Tag Archives: Faith

Compassion, Faith and Humility The Story of Naaman’s Servant

Posted in Uncategorized, Unnamed Characters of the Bible by

She was captured. taken from all she had known, everyone she had known, to a foreign land. A land full of strange god’s, full of things she had been bought up to believe were evil. Forced to serve in the household of her homeland’s enemies. The wife of one of the commanders of the same army who had come and taken her. The memory of being taken still woke her up in the night. And yet she had no choice but to stay and to serve.

The girl could have grown bitter. Forgotten her home, forgotten the God she had once trusted. After all he had left her alone.

The master of the house had his own troubles, a skin disease, leprosy, which would cause an excruciating and prolonged death.

The girl could have rejoiced in his misfortune, afterall he was a big part of all that was wrong in her life.

But she didn’t. “I don’t know why he doesn’t go to a prophet in my land, he will heal him.” And she a servant girl, who’s name was never recorded, set forth a chain of events which let to Naaman’s healing, one which changed his body and his soul.

The more I read this passage. The more amazing I think this girl is.

I know that this is but one incident, barely a paragraph, in a whole life, but I like to think that the faith of this young girl (possibly around twelve) shows us an insight into her character, and that there is much we can learn from her.

She was taken from her home land by an army. A young girl taken by a group of bloodthirsty men. I won’t say anymore than this, but we can assume that this was not a pleasant experience, and that that there is much that happened during her capture that was never recorded in scripture.

Compassion

First of all lets talk about her compassion for her master. Or perhaps we could call him captor. He was a major part of the machine which had taken her from her home. And yet, when he was facing sickness she did not rejoice. She sought to help him. She sought to see him healed and restored.

She was traumatised and alone in a foreign country. And yet she kept hold of her faith. We know this because when faced with a problem, she remembered her God, and a prophet who could heal her master.

Faith

This is quite incredible faith. How many people would have lost faith in the God of miracles, when they are themselves trapped in a nightmare. And yet, even though God hadn’t set her free from her circumstances, she trusted that he could

It is easy to have faith in a good God when we find ourselves in good circumstances. But what about when we are struggling. What about when we are trapped. To have faith in a God who can perform miracles, when he doesn’t seem to be doing one for us.

To be able to say God is good when life is bad takes incredible faith.

Humility

This girl probably had the least influence of anyone in that story, and yet she was willing to stand up, and say what she thought her master could do. I know that there are many times in my own life when I have failed to stand up in this way, because I was too scared to rock the boat.

You only have to glance at social media to see how many people long to have influence over others. But who is that influence really benefitting. I would argue that it is often only themselves: their ego, or their bank balance. And in a small way I’m sure we can see this in the way that we ourselves use social. But this girl used her influence to help somebody was was effectively her enemy. Who stood up for her beliefs when she was the only one who had them, and used her little influence to change a life. And we don’t even know what her name was.

Wow!

How I long to be like that.

Jesus tells us, at the start of his famous sermon on the mount.

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

Matthew 5:5 New Living Translation

In this world, it feels like we have to push our self to the front to get noticed, but the bible flips this on its head and tells us that God blesses the bumble.

Writing a blog it can be tricky to balance this. I don’t know if any other bloggers can relate, but as soon as I hit publish I am there refreshing my dashboard to see how many people have read my blog, and if I have any new followers or comments. I know I need to remember this girl who was compassionate, faithful and humble in these situations, and try and be a little bit more like her. What about you?

If you would like to read more about Naaman’s wife’s servant you can do in 2 kings: 5.

This is part of my series on women in the bible who’s names we don’t know. You can read more here.

Blessings,

Alice x

P.S. If you would like to keep up to date with Me Set Free then you can subscribe here.

Don’t Look Back (the story of Lot’s wife)

Posted in Uncategorized, Unnamed Characters of the Bible by
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

A while ago it occurred me just how often we don’t know the names of Characters in the bible. Many of them do great things, and make a difference to history.

Lot’s wife isn’t one of them. She makes a brief appearance, and then becomes a pillar of salt. This is her story:

“Run and don’t look back.” That’s what they told me when we left the city. Left behind everything we had ever known.

