Choose Life

By Simon Guillebaud

This unique set of daily readings from bestselling author Simon Guillebaud encourages the reader to live the Christian life without compromise and without restraint; to live on full throttle and with utter abandonment to Christ.

Simon Guillebaud has lived in Burundi since his early twenties. He takes unimaginable risks so much so that he didn't expect to live to the age of 30. He sees miraculous results time and again as he works tirelessly for the salvation, peace and prosperity of the country he loves and daily gives his life for. Burundi is a place where choices are vivid, stark and sometimes deadly. It is a front line state in a fragile democracy seeking to overcome a bloody past. The spiritual battle between the forces of light and the repressive power of the local witchdoctors is very real. It is in this context that Simon Guillebaud has learned the lessons he shares in this volume. 

Succinct and engaging, these daily reading cover a separate topic every day. The range is striking and profound as Simon shares the things he has learned through the council of the Holy Spirit. Those who engage with this unique devotional will be challenged and ultimately changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Release date: Jul 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9780857215239

Simon Guillebaud

Simon Guillebaud is a missionary who has spent many years in Burundi. He is much in demand as a speaker and has a significant worldwide following through his dramatic blogs. He is also author of More than Conquerors and Dangerously Alive. He, Liz and their family live in Burundi.

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INTRODUCTION

We make dozens of choices every day.

Some are relatively inconsequential, but others are totally life-shaping. Some are made subconsciously, while others are very deliberate. Some are positive and life-giving, while others can be deeply destructive.

In Deuteronomy 30:19, we read: This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!

What you have before you is an invitation to a year of good choices. If you embrace the challenge fully, I have no doubt it will be the most memorable year of your life! Notice I didn’t use other adjectives like happy, fruitful, enjoyable, or exciting. I was tempted to, but I don’t want to make any false promises. After all, Jesus was explicit in saying to his disciples that in this world you will have trouble. Authentic discipleship will lead us into trouble, be assured of that. Thankfully, in that same verse Jesus goes on to reassure us: But take heart, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Let me share briefly with you how this devotional came about. I had been planning to write it for a while, but only started during a week spent preaching in Canada. I had flown from my home in Burundi to Halifax for a conference, and went to bed on my first night with jetlag. That feeling of jetlag, nine months on, is still with me. I preached at the conference and spent the rest of the week either having tests at hospitals or lying in bed.

This strange fatigue could not have hit me at a more unlikely time. I turned forty that week and was the fittest I’d ever been, training for an Ironman, simply in great physical shape. So the last nine months of physical brokenness have been a challenging time, and they have required me to make daily choices – will I indulge myself in self-pity, or make the most of it? Will I waste the day in bed, or use that time constructively in writing and praying? Will I count my blessings or focus on the negatives – ultimately, will I choose life or death?

After about a month of frustration at not recovering, I made one very deliberate choice. Whatever the root cause of my sickness, I would not let Satan get the victory in my life. However long the sickness would last, I would make sure that God would get the glory, and the time would be maximized for him. My most influential book, More Than Conquerors: A Call to Radical Discipleship, was written during a similar season of fatigue eight years ago, and I have loved seeing how even that dark time was totally redeemed and how many lives were stirred up through the fruit of my own physical weakness. May that similarly be the case this time! That is my prayer.

So I invite you from a place of triumphant brokenness – which is surely what the cross symbolizes – to join me on this daily journey. As you will read, my context is no doubt very different from yours; but we follow the same Lord Jesus, and hopefully hear the same call towards total surrender. And may we all, wherever we find ourselves, choose to love God and love people with all that we’ve got, living life to the full as we follow unashamedly in the footsteps of the risen Jesus Christ.

Here’s to a memorable year.

Choose life!

Simon Guillebaud (June 2014)

1

JANUARY

RESOLUTION OR RESIGNATION?

1 Corinthians 2:2

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Happy New Year!

I wonder how the year has started for you. Maybe you’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions, maybe not. I remember one year breaking my major resolution within minutes of the New Year kicking in. It was deeply depressing. I felt useless and discouraged. I gave up and resigned myself to failing in that area.

