Proverbs 15:22 says, ‘Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.’ There is no doubt that the advice and counsel of wise Christians can be extremely helpful to us when facing awkward decisions, but an additional difficulty comes if we receive conflicting advice. What do we do, then?! When making choices, it isn’t always possible to please everyone, and we can be thrown into further confusion if the advice we receive is contradictory.

Sometimes, the conflict comes because we are asking for advice when we have actually already decided what we want to do and are therefore not inclined to listen to any counsel which contradicts the plans of our own heart. But sometimes, we genuinely do want the advice and counsel of others, but are confused when this leads us in totally opposite and mutually exclusive directions!

Paul faced the dilemma of conflicting counsel with regard to his journey to Jerusalem. He felt compelled to go there by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:22), but throughout his long journey there, he met with people who strongly urged him not to go there (see Acts 21:4, 12). He heard prophecy from a respected church member (Agabus) which indicated the unfavourable outcome awaiting him in Jerusalem. (Acts 21:10-11) Yet he persisted in heading towards Jerusalem despite all who urged him not to. Was he simply being obstinate? How does this situation help us in our own moral dilemmas and difficult decisions?

Firstly, we must remember that God will never contradict Himself, even if we need discernment in understanding what He is saying. Secondly, we must learn to differentiate between prediction and prohibition. Paul was under no illusions that going to Jerusalem would mean a comfortable outcome for him. He knew that the Holy Spirit had warned him of hardships and prison (Acts 20:23), so Agabus’ prediction that he would be bound by Jewish leaders and handed over to the Gentiles (Acts 21:11) was no surprise to him. He repeatedly told others that he was prepared to die for the Lord and that his personal safety and wellbeing were not his highest concern (Acts 20:24, Acts 21:13). We should not be surprised to find that this answer was difficult for those who loved him to accept; similarly, no advice that is ever given to us will be completely impartial or without personal emotion and involvement, and these elements must be weighed in our response. No one person has a monopoly on truth and each one will be working through difficult implications in the advice they give.

The advice of others is often helpful and crucial in allowing us to work through the implications of choices and to see aspects of decisions which perhaps would otherwise be invisible to us. At the same time, each decision we make must be ours alone and must reflect the inner conviction of what God Himself is saying to us. It’s all too easy to be swayed by reason and advice; sometimes, we must remember that what God calls us to do does not make rational sense and does not guarantee easy outcomes. Paul continued on his journey to Jerusalem not because he was simply being awkward or because he was a masochist; he continued because he was convinced that this was God’s will for him. There can be no substitute for hearing the gentle whisper of God and knowing the personal leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in our decisions.

This year has proved difficult and stressful for most people in different ways. We have been so alienated from usual routines and weighed down by anxieties and fears, and because of this, one of the things that is at risk of being harmed is our friendships. Friendship does not necessarily need physical contact to thrive (my best friends all live away from me and I rarely see them), but the emphasis on lack of social contact this year puts friendships lower down the pecking order in some respects and means it can be difficult to maintain and develop those relationships.

There are, of course, many ways of staying in touch with people these days, including Zoom, Facetime, WhatsApp, letters, cards and texts, even if we cannot meet up in person. There are many ways we can still meet up, including going for a walk outdoors. But busyness, work, juggling so many different aspects of life and the inertia which in some ways lockdown produces have all taken their toll on friendship. We have had to work hard at our relationships at home after being thrust into 24/7 contact earlier in the year; for parents with young children, it has been difficult to do anything other than just exist, and all these things may mean that we have allowed our friendships to drift.

Few of us acknowledge that friendship requires commitment and effort and even fewer of us recognise how precious friendship is. Friendship is that relationship of choice. You can’t choose your family, the saying goes, but you can choose your friends. Friends are those people with whom we feel an affectionate affinity, who love us unconditionally and who care about us without necessarily demanding anything of us! Friends support us, cheer us up, listen to our moans and groans and put perspective back into our lives when the daily demands of shopping, cooking, washing up, eating, cleaning and working all threaten to weigh us down. (And that’s without a pandemic to contend with or any of the more difficult stresses of life!)

