Thought for the Day - Wednesday 1 July

Thought for the Day – Wednesday 1^st July

‘Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who

reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’

(2 Corinthians 5: 11-21)

Ever since my student days way back in the 1970’s I have had a wee ritual on the first day of the month! Today being the first of the month I shall no doubt be doing it a little later this morning! What do I do I hear you ask?

Well, some call me pedantic for doing so, others prudent, yet others ponder why in this modern age of computers and spreadsheets that I still do so by hand in a little book but nonetheless I simply take time to ‘reconcile my accounts’.

Of course, it wasn’t until I worked within a Chartered Accountancy firm in Bristol in the late 70’s/early 80’s that I actually put such a fancy name to this first of the month practice of ‘reconciling my accounts’ for I spent an inordinate amount of time reconciling the accounts of our clients - until then I was just balancing my books and making sure I had enough in the bank to see me and later the family comfortably through the next month.

I think reconciling my accounts is a good practice or else why would I have done it in such a way for all these years!

Such a practice, lets you know what you have spent during the month, what you have spent your money on, if you have spent more than you should have or indeed if you have managed to save more than you thought – it just lets you know exactly where you stand and it can help you to plan the way forward as you leave one month behind and move into a new one. 

I wonder though do we ever take time to reconcile our account with God. You know, take a monthly moment to consider how much time we have spent on God during the month, reflect on whether it was enough or too little, think about whether we have been following his ways or not, reflect on our behaviour towards others throughout the month and consider if we have been Christ-like in those ways, if we have tried to reconcile differences, to speak out for the voiceless, to speak up for justice and somehow bring reconciliation to lives, or not. Then use that time of reconciling to subsequently plan ahead for the month and days to come.   

Our passage today tells us God took time to reconcile us to himself. He reflected on his world and chose not to hold our sins against us but rather to give us Jesus that we might be shown a ministry of reconciliation for ourselves. Following in the footsteps of that ministry of reconciliation Jesus displayed we ourselves can be reconciled to God. Indeed we have actually been entrusted with that message of reconciliation by God, called to share it, and so we need to be ambassadors for Christ. However, how do we know if we are doing just that?

Well we need to do our own reconciliation of our own account!

So, go on, why not do your monthly reconciliation of your account with God today at the start of this new month and see just where you stand at the moment and if you need to take any action in the months that lie ahead to keep you ‘balanced’ and ‘reconciled’ with God.

Prayer

Loving God,

Bless all our efforts to bring about reconciliation in our lives and in the lives of others. Give to us an inner strength to persevere, the capacity to keep on loving, the grace to willingly engage with others, ears ready to listen, a heart willing to forgive,. May we in our lives and in all our actions be a conduit for your forgiveness, your love, your healing, your justice, your peace, your reconciliation and always grounded in your love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen