Ocean of Grace (11): SATURDAY – A Candle to a Mighty Flame (p42ff)

 Lent Book: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/an-ocean-of-grace

 

My jottings:

 

(Comments welcome)

 

Ocean of Grace (11): SATURDAY – A Candle to a Mighty Flame (p42ff)

 

What has struck you about the love of Christ this week?

 

How do you / should you / can you respond to it?

 

Do you talk to yourself / preach to your own soul?

 

Are there aspects of your self-talk / internal monologue which are less than helpful? Are there ways you could challenge yourself? Or perhaps replace some of your negative self-talk with something more positive? (Maybe by focusing on the love of Christ and your response to it, perhaps with the stress on the former rather than the latter. I am loved by Christ though I know my love for him and for others will only ever be a dim reflection of his love for me. In my better moments, I want to try to flan the flame of my love for Christ, with the Spirit’s breath and to draw on the burning passion of Christ’s heart).

 

This meditation is a helpful reminder that we can’t stir up ourselves out of nothing to Christ-like love. We are spiritually dead left to ourselves. We need Jesus to ignite our hearts with love for him. We burn with the fire we get from Jesus!

 

It might also be worth remembering that in a sense God calls us to progress not perfection. I might love Christ very little, but if I perhaps love him a little more than I did yesterday, I rejoice in his grace to me. A little progress repeatedly over time can get us a long way, even if as we grow in love for Christ we also become even more aware of our own sin.

 

We may recall John Newton (the former slaver)’s famous words:

 

I am not what I ought to be —
ah, how imperfect and deficient!

I am not what I wish to be —
I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good!

I am not what I hope to be —
soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection.

Yet, though I am not what I ought to be,
nor what I wish to be,
nor what I hope to be,
I can truly say, I am not what I once was;
a slave to sin and Satan;
and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge,
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

– John Newton, as quoted in The Christian Pioneer

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/by-the-grace-of-god-i-am-what-i-am/

 

How could I choose to love Christ and not myself? How could I express that love?

 

Are there substitutes / rivals for Christ to which I tend to look for enjoyment or comfort etc.?

What do you have to give up / turn your back / deny yourself on that you might gain Christ? Do you cling on to candles when you could have the sun?

(Or to use C. S. Lewis’ metaphor, do you love to make mud pies in the slum, when you could go to the beach?!)

 

Does your soul feel full or empty or somewhere in between? Why? What might you do about this?

 

Hymn: O For A Closer Walk With God

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wWVpafJX8A

 

Text etc: https://hymnary.org/text/o_for_a_closer_walk_with_god