“Run, and don’t look back.” That’s what the strange men said.

But what were we running towards. Lot didn’t seem to have an answer for that, neither did the angelic men. Only that we needed to run. And not look back.

But why shouldn’t I look back to the place where I had spent so many years. My friends were there, and so was my home. Surely one last look at the place where I had given birth to and raised my children wouldn’t hurt. Just so I could remember.

I know it wasn’t the best place to raise them. There was all kinds of evil going on, one of my neighbours had even sacrificed her baby to to the god of those people. Just thinking about it made me sick. But still, we had made a home there and memories too.

One look over my shoulder, one look at home, and security wouldn’t hurt, would it?

But it did, didn’t it?

Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt. She never got to know what her future could hold, because she couldn’t fully leave her past behind and trust God. While it’s unlikely that we will experience the same fate as her, spending a lot of time focusing on the past isn’t necessarily helpful of healthy.

Looking back with longing

I’m sure that we all know someone who’s life seems empty, because all they can think about is the past. They spend so much time thinking about what happened when they were younger, that they forget to enjoy themselves now. They forget to make new memories. Their past, whether good or bad seems to consume everything. Maybe we can even see a glimpse of this in ourselves. Maybe there are a few years from your life when things felt so easy and right, that you can’t help going back to that place in your mind over and over again. This kind of looking back clearly isn’t healthy if it robs us of our future, and even our present.

Being so filled with fear for the present that we bury ourselves in the past.

Wow, this is a hard one isn’t it. And I think that it goes hand in hand with my previous point. sometimes we can look back at the past because we are scared of where we are or where we are going.

Maybe there is a genuine reason for that fear. I know that I have felt like this when I have clearly been in a place where God didn’t want me to be, and I had to do something to get out of that situation.

But, if like Lot’s wife, we are exactly where God want’s us, we need to start focusing our energies on this time. Maybe we need to make the effort to make new friends, or spend time listening to God, to work out exactly what he wants us to be doing. If we are so fearful that we aren’t taking the time to do these things, then we can say that this kind of looking back is unhelpful.

I’m not saying looking back is never a good thing. But when looking back stops us from moving forward, of course it is. And we need to take control of that.

But looking back isn’t always a bad thing. We know that denying our past is not helpful, and that there is much we can learn and remember.

To reflect and learn

They say that a definition of a fool is to keep on doing the same thing and expect a different result. If we can’t look back critically how can we ever expect to do better? How can we ever expect to learn?

Taking time at the end of the day, to reflect on what has happened, to see where we have gone wrong is so important, so that we don’t keep on making mistakes. While I was studying at bible college one of our lecturers would repeatedly tell us that we are reflective practitioners. We needed to reflect on what we had done, so that we could avoid making the same mistakes, and get better.

This is also true on a larger scale. Maybe there is a pattern in our life or family, that we need to look back at, and reflect on before we can break free from it. But sometimes looking back purely to remember isn’t such a bad thig.

To remember

There is a real place for this. In Old Testament times, God often instructed the Israelites to pile up stones so that they could remember what God has done. So that they could have a physical reminder of what had gone before, that they would know that God can do it again.

It’s important that we look back at the past, to remember what God has done, to remember the good times, perhaps people that we have lost. And to even remember some of the pain. Remembering builds faith. We remember that God never left us or let us down, and that he never will.

So lets be wise about how we view the past, not becoming so caught up in it that we find ourselves trapped; instead learning from it and growing from it as we trust God for our freedom.

This is the second in my series about nameless characters from the bible, you can read the rest here.

How to Bloom

Posted in Uncategorized by

I’ve not got a good track record when it comes to house plants. But one that I have managed to keep alive is my Christmas cactus. I even succeeded in getting it to bloom this year.

There are a couple of things I have learnt from this experience. (Not just about plants)

If I left this plant in my warm cosy living room, it would not bloom. Ever. It needs to experience some quite harsh conditions: It needs to be cold and have more hours of darkness than light.

The second thing I learnt was this: Even though it bloomed almost a month late, it didn’t matter. It still bloomed.