The naysayers will declare it’s the same for you. They will say that you can try to make some resolutions, and you’ll probably have given up within a month at best, but can then plan on trying again during Lent a few weeks after that! Aargh! Resolution, or resignation?

Paul went to the Corinthians in weakness and fear (verse 3), but his resolution involved knowing Jesus Christ and him crucified (verse 2). He knew how weak he was, and that he would mess up, but he also knew how strong Jesus was, and how Jesus took our mess on him.

Jesus wants a relationship with you this year. We all know the following it true, but it’s worth hearing again:

For a relationship to be healthy and growing, there has to be a commitment to regular two-way communication.

So don’t resign yourself to failing this year. No, resolve to get to know Jesus better. Don’t set unattainable goals, but know that he is with you from your morning ablutions through work and play to bedtime. Share the highs and lows with him. That’s what a real relationship is about. And maybe these short readings can be a part of that journey for you. Go for it!

Lord Jesus, I resolve to get to know you better this year. I won’t resign myself to spiritual drudgery, so help me to spend time with you each day. Amen!

2

JANUARY

FITNESS OR FATNESS?

1 Corinthians 6:20

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.

Ken Cooper said: We do not stop exercising because we grow old – we grow old because we stop exercising.

I was on a three-hour flight to Chicago and I knew it wasn’t going to be fun. I was wedged in next to a man literally three times my girth. He was already snoring when I arrived, and every breath he took was accompanied by thunderous nasal eruptions, which elicited rolled-eyed sympathy from several rows of my fellow passengers. Worse was to come when I felt God telling me I needed to talk to him about it. Please Lord, don’t tell me that! He might smother me to death…

When he eventually woke up, I introduced myself, quaking inside. I took the plunge: I believe God wants to tell you something… (Lord, do I have to do this?) He loves you very much, but if you don’t shape up, you’re going to die! I waited for his supersized fist to munch my face, but it never came. We had a great chat and exchanged details. Oof!

Over half of us are obese. It’s a big deal, literally.

Please, there’s still time to make a New Year’s resolution, even if you’re not fat but simply unfit, which is most of us: I’m going to take good care of God’s temple, my body!

I want you to have a full, long, healthy life. Everyone’s a winner if you do – you, your loved ones, your employer, the government. As I told Mr Big above, surely you want to see your kids and grandchildren grow up? And if you won’t find time for exercise, you will be forced to find time for illness. Choose well and you could have several extra productive years for God’s glory.

Your choice.

Lord, help me to honour you with my body this year. Amen!

3

JANUARY

READY OR NOT?

Matthew 25:13

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

I once preached on the parable of the ten virgins near the Burundi/Congo border. It’s not a complicated parable. Do take a look at it in Matthew 25. My sermon could be boiled down to three things:

1. Jesus is coming.

2. Nobody knows when.

3. Are you ready?

A number of people responded to the invitation. Plenty of others declined. Two days later I was driving towards their village on my motorbike only to be turned back by a group of soldiers as killing was taking place up ahead in a rebel attack. An undisclosed number of people died, and it struck me as never before just how urgent a message we have been entrusted with. How many of those who died had accepted or declined the invitation just forty-eight hours earlier? God knows. For each of those people unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire, their time to meet Jesus had indeed come, they hadn’t known when, but the most important issue remained the same: were they ready?

How about you?

If no, what needs changing? If yes, then Smith Wigglesworth lays out the following challenge:

Live ready. If you have to get ready when the opportunity comes your way, you’ll be too late. Opportunity doesn’t wait, not even while you pray. You must not have to get ready, you must live ready at all times. Be filled with the Spirit; that is, be soaked with the Spirit. Be so soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite rule of the Spirit – then when you are misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the nature of Christ.

Dear God, please help me today to get ready, live ready, and to help others around me likewise to get and live ready. Amen!

4

JANUARY

POOL OR MIRAGE?

Isaiah 35:7

The mirage shall become a pool.

