A Heart Untroubled

At work, when I send out the weekly emails, I like to find out what 'national day' falls on that day, and make a little bit about it.  I did the same this morning. Today is National Cake Day.  Who doesn't love a bit of cake now and then, but as I was thinking about cake (as one does after working out at the gym) and I realised that most often, cake is something special - birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Christmas... In our house growing up, 'cake' was a treat on a Saturday evenings.  Cake is not a staple food (well unless you ask certain members of family); it is a treat.  The Bible is the opposite of cake.   The Bible isn't just for special occasions or a once a week treat, it's a staple food we need to consume daily.   We need to eat and digest it, and as we do, it feeds us so that we grow and mature.  Children who only ate cake, would be unhealthy and their growth and development would be hampered and even damaged.  In our Christian walk, we need to re

Have you ever had a phone that went wonky!  Something just gets messed up in it and once you've tried all the usual tricks like switching it off and on again, deleting and reinstalling apps. etc, you are eventually left with one option RESTORE FACTORY SETTINGS. Sometimes, I think we can be like that phone.  The 'setting' in fallen humanity defaults to living by the flesh, and while we can try all sorts of tricks and ways to 'be better' or 'do better' they are ineffective, because the problem is innate within us.   When we are saved though Jesus Christ it's like we restore our factory settings and the rest of our lives on earth as believers is to learn to walk in the true settings Christ gave us in the beginning, according to his design for mankind. Galatians 5:25 (KJV) I f we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. The bible teaches us that we came alive in the spirit when we got born again, so then, now we need to function that way. That was

Sitting here this week, reflecting on the news of our Queen's death, I have been struck by the profound effect she left on people that met her. So many amazing, funny, interesting and moving stories coming out, and while there are always those who can't say anything nice in times like this, my impression is, that those who met Queen Elizabeth II held her in high regard and speak only good things about her. As I was watching some documentaries on her life, I was pondering the question of how others will speak of me when I am gone.  What kind of legacy will I leave behind?  While my reach, may not be as wide as that of the Queen of England, every person that we come into contact will receive something from us. We are here as ambassadors of the King of Kings.  How we behave and treat people will leave people talking about us one way or another. Today I was as I meditating on this, the verse in Colossians 4:5-6 (TPT) came to mind: " Walk in the wisdom of God as you live before

I was reading Romans chapter 6-8 today and in church we've been teaching and hearing others teach on living by the Spirit.  I am meditating on this very thing a lot at them moment. We know that the flesh was crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6), and we are new creations, but we are still prone to this battle of flesh v spirit.  Paul the Apostle said how his desire and will often seemed to be in opposition to his actions... So how can we beat the flesh? The truth is that the battle is to be fought in our minds. The flesh was crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus, but as a friend reminded me recently,  we can't beat flesh with flesh!  Will power or desire are not enough to change our behaviour; we have to start from the inside out. Romans' 12:1-2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and Ephesians tells us that we are to be renewed in the Spirit of our minds. Ephesians 4:23 (NLT) Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. We have

I know I've mentioned running a few times recently, but it's a great analogy for spiritual truths.  God speaks to me a great deal through my running and it's good! Recently I was listening to a series of podcasts about how to improve your running.  It was very helpful to me. One of the points was to recognise where you are and start from there.   What does that really look like?  Well, for example, through this 5 day challenge, I realised that my strength is rubbish!  (I tried a strength test and basically I have none🤣🤣🤣) Seriously though, I could recognise that and decide today to join a gym, go 7 days a week and bench press 200lbs a day!  But that's not realistic.  I need to start smart!  So, I might join a gym, but maybe aim for twice a week and start with 2lb weights!    I might decide I need to run further, but to try and do a marathon tomorrow is dumb to the max! The same is true with spiritual things.  Sometimes we recognise that we need to spend more time in

Nothing in life has any meaning until you give it meaning .  What does that mean?   Well, if someone says to me 'You should run a marathon; think of what an achievement that would be'. It doesn't mean a thing to me. I have no desire to do that.   However,  when I look at my fitness watch after a 5K (3.10 mile) run, if it says more than 36 minutes, I feel disappointed. Why is that?  Well I give meaning to the time it takes me to run 5k! I want to improve, I want to go a bit faster. I will train harder to meet that goal.  It takes on significance for me. The same is true with spiritual things. If I give meaning to something, it has meaning (sounds simple, right?).  We had a friend who used to say "Until you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you'll stay that way!".  What he means is, unless you give meaning (importance, significance, value etc) to healing in your life, you will settle for sickness that you can live with.  If you don't give mean