So I think there are some fairly obvious life lessons, (and perhaps some slightly less obvious ones too) that we can take from this. Obviously some of this will be a bit cheesy, but what do you expect? So lets get to it…

In order to bloom, we often need to experience hardship

I think this is a fairly obvious statement. But do we really live in this way? Life is lovely when everything is easy., but not so much when we are facing hardship. From my own experience, and the lives of many others, I know it to be true: In order to bloom we often need to experience hardship.

For starters, it makes us more compassionate. How much better can we understand other peoples problems when we have faced a few of our own. And it often means we have a desire to help others who are now going through the same things we have.

Paul puts it like this in one of my favourite bible verses.

Not only so, but we  also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

We grow through suffering, it even leads to us really know hope.

But when I talk about hardship, I’m not just thinking about suffering that we have no control over. In my mind, I also have the kind of hardship that we choose. If we want to get in shape we will pick up weights which feel uncomfortable at first, and then when it begins to feel comfortable, we will have to pick up an even heavier one. When you start to think about it, there are many hardships we will endure in order to achieve something.

In order to bloom we need to be willing to get uncomfortable at times. That may mean being willing to get up earlier, or go to a place which might feel difficult to us. It may mean giving away something that we hold onto tightly. The problem is, many of us (myself included) are addicted to being comfortable. We will do anything to avoid being being tired, or hungry or cold. But if we stay in our cozy living rooms, we may never have the opportunity to bloom.

The timeline doesn’t matter as much as we think it does.

I didn’t get any less joy from my cactus blooming, just because it happened a month late. I still think it looks as nice now as I would have done a month ago. Now it has bloomed, that extra month I was waiting doesn’t seem to matter at all.

Have you ever noticed this in your own life? You can wait and wait for something, for what seems like eternity. But once you get it that time you waited doesn’t matter at all, because its all behind you. You have that thing now.

You may have a timeline for your life in your mind. And maybe that time line isn’t going to plan. Especially this year!

When the pandemic hit, it felt like it was at the worst possible time. Not only had I just got engaged, but the children’s ministry I lead at church was growing. I was so excited about the future. I had plans for our wedding, and also for the children’s ministry. Our wedding was much smaller than we would have wanted and most of the plans for the ministry have been put on hold. But God has taught me so much during this time; mostly that it isn’t just about me and my timing, but that it is all in his hands. Taking our children’s ministry online has meant that some children who would struggle to get to church normally, have been able to join us, and then when we were able to return (for a time) we were able to experiment with really good all age ministry.

There have been times when I have compared myself to my friends, what they have achieved, and felt disappointed, because I hadn’t bloomed in the same way as them. Maybe you find yourself doing this. Maybe you had a plan for you life, and you feel like you are years behind schedule.

Do you think that my cactus sat on the windowsill in the spare room/ Tom’s office (which will hopefully be my office again at some point after the pandemic) worrying about when it will bloom. Worrying about why it hasn’t bloomed yet, and why all it’s Christmas cactus buddies have. Of course not! That would be completely ridiculous. Jesus tells us its just as ridiculous for us to worry.

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 

Matthew 6: 28-30

In this blog it may feel like I am trying to tell you two completely opposing things. Push out of your comfort zone in order to bloom, but relax if it’s not happening in the time frame that you want it to.

But perhaps these two things are not quite so opposed as they may seem. Perhaps the people who are most concerned about the future, are the very ones who don’t want to push out of the comfortable zone. Who don’t want to leave the living room.

So don’t be afraid of being uncomfortable, that is when God will stretch you, that’s when you will learn develop perseverance, character and hope, and also, don’t worry if you have to wait a longer than you thought you would.

If you enjoyed reading this why not subscribe?

Blessing Jars

Posted in Motivational by

A few years ago I made a blessings jar. About once a week I would write down something I was thankful for. Sometimes they were quite big things, like unexpected financial blessings, other times it was just something along the lines of a phone call with a friend.