(NASB)

A platoon of soldiers was marching through the blistering heat of the Egyptian desert during the Second World War in desperate pursuit of water. Their guide was confident of where to find it, but suddenly one of the troops spotted a beautiful desert lake several miles away. It was undeniable. So despite the guide’s pleading, they hurried off course towards that beautiful water. Sadly as they approached, the lake grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared in the sand. It had been appearance without reality. They had chased a mirage, and we only know about this because one of the soldiers recorded it in his journal in his dying hours.

Are you caught up pursuing mirages, rather than the pool (God himself)? We’re bombarded with adverts promising happiness and fulfilment if only we acquire what they suggest we can’t do without. Can you think of any potential mirages in your own life?

Sometimes even perfectly good things can end up being mirages. Phil Vischer, the founder of the children’s hit series Vegetales, crashed from being a multimillionaire to bankruptcy when one of his distributors sued him. In Phil’s words:

If God gives a person a dream, breathes life into it and then it dies, then God might want to know what is more important to the person—the dream or God? The impact God has planned for us doesn’t occur when we’re pursuing impact. It occurs when we’re pursuing God. At long last, after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just God.

So much of that hit me hard. Think about it: the impact God wants you to have for him doesn’t come when you pursue impact – it comes when you pursue God!

Lord Jesus, please help me see the mirages for what they are, and to pursue the pool! Amen!

5

JANUARY

BOLD OR ASHAMED?

Romans 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

A Zimbabwean young man wrote the following before he was martyred:

I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit’s power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made – I’m a disciple of his. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still… I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity… I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till he stops me. And, when he comes for his own, he will have no problem recognising me… my banner will be clear!

I support Ipswich Town FC and I’m not ashamed. I’m a U2 fan and I’m not ashamed. I wear a ridiculous mankini when I go cycling and I’m not ashamed (well, maybe a little!). So why is it that when a friend or a colleague gives me an ideal opening to talk about Jesus, I suddenly get moist palms and my voice goes a little higher?! Seriously, what is our problem? What do we have to be ashamed about?

Jesus has completely transformed my life. My wretched past has been dealt with, I’ve got purpose in the present, and my future is absolutely guaranteed. I don’t need to feel guilty anymore. Instead I feel hopeful, joyful, peaceful (some days more than others, admittedly). I’m a child of the King, for goodness’ sake! So let’s shout it from the rooftops – or probably, more effectively – live authentically, love wholeheartedly, pray for opportunities, and then seize them boldly when they come.

Lord, may my banner be clear today. Amen!

6

JANUARY

WORLD CITIZEN OR INSULAR INDIVIDUAL?

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed by the needs I see around me or those I see on TV from around the world that I just want to blot them all out by switching channels and watching a football match or a film. I’m tempted to retreat, batten down the hatches, and just seek to meet my own needs and those of my family. What can I really do about it anyway? But I simply have to resist that defeatist mindset. Abraham Kuyper wrote a century ago: There is not one square inch in all of God’s creation over which Jesus does not cry out, ‘Mine!’ We are called to be world citizens, and have been given a world mandate.

The insular individual, on the other hand, has given way to cynicism. Jim Wallis explains why:

Cynicism does protect you in many ways. It protects you from seeming foolish to believe that things could and will change. It protects you from disappointment. It protects you from insecurity because now you are free to pursue your own security instead of sacrificing it for a social engagement that won’t work anyway. Ultimately, cynicism protects you from commitment. If things are not really going to change, why try so hard to make a difference? Why take the risks, make the sacrifices, open yourself to the vulnerabilities? And if you have middle-class economic security (as many cynics do), things don’t have to change for you to remain secure. That is not intended to sound harsh, just realistic. Cynics are finally free just to look after themselves.

What will you choose? Every inch you walk today is God’s, every person you meet, those you see on TV, all belong to him. So pick a fight – lots of issues need addressing in the realms of injustice, environment, education, politics, in our community, our nation, or the world.

Lord, use me as part of your movement to change the world today. Amen!

7

JANUARY

FAITH OR FEAR?

2 Timothy 1:7

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear.

