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In the same way we can sometimes take our mothers for granted, which is why it is good to celebrate Mother’s Day, we can also take God for granted. Many, including Christians, live their lives unaware of the good things he is daily providing them without ever being aware or taking time to thank him for them.
John Wesley, whose ministry was the inspiration for the Methodist Church, was called Methodist because of the method they used with their small group meetings. Part of their method was to encourage people to share something about where God was at work in their lives. They were to do this every week and no one was allowed to speak about an experience of God that was more than a week old. The expectation was that God was at work in their lives and we will want to share it with others.
Both biblically and historically Wesley was on good ground. Our faith is based upon the hope that God is at work in our lives, Jesus promised to be with us until the end (Matthew 28:20), and historically throughout the ages people have talked about the evidence of God’s presence in their lives. Even when we are going through a hard time we are apt to think God is not at work, when we talk the time to look we can always see places of God’s action.
An important principle at work here: the more we acknowledge and thank God for his work in our lives, the more we are able to recognise his work; and the better we are able to recognise his work, the more able to follow his leading.
Sometimes it is difficult to see where God is at work, especially when things are tough. Sometimes it is only with hindsight that we see where God has been guiding, moving and protecting. Even so, learning to notice where God is at work, even when we things are hard, is not only an encouragement to our life of faith, it will also be an encouragement to others.
So just as yesterday on Mother’s Day we took time to honour our mothers, let us also take time to thank God for his work in our lives.
Stephen L Baxter
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