Doctrine

The following devotional by Clive Bowsher is for Friends of Union. To learn more about becoming a Friend of Union, visit www.uniontheology.org/friends-of-union

“O storm-tossed and not comforted” your God comes. Suddenly, and all at once. Your God comes himself to comfort you. Again and again. He has not forgotten, nor has he forsaken. He has come to be your ever-present and everlasting comfort.  So, step out of the bitter winds, and into the fires of his love. Come, feel the glow. Come collapse in his strong, everlasting arms. For a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick, he will never snuff out. 

We have heard someone tell us good new of joy and peace. We have come to know Jesus the Shepherd King. We tell others what we have seen and heard and know. We join with angels and all the redeemed in singing Glory to God.

Whether our darkness comes from relational breakdown, grief, loneliness, health challenges, the guilt of sins committed, the shame of sins experienced, global trends or deep personal struggle, we must know that our God is a God of hope.

Christ is a husband like no other—the husband all others point to. There is no length he is unwilling to go to care and provide for her. Christ spends himself on her. He sweats for her. He bleeds for her. He dies for her. He gives himself up for her. For he loves her.

Very small numbers are a reality for many. There is, however, a greater reality. Jesus says “there am I among them.” He promises that he will build his Church. He promises that he will be with his Church.

Dear friends, if you’re struggling and suffering this morning, if you feel you’re running out of options, there is somewhere left to turn. There is a hiding place and a safe refuge with Jesus as He gathers around him all of us who are in need. We’re not meant to be the assembly of the shiny, the sorted and the successful. And we’re not impressing God with our brilliance and our strength. No we are together. The bruised reeds, the smothering wicks huddled together around our King Jesus.

If the Old Testament were teaching a way of salvation based on our own merit, would it be useful reading when I want to grow in Christ—the one whose yoke is easy? If the God I meet in the Old Testament were a different God from the one whom I meet in Christ, could I build others up in Christ by reading the two Testaments together? If the God who saves me through the work of Jesus now “saved” quite differently back then, could I delight in the God I meet in the pages of the Old Covenant?

Friends, it’s not incidental to God that he is a kind and loving Father. That’s not a role he’s stepped into or an act that he tries to pull off while inwardly just being transcendent and disinterested in you.When you pray the Lord’s Prayer and call him “Our Father” or “Abba, Father,” you’re not asking him to pretend for a moment he’s less like God and more like Jesus than he actually is. You’re putting your finger on the very essence of God.

Most of us are not good at prayer. Why is prayer often so difficult—even for the mature believer? In this session, Michael Reeves gets to the heart of our problem with prayer.