My book Dangerously Alive starts as follows:

I sped around the bend in the road on my motorbike, but quickly scrambled to a stop, surprised to see a figure in the middle of the road, just ahead of me. He was holding a grenade in his hand, ready to blow me up. I knew this for a fact – he had made his intentions clear two days before when he’d written saying he was going to cut out my eyes. My guard waved at me – a pre-arranged sign not to approach. This was both surreal and yet chillingly real. God, what on earth shall I do? If it has to be, I’m ready to die. Let’s go…

Most people don’t live in such extreme circumstances. Interestingly, the question I am most commonly asked is: aren’t you frightened for your kids’ safety in such an unstable country like Burundi? But let me ask you this: don’t you realize you’re in a war zone too? Ostensibly it’s very different, but if you scratch beneath the surface you will find that the grenades of apathy, materialism, and relativism are far more dangerous where you are. And maybe you and your family are casualties of that war. Watch out! Wake up! There’s no need to fear, but you do need to live by faith!

If we’re completely honest, when we analyse the root motivation behind most of our significant decision-making in life, it’s grounded in fear. We choose to do x so that y doesn’t happen. We have fears regarding the future, finances, health issues, family breakdown, death. So we take out a second mortgage in the house of fear. Listen: the bottom line is that we are all called to live by faith, not by fear.

Bring God your fears right now. Trust him. He can handle them.

Father God, today with your help I choose to reject fear and live by faith. Amen!

8

JANUARY

ADVENTURE OR SAFETY?

Philippians 1:21

For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Life has become so dull and safe for many of us. Risks, we are warned, should be avoided at all costs. Safety seems to have become the highest goal, and the worship of safety emasculates creativity and life. It seems that we can end up with our highest aspiration being to arrive safely at death! In a scenario of such suffocating dreariness, can we realistically hope for anything better?

Keith Johnson splits us into two groups when he asserts that there are those who like to say ‘yes’, and there are those who prefer to say ‘no’. Those who say ‘yes’ are rewarded by the adventures they have; those who say ‘no’ are rewarded by the safety they attain.

Saying yes to God’s call on your life doesn’t mean selling everything you have and moving to Africa. It doesn’t necessarily mean quitting your job, studies, or relationship (though equally it might do). But what it absolutely does involve is a willingness to step out of your comfort zone. By definition, that is uncomfortable. However, we have a need for significance, an inbuilt longing for authenticity, and we know it makes sense to do so rather than embracing the staleness of the status quo.

Andre Gide wrote that one does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore. Why don’t you try to spend a few minutes today with God to think about how or where he might be wanting to journey with you? Maybe your current circumstances prohibit radical changes. Maybe God just wants to tweak areas of your life rather than engage in whole-scale transformation. Seek him about it. Whatever the case, at the end of your life, you don’t want to have lots of regrets that you played it safe all the way and missed out on the adventures he was calling you to. Agreed?

Lord, help me to say yes rather than no to your call for my life, wherever that leads. Amen!

9

JANUARY

RELATIONSHIP OR RULES?

Luke 15:29

(The older brother said to his father): Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

A poor Burundian woman found herself in a violent marriage. Her overbearing husband would write out a long list of household chores to be done each day before he returned from work. At the end of each day, he would tick off all that she’d done, and beat her mercilessly if anything was outstanding. So she was beaten every night. To her relief, he became sick and died, and within a few years she was blessed to remarry – this time to a kind and loving husband. Gone were the lists. She simply loved serving him. Months into the new marriage, she found a crumpled piece of paper behind one of the cupboards. It was one of the old lists from her previous husband! She read through it nervously, wincing as the old memories came flooding back. But then, to her amazement, she realized that she had completed everything on the old list that very day. What she couldn’t accomplish motivated by fear of punishment, she had fulfilled out of energizing love.

In Jesus’ famous parable of the lost son, which son was more lost? Ultimately the older one was, because he was exposed as being lost even when at home. He had, as John Wesley spoke of his own pre-conversion experience, the religion of a servant, not a son. He’d played it by the rules while completely missing out on the relationship. Tragic!

