Exploring promises as a tool of growth. Part 8

Exploring promises as a tool of growth

Part 8: You anoint my soul, take your place in my heart, and surround me with blessings

Now there is just the rest of the world to attend to! But, of course, we have already been doing this. We do not live in a hermetically sealed bubble, and we have recognised that the hurts of the world invade our personal space; they can even over-power or corrupt us and take up their dominion over us, so that not even the inmost space of our own souls is one in which we are in charge. That was the point of creating an arena in which we have retaken the initiative by making and keeping a promise – and then expanding the area of God’s sovereignty – which becomes also the area of our own spiritual integrity and peace. So, the task of walking closely with God entails facing up to all the challenges that the world throws at us. The difference is simply that within the arena of our own souls we do have the opportunity to live by our own will, whereas we have to accept the limits of our ability to influence others – because, of course, they are also masters of their own soul – unless they have themselves been mastered by forces which dominate them.

We should also acknowledge and rejoice that it is not just the pain and corruption of the world that has the ability to pass through the boundaries of our souls, but also the love, support and friendship of those blessed ones who make our lives delightful by their company, who bind up our wounds, who lift up our hearts, and who heal us and lead us to wholeness by their kindness, patience and faithfulness. In all our brokenness, compromise, disappointment and failed intentions, they have stood by us and so enabled us to carry on. So, in all our talk of creating an arena in which God is honoured, we are not saying he is not already honoured, or that his love is not known, or that the love of these others who make our lives worth living is not truly precious and already making us whole. What we are trying to do is to say: All these things being true, and rejoicing in God’s grace, known directly from him and through others, I would like to increase the sway that God has in my life by clearing out the clutter, the mess, the inadequate or the incomplete from one area of my soul. Thus, I will make a space into which God can pour more of his grace so that I can grow in this grace. And the way I will do this is by making a promise and doing all that I can to keep it.