Category Archives: Prayer and Devotion

It is not my repentance on which I depend, but on your forgiveness. For my trust is not in my own efforts, but in your generosity. Just as my righteousness is a gift of your grace, not earned by my goodness. Like in a game of “Who blinks first” between lovers, your forgiveness is notContinue reading “On repentance”

Lord, I cannot get everything right. I cannot undo the things I have already got wrong. So, here I am sad and penitent, sometimes feeling small and useless. I am truly sorry, but I am not berating myself, for I know that I am human, and in this life I will struggle to be theContinue reading “Lord, I cannot get everything right”

My gentle friend My gentle friend, who accompanies my every step, Who knew me before e’er I was, and who knows me now, better than I know myself, You discern the roots of all my thoughts, and follow all my reasoning, and you run ahead to see where the effects of all I do willContinue reading “My gentle friend”

Last night I dreamt (A devotional poem, where the object of devotion is, of course, God) Last night I dreamt you spoke to me. And listening in the dark, I knew your voice and loved you. Eyes wide-shining, reflecting night, your whisper stirred my heart to life, As truth spoke to truth, and speaking asContinue reading “Last night I dreamt”

(This poem came to me the other day. It’s not my usual style of writing, but perhaps it can just about fit under the devotions section) Whiskey. Pebble. Fire. I want to live in a log cabin by the seashore, In Scotland, where it snows every winter, and is generally cold, So I must foreverContinue reading “Whiskey. Pebble. Fire.”

Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm Part 5: His shed blood transfers God’s grace to us And you say you are changed? Yes, but forgive me, not changed enough. Yet changed completely, and certainly sufficiently. How can you say that a drop of Christ’s blood fell into your soul but you are not changed enough? IsContinue reading “Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm. (Part 5)”

Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm Part 4: It is reality And the blood? How are we to make sense of this? It does not matter that Jesus was just one man, living in one place, at one time. He is a universal person because he embraces and embodies all that is human and all thatContinue reading “Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm. (Part 4)”

Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm Part 3: Changed forever That look of love, if you caught it, if you chose to pass through rather than turn aside, and if you paused to look as you passed through, rather than simply rushing into freedom regardless of the cost paid for your freedom – though perhaps anyoneContinue reading “Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm. (Part 3)”

Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm Part 2: Born again Jesus said we must be born again, and no-one is quite sure what that means, certainly not me. But perhaps it means this action. That, as once we entered the world through such a confined channel, to the pain and joy of our mothers, so now,Continue reading “Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm. (Part 2)”

(A devotional reflection in 5 parts, taking up a thought from “Jesus holds open a door”) Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm Part 1: A look of love Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm, a drop of his blood falls into our souls and this, to us, is pure grace. The life of Christ, in agony, dripsContinue reading “Passing beneath Christ’s outstretched arm. (Part 1)”