It may sound like a cliché, but there is nothing you can do to make God love you more, and there is nothing you can do to make him love you less. God is a God of relationship. Away with images of a hard taskmaster or a cranky old man, he is the best loving Father, beyond what you could possibly imagine. Enjoy him!

Father, I choose to follow you today, grateful that you want a relationship with me, not my obedience to a long list of rules. Amen!

10

JANUARY

HOPE OR DESPAIR?

Isaiah 40:31

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

As Father Raniero Cantalamessa writes, the three virtues of faith, hope, and love…

are like three sisters. Two of them are grown and the other is a small child. They go forward together hand in hand with the child hope in the middle. Looking at them it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child, but it is the other way around; it is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. It is hope that pulls faith and love. Without hope everything would stop.

Biblical hope is not like the world’s hope – an expression of desire for an uncertain outcome – as in I hope things work out in the end. No, as followers of Christ, our faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). Fyodor Dostoevsky seemed to understand this. He said, To live without hope is to cease to live.

I have been in places devoid of hope: tens of thousands of refugees forced into small areas with no toilets; disease rife and death a regular visitor. Despair seemingly ruled. And yet one old man in his seventies, who’d witnessed his wife and kids hacked to death and his house burned down, was able to declare despite losing everything: I never realized that Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had!

This old man was still hanging in there while others were dying of despair. How about you? If you’re ever struggling, look to Jesus, our sure and certain hope. And if you’re doing fine today, look out for someone else who needs the offer of real hope, and reach out to them.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). Lord, I choose that hope! Amen!

11

JANUARY

PROACTIVE OR REACTIVE?

Matthew 25:21

"Well done, good and faithful servant!

You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things."

In Jesus’ parable, there were two servants: one was proactive; the other was reactive. The latter got an ear-bashing (You wicked, lazy servant!) before being thrown out. He wasted what had been entrusted to him.

That’s what reactive people do – and often I have to admit I am reactive rather than proactive. When we’re reactive, we’re driven by feelings, circumstances, or conditions. We procrastinate; we wait. But if we wait to be acted upon, we will indeed be acted upon; whereas proactive people are driven by carefully considered and internalized values, so it’s as if they carry their own weather with them wherever they go, and make things happen.

Everyone is predisposed to being one or the other. I suspect most of us are more on the reactive end of the spectrum. In the Bible, love is a verb, but reactive people make it a feeling. However, if our feelings control our actions, as Stephen Covey says, it is because we have abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so. Proactive people make love a verb.

Remember, we are responsible (i.e. response-able) for our actions or inactions, for how we use or misuse our God-given talents. Is there something you need to do today that you’ve been putting off? Is there an initiative that God’s been laying on your heart? Is there a relationship issue that needs addressing? Anything else you can think of? Come on, finish reading this, pray, and then go and do it, for Christ’s sake!

Lord God Almighty, forgive me for the times, gifts, or opportunities I’ve wasted. Help me choose to be proactive today. Amen!

12

JANUARY

FORGIVENESS OR BITTERNESS?

Romans 5:5

God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

A young lady I know in Burundi watched her mother and father being hacked to death right in front of her. From that day on, and for the next seven years, she simply stopped growing. Then, at the age of twelve, she read Jesus’ words above. However painful it was, she chose to forgive the undeserving murderers of her parents. As soon as she did this, an extraordinary thing happened: she started growing again – literally, physically, as well as emotionally and spiritually! That is the power of forgiveness.

During the war, my friend Sarah rushed home to find her husband and three children murdered. She fled to the Congo with her remaining three kids but was stopped by a group of militia. She declared boldly, I’m not afraid to die because I know I’ll go straight to be with Jesus. One of them spat back: God is dead! She prayed silently: Lord, I don’t want to die if you’re dead, so please show me you’re alive. The soldier stripped her to rape her but found her money hidden in her bra, so he ran off with the others, and she was able to flee to safety. After the war, she heard that rapist and murderer was in prison. She went to see him and said, You told me God was dead. I’m here to tell you he’s alive, he loves you, and he’s told me to do the same, so I love you!

Forgiveness or bitterness?

