18th.October. 2021. Daily Devotion.

¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:16

Teachers will tell you that the laziest child in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two children, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy child will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort.

But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy child is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other child understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run.

Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good’. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way — centred on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do.

As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown. ~ C.S. Lewis, from “Mere Christianity”

Lord, let me always be willing to change at the most basic level. Amen.

Epitaph of Winifred Holtby

God give me work
Till my life shall end
And life
Till my work is done. Amen.

Meditation

“Trouble always comes whenever we begin to take credit for any of the gifts of the Spirit, be they gifts of prayer, tongues, prophecy, art, science. . . Modern medicine suffers, despite all its advances, because it has almost completely forgotten that healing is a gift as well as a science.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle

Loving Lord, help us to be faithful witnesses to the truth we have received from you. Sustain us as we seek to be a welcoming community open to all. Help us as we seek to bring a message of hope where there is fear, joy where there is sadness, and faith where there is doubt. Empower us by your Holy Spirit to share your love with the whole community by our words and our deeds. Amen.

Parting Prayer

Oh Lord as I face creation Let me see with eyes made clear By Your promise of salvation, Never to return to fear. Amen.