The Bible celebrates friendship and urges us to love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Pet 4:8) Maybe today can be the day you reach out to a friend, even in lockdown, and remind them you care. Maybe it will mean putting aside the ironing in order to go for a walk with someone who is desperate for an adult conversation after hours of toddler speak. Maybe it will mean phoning or texting and listening to someone vent about things that are getting them down. Maybe it will mean choosing a card or present and posting it out so that someone will know they’re still loved when they feel isolated from the world. A little friendship goes a long way in these strange times and it’s good never to take anyone’s friendship for granted, for as with all relationships, neglect can mean the friendship withers and dies, and that’s a lonely place to be.

In the film ‘Braveheart’, William Wallace is a freedom fighter, a late 13th century Scottish warrior. Even in his dying moments, the word ‘freedom!’ is the cry of his heart, and freedom is at the heart of the Christian faith.

Freedom is important and highly valued, but is a difficult topic at times, for one person’s freedom can limit someone else’s freedom and we can all have preconceived ideas about what freedom is. Certainly the right to religious freedom has long been acknowledged as something given by God Himself, but over recent months we have seen an elected government taking away many basic freedoms without much consultation, and this second lockdown has raised many questions about our civil liberties. Information used to justify it was out of date and it is deeply disturbing to many that the Government has implemented measures to prevent people from seeing family members and many other freedoms we probably took for granted before. Even if we believe this was done with the best intentions, as Theresa May pointed out, ‘my concern is that the Government today, making it illegal to conduct an act of public worship for the best of intentions, sets a precedent that could be misused for a government in the future with the worst of intentions, and it has unintended consequences.’

Freedom in the Christian life is not simply about our civil liberties, however. Eph 2:1-2 reminds us that we all followed the way of this world before our conversion, being imprisoned in a way of life that was hostile to God. Col 1:13 tells us that Christ has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and Paul speaks about the mastery of sin which effectively curtails our freedom (see Rom 6). Christ has come to set us free from this mastery (see John 8:31-34, Gal 5:1). He has come to see us free from the devil’s lies.

Lies obscure our vision and distort how we see things and people. The enemy constantly tells us lies about God (persuading us that He is mean, waiting to catch us out, hateful, vengeful, bigoted, prejudiced and uninterested in us.) All these lies – which we can so easily believe – captivate us, but truth liberates.

We can, however, surrender our blood-bought freedom, as Paul reminded the Galatians. God gives us real freedom and even allows us to choose to follow Him. We are urged to surrender our lives to God (Rom 6:12-14) so that we are freed from the captivation (mastery) of sin. Then we need to grow. Growth is natural but not inevitable as any pot-bound plant reminds us. We need to realise what God has done for us (1 Cor 6:19-20) and then can grow into all that God intends for us. All who belong to God are liberated and have a freedom of incredible extents, a freedom that goes beyond any natural freedom, but also a freedom that can be surrendered, abused, or used. When we understand we have been bought with a price – the life of the Son of God – we can choose to honour God with the freedom He has given.

Dave spoke this morning from Gal 5:22-23, reminding us that patience is one of the fruit of the Spirit. At Christmas, we often receive multiple presents and inevitably prefer some to other, and we can have that same attitude towards the fruit of the Spirit, preferring love, joy and peace to the more ‘mundane’ and less glamorous gift of patience. Nonetheless, patience (often translated as forbearance or long-suffering) is necessary for us and we looked at three questions relating to it this morning.

1. What Is Patience?

We often have a negative view of patience because we call other things by that name. Indifference, laziness and co-dependence are not patience, however. Patience is really restraint, holding back from judgment or jumping to conclusions, developing stickability and perseverance and therefore not rushing for quick fixes all the time.

2. Why Does Patience Matter?

Patience matters because it makes relationships work. So often, we harm relationships through hurtful words and temper, but patience holds us back from saying and doing things we regret. Prov 14:29 reminds us that a patience man has great understanding.

Patience matters also because it helps us to overcome the power of sin. 1 Jn 5:3 reminds us that God’s commands are not burdensome, and patience helps us to look beyond the lure of the ‘now’ of sin. It also helps us during times of testing and trial (Js 1:2-3) and prevents us from quitting. In this way, it helps us to cooperate with God’s purpose for our lives, resisting the urge to do it ourselves (as Abram and Sarai did with Ishmael.) God is patient and long-suffering with us and therefore it matters that we develop this quality, because we are called to be like God.