They may not deserve forgiveness, but if you hold on to bitterness, you’re doubly the victim. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you, wrote Lewis Smedes.

Most of us have got either someone we need to forgive, or someone we need to ask for forgiveness of. Let’s set some prisoners free!

Our Father, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Amen!

13

JANUARY

MATURITY OR IMMATURITY?

Luke 2:52

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.

I was an immature and late developer in every way. I didn’t go through puberty until my late teens, and boys at school who were several years younger were bigger and hairier than me, much to my embarrassment. But it wasn’t just physical immaturity. Some of the unrepeatable antics I used to get up to beyond school and into university years beggar belief. Even now, I still catch the look of feigned despair that crosses my parents’ faces on a regular basis as they tolerate my often puerile sense of humour! So is there any hope for me, and can I still strive for maturity?!

Well, let’s see what maturity is not: it’s not conformity. It’s not becoming boring, dull, safe, tame, or respectable. It’s not about knowing your Bible. Interestingly, the group who knew the Old Testament Scriptures the best were the very ones who arranged for Jesus’ crucifixion. Knowing isn’t enough. It leads to pride, which is the antithesis of spiritual maturity. Going to church, reading this each day, hopefully doing some more Bible study besides, praying – these are all good activities, but are they the barometer of spiritual maturity?

It’s not how many years you’ve been a Christian that determines your spiritual maturity. It’s how many days you walk with Christ. Growing towards maturity is a lifelong ongoing process of becoming more like Jesus, of recognizing the actual while aiming for the ideal. It begins with the acceptance of personal responsibility. It involves learning progressively more effectively to live a life that reflects the truths, values, and principles of the Scriptures. It is to live differently, not just to know or think differently, and is gauged by application, not just contemplation. As James warns: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (1:22), and Faith without deeds is dead (2:17).

Lord, help me live, walk, and grow daily more and more like Jesus. Amen!

14

JANUARY

CONDUIT OR CUL-DE-SAC?

Luke 12:48

From the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

John Piper writes on the subject of money:

The point is: a $70,000 salary does not have to be accompanied by a $70,000 lifestyle. God is calling us to be conduits of His grace, not cul-de-sacs. Our great danger today is thinking that the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do. No matter how grateful we are, gold will not make the world think that our God is good; it will make people think that our god is gold.

Hmm… Does your life look like your God is good, or your God is gold? Ouch! My pastor’s eighteen-year-old brother died in his arms because he couldn’t afford £3 for the medicine across the pharmacy counter. It’s a sick world, isn’t it? Think what a difference you can make by being sacrificially generous. Copper or gold? Conduit or cul-de-sac?

Now you may or may not have spare money with which to bless other people, but gauging our level of blessing by the state of our finances is way too narrow. Living in one of the poorest countries in the world forces me, positively, to count my blessings on a regular basis. I have an education. I eat more than one meal a day. I can afford to go to a doctor when I get sick. I have access to clean water. I am free to tell people about Jesus. These, and many more besides, are incredible blessings. Too often we focus on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have.

So beyond your money (or lack of it), please recognize afresh today how you are deeply blessed. Be grateful. Enjoy. And God wants you to pass on that blessing to others.

Lord Jesus, I choose to be a conduit of your blessing, not a cul-de-sac. Show me whom you want me to bless today. Amen!

15

JANUARY

FAST OR FAR?

Romans 8:37

We are more than conquerors.

An African proverb says that if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

Confession time: I’m all about speed. I love going fast. And sometimes it’s fine, but sometimes it really backfires. I’m always walking ten yards ahead of my Missus into the restaurant, so I get there first, I get there faster, but she’s not with me, and the romantic meal’s got off to a bad start! We were made to go together.

When I cycled over 3,000 miles across the USA in 34 days, there were seven of us. We were a team. We had different roles – support driver, navigator, food, logistics, cyclist. Wired as I am, for better or worse, I was usually at the front. One time I turned around and I’d lost the others. My going faster proved dangerous. Being in the desert without enough water means you don’t go far. I had to swallow my pride, turn around, and rejoin the pack. Then, together, we could go far.

