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GEORGE and Hetty’s property was next to the only entrance and exit to the largest coach park in the seaside town. George, with an eye for business, opened a small tea bar. It was an immediate success. So, he extended his kiosk and sold beachballs and buckets and spades. Day‑trippers purchased them as they streamed down to the beach.

Then George bought three garages and converted them into a café specialising in anything with chips, followed by apple pie and ice cream. The hotter the day, the greater the demand for chips. George and Hetty were working hard but sitting on a gold mine!

Then late one night while baking pies, Hetty felt a pain and was dead before she reached hospital. George, devastated beyond belief, sold the business and struggled for years with the feeling that he had killed her. If he had only known before what he knew later…

Life is full of consequences of decisions made when we had no idea of the ultimate outcome. What in hindsight would we do, or not do, again? What price do we put on the intangibles – real friendship, peace of mind, clear conscience, inner health and good memories? What is worth exchanging for life? And what price do we put on the spiritual life to come?

Jesus wants, and is able, to give us abundant life that is not dependent on accumulating things or money, but on his love and outlook. In our reading for today, we presume that Jesus is talking about the things we value most. They become our ‘treasure’, whether we realise it or not. They become the focus of our energy and our overriding ambition.

Jesus contrasted the ‘treasure’ of material things with ‘treasuring’ God and his values. Why invest in things that we will leave behind? The important thing is to invest in eternity, and we do that by loving God and loving people.

HOWARD Rutledge, a United States Air Force pilot, was shot down during the Vietnam War, and was held as a prisoner of war. During his time of incarceration, he realised his spiritual poverty and recognised that he had missed so many opportunities to grow his faith. In his memoir In the Presence of Mine Enemies, he states that ‘it took prison to show me how empty life is without God’.

We build our prayer life day by day. If we try to do it like cramming for an exam, we are not successful. A deep effective prayer life is cultivated one day at a time, consistently bringing our needs and petitions to God, praising him for his presence with us, and thanking him for answers to our prayers.

I lived in Papua New Guinea for four years and during that time was introduced to the concept of haus krai (house cry). This occurred whenever a believer died. The family and friends would come to the family home for the whole night and talk, pray and sing over the bereaved ones. They would sing songs of faith and hope – ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’, ‘Trust and obey’ and ‘It is well with my soul’. During those times, we would see the impact of singing the songs of faith over people in their darkest moments, and we would see their spirits lifted and strengthened by the combined faith of those around them.

Singing the songs of faith, declaring God’s goodness and consistency all play a significant part in our prayers, for they raise our spirits and lift our expectations.

We’ll sing in the morning the songs of salvation,
We’ll sing in the noontide the songs of his love,
And when we arrive at the end of our journey
We’ll sing the songs of Zion in the courts above.
— Edward Henry Joy (SASB 555)

TWENTY- FIRST- CENTURY life is not given to being still. Modern communicative technology, such as emails and text messaging, adds substantial pressure for rapid responses and constant activity. Being still for any length of time tends to be more of a frustration than a blessing. The concept of being still and knowing God seems almost counter-intuitive to many people in their fast-paced lifestyles, and it can be difficult to achieve. Despite this, creating a place and a time to be quiet with God remains his favourite way of communicating with us, and is what he calls us to. He already knows the value of some quality quietness, and he desires that we learn and re-learn this truth for ourselves. The benefit of cultivating some time which is exclusively committed to God, where we can be quiet and still in his presence, is enormous and has been proven by his followers throughout generations. If this is not something you have done before, try it. Sit in silence for a few moments and focus your attention on God and his goodness. It might help to take a phrase from a Bible verse – like ‘great is your faithfulness’ (Lamentations 3:23) – or a worship song and repeat it quietly to yourself, to allow your brain to slow down and reconnect with the pace of your heart and the heart of God. Being still does not come easily – it has to be cultivated. But the benefit of drawing close to the heart of God cannot be overestimated. ‘Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you’ (James 4:8 ESV).

Lord, I come before your throne of grace;
I find rest in your presence and fullness of joy.
In worship and wonder I behold your face,
Singing, ‘What a faithful God have I’.
— Robert and Dawn Critchley (SASB 378 v 1)10

MANY disciples of Jesus have only limited knowledge and understanding of ‘the shelter of the Most High’. Some biblical texts translate the word ‘shelter’ as ‘secret place’, and the word ‘secret’ almost confirms that for many believers the shelter is unfamiliar ground. Some Christians see this concept as being only for the mystics or those who are spiritual giants, and they prefer to get on with their lives featuring Jesus as someone they associate with rather than having him as a closest friend.

David – or Moses, if either were the author of this psalm – was not a mystic, nor was he some kind of spiritual giant. David was a warrior – someone who had a good working knowledge of real life. He had seen friends killed in battle, he had experienced betrayal and disloyalty, and yet still he had learnt that dwelling in the secret place was where spiritual protection came from. Moses was certainly a pragmatic leader, not a mystic.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the 19th-century Baptist preacher, is reputed to have said: ‘Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence.’

God’s call to us as disciples is not only to look towards the inner sanctuary, but to enter it and draw close to God, and to do this regularly. God wants to have an intimate, close relationship with each of us, and he calls us to come to him for that purpose.

When we do this, he provides for his shadow to fall over us – for us to be influenced, enriched and impacted by being in his presence. His will is that we know and enjoy good things, and this is how we access them.

AS a young man, I was always confused by the difference between ‘insurance’ and ‘assurance’. Why was my car insured, but my life assured? It took me a little while to appreciate that insurance protects me from bad things that might happen – a car accident or my house suffering a fire – whereas assurance deals with things that will definitely happen at some point – and so life assurance pays out to those left behind when I die, because I will definitely die one day. 

The disciple of Jesus has confidence in who God is and how he treats his people. There is an assurance of this consistency, and that is why we sing ‘Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine’ (Fanny Crosby) or ‘You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart!’ (Alfred Henry Ackley), and Paul in this early verse from his Letter to the Philippians also brings us confident assurance. God has begun a work in each of us that he is willing to carry on and complete. He hasn’t started something and then abandoned it; he wants to see it through to fulfilment. 

What God began in each of us when we were saved, he continues to do in us as we follow him, and Paul reminds us confidently that it is God’s intention to see this process through to its final completion. As John Newton, the cleric, slave abolitionist and composer of the song ‘Amazing grace! How sweet the sound’, said: ‘I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.’ 

The Lord has begun that work and it is his fullest intention to complete it – in you and in me.