Living by faith is an essential part of our walk as believers. When we were born again, we put our faith in what we could not see, Jesus Christ and received the fullness of salvation in him. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul commands us to “to live by faith and not by sight”, implying that our faith doesn’t begin and end with receiving salvation, but faith continues to be an essential part of our every day lives. 

Hebrews 11:1 declares that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”. Both 2 Cor 5:7 and Heb 11:1 contrast faith to sight, suggesting that if we are living only by what we can see in the natural realm, we are not living by faith. To have faith is to look beyond what we can see and to be confident in what we do not see. But for most of our time on earth, our primary way of looking at our lives is through our natural eyes! So how can we train ourselves to not be led by what we can see, but instead to look beyond and have faith in what we cannot see? 

Continue reading “Living by faith” →

At church on Easter Sunday last year, God surprised me in a really beautiful way. All Easter weekend I had been focusing and meditating on a couple of scriptures from Mark’s gospel:

“With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Mark 15:37-38 NIV

The final moment of Jesus’ death had captured my attention in a way it hadn’t before. I spent a lot of time picturing that scene, the moment where his final breath tore the temple veil in two, as well as contemplating what exactly that meant for us as believers… 

Then at church, during worship, I saw that a member of the art team was finishing a large canvas at the front, directly in line with where I was sitting. As I looked more closely at it, I realised that, amazingly, it was the exact scene I had been imagining, of the veil being torn in two! I found it moving to see what I had been intently reflecting on suddenly so vivid before my eyes.

Continue reading “The Veil Is Torn” →

In this final part of my blog series on ‘Only One Thing Is Needed’, I want to look at the question, what does my life look like when I am fully living from this revelation? How is my behaviour different when I live with a ‘One thing’ mentality? To begin with, lets go back to the gospels and read another account of Mary of Bethany, a story which is told in Matthew, Mark and John, but Mary is only actually named in John’s gospel.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 

John 12:1-3 NIV

Mary again displays her extravagant devotion to Jesus and further reveals the reality of living a ‘only one thing is needed’ lifestyle. Pure nard is a costly perfume, a pint of which would have set you back a years wages. Mary doesn’t pour a small drop over Jesus’ feet or use just enough to get a bit of scent. Nard was stored in an alabaster jar (Matthew 26:7) which had a tall neck that would have to be broken open so the contents could be accessed. It is impossible to use only a little bit, you have to go ‘all in’, therefore every single drop would have been poured out over Jesus’ feet (John 12) and head (Matthew 26/Mark 14).

Continue reading “Only One Thing Is Needed (3)” →

After my last post you might have had some questions such as, “But what about all the other things I feel I need? What do I do with those desires?” I want to explore these questions in this post as sometimes it just doesn’t feel like a simple choice to only need Jesus.

In 2022 I had a lot insomnia issues that were making me feel very drained and this was coupled with a new ailment of a mystery stomach ache. The stomach ache would come and go but it was also steadily growing worse as the year went on. I’ve had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) for some years now and it is horrible to live with, but it doesn’t always ‘press’ on me and make my life as uncomfortable as these sleep/stomach problems were. 

The desire to be fully well and recovered is always there but these ‘new’ physical problems were creating a heightened level of need for a ‘now’ solution. It was in this place of greater need in my physical body that God began to speak this truth to me when I cried out to him – truly only one thing is needed. 

Night after night of waking up at 4am and not being able to get back to sleep began to wear me down. Some days every meal I ate caused my stomach to become sore and tender. In these moments what God was saying to me did not feel easy to receive… I wanted freedom and peace restored to my body and some days it felt like that was all I could think about.

Continue reading “Only One Thing Is Needed (2)” →

At the end of 2022, I listened to a few podcasts that were reflecting on the year that gone by, particularly focusing on being grateful even if the year had been difficult. Later, writing my own gratitude list for 2022, I saw there was a lot to be thankful for and to celebrate, even if some desires went unmet. Amongst the more obvious things to be thankful for, was a revelation that God had continually spoken into my heart during some of the hardest moments in my year. This truth was that ‘One thing is needed’. 

