifts to how God uses other means. It’s as though we’re not satisfied with God’s regular provision – we want something else.

I have no doubt that God uses different ways to speak to us – but the point is that the primary way is through his Word. That is where we will find him daily, and that is where we should be seeking him. 

Contentment

Jesus said effectively to take one day at a time and not to worry about tomorrow – including God’s provision of our food – rather to be seeking God’s kingdom. Matt 6:25-34. This, I think, is the secret to contentment as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:6-8.

In this phrase, Jesus draws a distinction between ‘on earth’ and ‘in heaven’. God’s will is done in heaven, so there will be no need to pray for that; but it is not done everywhere on earth, hence the need to pray.

So I got to thinking about where, on earth, God’s will is done, where can his Kingdom be seen to be coming, and where is his name hallowed.

And the only place is the Church. 

The Church

That is, the body of Christians across the world, the family of believers, not just those who meet in a particular building or belong to a particular organisation. There are several terms used to describe different facets of the church – one being the Church Universal. This refers to all believers, both on earth and in heaven 

Another description of the Church, that joins up earth and heaven, is the idea of the ‘Church Militant’ (believers on earth) and the ‘Church Triumphant’ (believers in heaven). 

While we may not be overly comfortable with the word ‘militant’ these days, it’s intended to convey that the church on earth is involved in a battle. Not a physical battle, but spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil. In my last blog I mentioned a few passages which speak of ‘this is the will of God…’ including abstaining from immorality, giving thanks in all circumstances, doing good and so on. Keeping these commands can sometimes be difficult, and that’s where we experience the battle. Particularly in the area of sanctification. 1 Peter 2:11 says: 

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul

While we are on earth we will be constantly in this battle, but we have to remember that Jesus has already won. We are, as it were, fighting the last skirmishes with a defeated enemy. While that doesn’t make is easy, it does mean there is nothing to fear. 

Because the good news is that there is something better to come. The Church Triumphant is made up of those believers who have ‘made it’. They’re in a place of triumph. Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has triumphed over all our enemies, so that when we die, we’re taken off the battlefield. We’re in a place of rest, a place where God’s will is done perfectly, a place of triumph.

That in itself should be enough to encourage us to persevere (see how Paul views this in Philippians 1:22-24).

Beyond that the Bible speaks of a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ where we will be reunited with our bodies and become ’gloriously human’ – see Revelation 21-22.

So the prayer ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ is multi-faceted. It includes a request for God to help us keep his will in our own lives, a recognition of a battle and a request for victory over our enemies.