This year I’ve got a bigger jar, because I believe that God’s got big blessings in store. And I know for certain that he does. No matter what happens this year, it will be full of blessings. Because really, you don’t need fancy holidays or nice cars to be blessed. (After all, Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness)

When you start looking for blessings you realise they are everywhere. A favourite meal, a walk through trees covered in frost, a chance to chill on the sofa with a good book and a glass of gin. The opportunity to bless someone else, or show them Jesus, a coincidence that couldn’t just be a coincidence. It turns out that the old song count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done really is true.

It might sound easy for me to say, after all 2020 was a great year for me. It turns out that getting married, even in the middle of a pandemic, even if you have to massively change plans at five days notice, really is great. But even if that hadn’t happened, I could have said that 2020 was a good year. Because God was there.

God is there just as much in the hard times, if you are going into 2021, not expecting much from it, and in a position of negativity, I suggest that you do something to count your blessings, you may be surprised. After all, my first blessings jar was started just a couple of months after moving home with my parents, to a town I didn’t know, and after the most difficult year of my life to date. And that blessing jar was filled to the brim.

Maybe taking that step of faith puts us in a position where we are open to receiving blessings. Maybe actively looking for what God has done, and praising him for it, gives us more faith, to take more risks, where we see God move in even more amazing ways.

If you want to read more about what it means to be blessed check out this post

If you are going into the new year feeling a bit down, why not read this

Three Years On

Posted in Real Life Stories by

img_3290

Although I haven’t written on this blog for well over a year, I have had his date in my mind for several months as the date I should begin to share again. Because this was the date I made the most important, difficult, journey of my life. (Not just because I had a phone call from the police, as I was going in and out of coverage across the Yorkshire countryside side on a busy train carriage, asking for details of a crime I had witnessed earlier that year, and even if I wanted to pick the suspect from a line-up.) It was the day I finally left an abusive marriage

It wasn’t the first time that I had left. And when I was leaving, I didn’t realise it would be for good.

I remember my dad picking me up from Sheffield train station, and telling me I didn’t look good: in the most loving way possible. I remember truths slipping out through tears, as I realised I could never go back. I remember switching off my phone to break all contact. I remember the confusion of making decisions of my own for the first time in years. The freedom of knowing it didn’t matter that if I got it wrong.

But the thing I remember the most was just how close God was then. I would close my eyes and he would be there right in front of me. He was big, and he loved me so much. I have never known this is such a tangible way as I did back then.

And that was the most important thing. If that is where the story ended, if God didn’t do anything else apart from love me, that would be okay. But he did so much more.

He healed me. And he provided for me. In those months and over these last three years he has done so in such detail.

Jobs, finances, friendships and even a new relationship.

Within a couple of weeks of leaving, I was provided with a job in a card shop. That would have been enough, but God had more. I had registered with an agency, to work as a teaching assistant. On the very day I bought my car, I got a phone call from them, offering work a cars journey away.

These were the big things, but God even had the smaller details sorted out as. One day I got the bus over to Doncaster to do my Christmas shopping. I knew I wanted to get something more than I usually would for my parents. As I was walking along the high street I felt drawn to go in to one of the shops. I ignored it. I was on a mission, and it was the kind of shop that looked like even more of a jumble sale than TK Maxx. But the same thing happened as I walked back up the high street. After all, that feeling was one of them God kind of ones, although I wouldn’t normally get them to go into shops. I took a deep breath and went in. Right in the entrance there was a pile of board game. Including the one that my parents had been asking for, which normally retailed at around £40 they were selling is for £7. I had to chuckle on Christmas day when my mum commented on how generous I had been.

God has kept on working out the details for me. I could go on and on. I am now blessed to be working in a church doing a job I was made for as a children and families minister, just up the road from where I grew up. Even moving here I have been provided with an amazing flat, with a balcony (something I had always dreamed of) and two bedrooms, so I have space for friends and family to stay. (hint hint)

I guess what I really want to say is this: Whatever life throws at you, whether it is your fault or not, God can redeem it, and he can use it for good and for his glory. As October is domestic abuse awareness month, I want to make it clear that leaving an abusive relationship will be one of the hardest things you ever do, but it will also be the best. There is so much life after, it does not disqualify you from serving, or new relationships.

img_2966