Paul asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors… (Romans 8:35, 37). Why we"? Because life’s challenges will take you out if you insist on doing it on your own. We need each other. That’s how we win. If you want to be a lone ranger for Jesus, you’re toast!

How fast and how far have you gone? How far do you want to go?

We need each other. Who’s on your team, or whose team are you on? It’s critical – please think about it today, and make a plan if you’re isolated – you don’t want to run out of water in the desert…

Thank you Jesus for your promise that in and through the tough times we are more than conquerors by your strength. Help me identify the we and journey far with them. Amen!

16

JANUARY

SUCCESS OR SIGNIFICANCE?

Philippians 3:8

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Just about everyone wants to be successful, but what is success? Rock band Queen’s Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS, said: Success has bought me world idolisation and millions of pounds, but has prevented me from having the one thing we all need – a loving ongoing relationship. Was he successful? Success is so often narrowly defined as accruing lots of money, possessions, power, and prestige. But Freddie, along with so many others, discovered that you can have everything to live with and nothing to live for. He never made the step from success to significance.

How about you? Are you still striving for success, or do you recognize that significance is of higher worth? Often we learn the hard way, striving in our former years in our quest for worldly success before realigning our priorities on our journey to significance. Success isn’t wrong – let’s be clear on that – we just need to know what real success is, and recognize that it is easy to confuse our success with God’s approval. Maybe we could merge the two words by redefining success as finding the will of God and doing it, no matter what.

Zig Ziglar wrote: Success is not measured by how you do compared to how somebody else does, but by how you do compared to what you could have done with what God gave you.

So is it time for a change of direction, job, career? Maybe, or maybe not. A journey towards significance doesn’t necessitate a change of jobs. It could, more profoundly, involve a change of heart and a change in the way you order your life and view the world.

Take a look at what motivates your choices, your priorities, your objectives. Do you think you’re on the right track? It’s well worth heading in the right direction…

Lord, I choose to follow your call for my life. Show me the way, that I may walk in it. Amen!

17

JANUARY

WELLSPRING OR CESSPIT?

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

In biblical language, the heart is the centre of the human spirit, from which spring motivations, thoughts, emotions, courage, and action. If we don’t guard our heart, we’re going to be in trouble.

When Leonardo da Vinci was painting his masterpiece The Last Supper, he needed a model for his Christ. He tracked down a chorister called Pietro Bandinelli in one of the churches of Rome, who was boyishly attractive and fresh-faced. The painting took years to complete – in fact da Vinci turned his hand to other works until eventually he determined to finish it. He’d painted all the disciples except Judas, so now he was looking for a face which was hardened and distorted by sin. He came across a beggar who welcomed an easy way of making some money by just sitting there in front of da Vinci. Once they were finished, da Vinci said: I have not yet found out your name. I am Pietro Bandinelli, he replied, I also sat for you as your model of Christ.

Whether that story is true or not, it’s a tragedy when innocence is corrupted, when beauty is distorted. Maybe I have a heightened sensitivity to this because I always come back from Africa into Western culture in a very abrupt way (within a few hours on a plane). I am amazed about how many followers of Christ don’t guard their hearts. We will watch anything on TV and read the most trashy magazines without discerning that their impact is to turn our wellspring into a cesspit. How can we possibly hope to stay spiritually sharp and sensitive if we constantly allow filth to blunt our cutting edge?

Please, please, guard your heart. It is the wellspring of life. What goes in comes out. If you feed it trash, that will come out. What is this doing to my heart? is a great question to ask in any given situation.

Lord, I choose to guard my heart today. Amen!

18

JANUARY

ORDINARY OR EXTRAORDINARY?

Philippians 2:6, 7

[Jesus] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing.

On one occasion, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was asked: How do you measure the success of your work? She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts. She was the living embodiment of what Oswald Chambers meant when he wrote: It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

My granny prayed for me every day of my life – that faithfulness is my kind of extraordinary. A friend of mine read the Bible weekly with a Sikh for twenty-two years before the latter came to faith – that’s my kind of extraordinary. Can you accept that definition? Being "exceptional