I found this truth would be the words that Holy Spirit whispered into my soul when I felt most in need, when I was crying out to God with what seemed like unanswered prayers. Yet really he was answering me, it just wasn’t in the way that I wanted. But what does ‘One thing is needed’ really mean? I began to explore this truth with God in scripture. 

Continue reading “Only One Thing Is Needed” →

Victory is something most Christians desire or need in at least one area of their lives. We long to see the enemy lose, for circumstances to change and for darkness to flee. Most of us likely have a picture in our minds of what we think our victory ‘should’ look like. I certainly did, however God showed me that the image I had of the ‘victorious life’ was actually an incredibly worldly image and was not a lot like a godly, kingdom victory. I confess I have desired a ‘comfortable’ victory, with worldly riches and blessings and with my problems just sorted out and gone away. But I don’t think that is the picture of victory I want to be longing for anymore. 

Jesus’ victory was death on a cross. How many of us picture that when we see and long for our victory? We probably more visualise the resurrection, all things restored and healed! But Jesus triumphed over the powers and authorities of the dark world by the cross (Colossians 2:15). The resurrection only came after the most awful death and suffering imaginable, the cross. How many of us are willing to go to the cross where the victory was won before we experience our glorious resurrection?

Continue reading “What is your image of victory?” →

If you look back to 5 or 10 years ago, has your life turned out exactly the way you thought it would? Did you have a plan for how you wanted your life to go and how you would get there?

Often there is a way we feel life should go or at least we have some idea of how we want things to turn out… and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But it’s easy to get stuck believing a very common Christian misconception, which is that “because I’m a Christian and I’m blessed… God will protect me from suffering and my life is going to exactly the way I want, when I want, because he loves me”.

Unfortunately whilst it is very true that God loves us and that we are blessed as Christians, it doesn’t mean that life will happen just the way we want it to. Very often life will not go exactly to our own plan, but despite what goes on in our lives, God can and will still work out it for good – nothing can get in the way of his plan for our lives.

Continue reading “Surrender – His ways, His timings” →

In this post I’m going to give a practical example of how we put the four key words I looked at last week, into practice when planting a seed, a promise of the word, in our heart.

The biggest felt need in my life for a long time has been for health. Chronic fatigue syndrome has been extremely debilitating and isolating, I have longed to experience the healing I know God wants me to have but I have struggled to receive it and hold onto it. So the example I’m giving today is of my favourite healing scripture and how I am planting that seed in my heart in order to receive health.

“By his stripes, we have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

Continue reading “Producing A Crop” →

In Ephesians 1, Paul writes in verse three that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Sometimes when reading that I have felt frustrated because the blessing felt inaccessible. I yearned for God’s blessing to be part of my everyday reality, but I’ve had to learn how to access it. How we bring what God has already provided for us in the heavenly realms into our earthly lives is through the word of God. The word of God is full of promises and every single one has been given to us in Christ. The word tells us what our spiritual blessings are and it’s the power in the word itself that brings the harvest of God’s blessing into our lives.

Continue reading “Plant The Seed” →

Over the next few weeks I’m going to keep writing around the topic of faith, believing and receiving from God but also the things that hinder that. God showed me about a year ago that unbelief was a problem for me but if I’m honest I didn’t exactly understand what it was, as it is more than just ‘not believing’. Today I am sharing what I’ve learned through the word on this topic, in particular that doubt and unbelief are different and how to avoid slipping into unbelief.

In Romans 4:20 it says Abraham did not waver through unbelief, however if you read Genesis 15:2-3, Abraham does doubt. Although he’s received a promise (Genesis 12) that he will become a great nation, he is now doubting that he will have a child that is his own flesh and blood.

Continue reading “Avoiding Unbelief” →