3. How Do We Get Patience?

The Bible rarely talks about how we get patience in our lives, simply telling us to be patient or to clothe ourselves with patience (see Col 3:12, 1 Thess 5:14, Eph 4:2). But in order to grow in patience, we must:

• value patience (often, we have mixed feelings about even wanting this fruit, preferring to be a ‘go-getter’ than someone who displays patience.)

• ask for it. As we abide in Christ, fruit grows, including patience. (John 15:5)

• actively seek to be patient. When facing difficult situations, we must see this as an opportunity to become more like Christ.

God is patient with us and this knowledge helps us to be patient with others. Waiting for Him to fulfil promises is not a waste of time, nor are difficult times and trials. We may feel very frustrated and impatient at the present time, but we need to be reliably patient, for that is how God is with us.

The benevolence or goodness of God lies at the heart of the Christian faith. The longer I journey with God, the more I see that who He is and what He is like must inform my thinking and living, otherwise I am in danger of idolatry. If I worship a god made in my own mage, fashioned and crafted after human traits and thoughts, I am guilty of idolatry.

Ps 119:68 is one of the most important verses in the Bible and should be known by every disciple: ‘You are good and what You do is good.’

The goodness of God will protect us from error, which is usually to focus on the power of God divorced from His love or to focus on the love of God divorced from His power. People ask, ‘If God is good, why does He allow evil to happen?’ and decide He is either good and weak (i.e. He is unable to prevent evil) or powerful and malevolent (i.e. able to prevent evil but malicious towards people, enjoying their suffering and misery.) Both extremes are profoundly wrong.

St Thomas Aquinas, a 13th century theologian, said that, ‘God is so powerful that He can direct any evil to a good end’, a view which echoes Paul’s confident assertion that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28). (This is another verse every disciple ought to learn by heart.) We do not know why God allows evil to remain (and flourish at times), but we do know that His love, goodness and power are not at odds with each other and that He is working in all things for good. This may seem trite because we have trivialised this truth, but if we allow the truth of God’s goodness to penetrate our thining and emotions, we will be able to beat any trial with hope and faith.

Evil may seem to triumph for a while, but God promises an end to evil, suffering, pain and sorrow and the destruction of ‘Gog and Magog’ (Ezek 38-39), identified as the world under Satan’s rule (Rev 19:11-20:10). The end result is already known: God wins! As Eugene Peterson puts it, ‘Evil is not inexhaustible. It is not infinite. It is not worthy of a lifetime of attention.’ Instead, we should fix our eyes on God’s goodness rather than on the prevalence, propinquity and presence of evil, and will then find hope stirring, faith flourishing and courage blossoming. God is on our side and will lead us into victory.

The news that a church service in Islington was stopped yesterday by police[1] raises interesting questions about the legality of lockdown and the moral issues it raises during these difficult times. The Angel Church’s pastor, Regan King, spoke about his need to prioritise his responsibility to God, his congregation and community and the church’s need to serve its community as part of its Christian mission. He went on to say, “The spiritual needs of people are as essential as the physical. The supermarkets are open for the body, but what about that food for the soul that’s found in Christ alone?”[2]

These are valid questions, and this present lockdown has seen much disquiet over the Government’s definition of “essential” and “non-essential.” With so many outlets allowed to remain open, it is hard to fathom a coherent rationale based on science behind the regulations, particularly when businesses and places of worship have taken regulations regarding social distancing and hygiene extremely seriously. Although churches can continue to meet online, it is profoundly disturbing to have governments decide when and how we can worship, and the need for “meaningful human interaction” remains an essential feature of corporate worship.

Not everyone will agree with Regan King’s decision, but I believe it is vital that we protect our legal right to gather together and are willing to put our responsibility to God above our desire for social acceptance and comfort. The apostles were clear that obedience to God could mean disobedience to civil authority at times (Acts 5:29), and without wishing for one moment to be reckless with regard to people’s health, a “greater good” may indeed exist which is not in line with the Government’s policies on handling this present crisis. I personally believe that the restrictions on normal family contact and on meeting together to worship are extremely harmful and set a very dangerous precedent, and believe that we should pray not only for an end to the pandemic but for an end to restrictions which criminalise that which is not wrong, let alone criminal.

[1] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/angel-church-baptism-lockdown-north-london-b70911.html

[2] https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/why-i-ve-decided-to-break-the-law-and-open-my-church-during-lockdown