‘Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me’
(St Patrick)
Today I’ve been thinking about this prayer of St Patrick. A reminder that Christ is all around us. He is in all things & through all things.
‘He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.’
(Colossians 1:17 NIV)
If we don’t feel close to God, it’s us that have moved away, not God.
‘Draw near to God & He will draw near to you’ (James 4:8 NKJV)
God is there, whether we can sense Him or not.
Scrabo Tower stands like a sentinel at the head of Strangford Lough, even when its obscured by legendary Irish mist! The fact that we can’t see it doesn’t diminish it’s presence!
‘We may ignore, but nowhere can we evade the presence of God.
The world is crowded with Him.
And He walks everywhere in cognito.
And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate.
The real labour is to remember,to attend.
In fact, to come awake.
Still more, to remain awake’
(CS Lewis)
‘The beauty of the gospel is all around us, in the parables of our lives, in the hearts of those who believe, in the graces that seem so common but really aren’t common at all. God has filled his people and his world with his glory. Blessed are those who actually look for it. Even if it only looks back at you a few fleeting seconds at a time.’
(Chris Tiegreen)
Come close to this God, our God & He will come close to you.
It’s all about choices.
We choose which way our relationship with God goes – whether we’re walking closely to Him, or far away. We decide if we’re going to give our relationship with God the priority it deserves.
We are all sinners-even Saint Patrick declared this. Yet we can know the blessings of Christ in us- the hope of glory.(Col 1:27)
Many of us are prodigals. Of course, we’re still our Father’s children – nothing can change that. But we’re certainly not close to our Father- we’re living in a distant land, far from the Father’s house. We’ve squandered His riches, freely given to us. We’re missing out on the privileges of His children – we’re searching for scraps in the pigsty when we could be feasting at His table.
Maybe today, we need to come home, to return to our Father’s house, to feel the warmth of His embrace and the unspeakable joy of a restored relationship. There’ll be no anger, or awkward questions, just His tender voice saying, “Welcome home” and His deep unconditional love- the love that He’s been aching to show us while we were apart. And we’ll wonder why we were away so long – away from our Father’s house, but we’ll realise that we were never, never away from our Father’s love.
‘Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart’
(Psalm 37:4-NIV)
Come close to God & He WILL come close to you.
‘Above and below me
Before and behind me
In every eye that sees me
Christ be all around me’
(Leeland)
‘May the strength of God pilot us,
May the wisdom of God instruct us,
May the hand of God protect us,
May the word of God direct us.
Be always ours this day and for evermore.’
(St Patrick)
Blessings,
Ruth x
Blessed! 