Thought for the Day - Monday 2 October

Thought for the Day – Monday 2nd November ‘But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.’ (Jude v 20-21) Okay, I suppose I am going to show my age here but I remember watching a certain bodybuilder by the name of Tony Holland flexing his muscles to music on Opportunity Knocks many years ago and spending much of the time cringing at the sight of his muscles and bones gyrating in grotesque ways to the music and if I remember rightly it went on for weeks with him winning the show time after time! I never could understand just what was so appealing about his act! It certainly left me with an enduring image I don’t particularly want to revisit any time soon. Shame it has come back to my mind as I write this! Anyway, bodybuilding obviously appeals to some and not to others – some see it as beautiful and some as grotesque. However, while the writer of Jude is talking of us building ourselves up – I don’t quite think he has the Tony Holland type of body building in mind. I think what he is speaking of here is of us needing to be building up our relationship with Jesus. He is suggesting that our faith does not just develop and grow all by itself. Rather it is something which has to be nurtured and nourished constantly so it becomes strong and healthy. Obviously then a wee occasional prayer here and there or a wee read of the Bible now and then is not going to be enough to do that nurturing and nourishing - it has to be a much more regular ‘feeding’ of our faith if we are to become more Christ-like. Also, there is another side too to this building up though – namely, we also have to exercise our faith to keep it in shape and fit and healthy. So, in our bodybuilding aspirations we don’t have to try and become great spiritual heavyweights we just have to grow strong in our faith and then live out that faith, all the while living in God’s love. Prayer Loving God, For the gift of faith which sees beyond the present moment and looks to an eternity, we thank you. For the gift of faith small as a mustard seed, which has power within its simplicity, we thank you. For the gift of faith bestowed on those who would simply come, hearts open in humility, we thank you. Loving Lord, grow our faith within us we pray and help us in all to show our faith and show your love. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.