Beggar, Slave, Friend, Child.

How do you see your relationship to God?

Are you a beggar? Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. Niles, D. T.

Are you a servant or slave? The Book of Romans opens thus, Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus,

Are you a friend? I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15.

Or are you a child? But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Ps 131:2)

Beggar, servant, friend or child?

Which are we?

All.

* * *

I love Hudson Taylor’s description of his relationship to Christ (also known as Hudson Taylor’s spiritual secret).

Jesus is the Vine--the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed. Aye, and far more too! He is the soil and sunshine, air and rain-more than we can ask, think, or desire. Let us not then want to get anything out of Him, but rejoice in being ourselves in Him-one with Him, and, consequently, with all His fulness.

* * *

He is our creator, our sustainer, and the sea in which we will eventually swim. He is the vine, in which we are branches.

He is the shepherd of shepherds.

The inspirer of writers, the editor of writers, the literary agent of writers.

He is the parent of parents

The gardener of gardeners

The intelligence behind entrepreneurs who seek him

He is our all-sufficient everything, and we realize the truth of this gradually.

* * *

And what is Christ to me, at the moment?

Well, I have come to a point which took me a long time to reach: the point of brokenness.

Interestingly, my battles with weight have brought me there. I am really, really struggling to remember to eat low-calorie meals and to exercise enough everyday. To change my eating habits. Okay, I am breaking a lifetime of bad habits, so it’s not easy.

But like those struggling with alcohol, I reached the stage at which I realized I could not do it on my own.

* * *

And there were other things I realized I could not do on my own.

I am finding it hard to both blog and write books, though I long to do both. So I need God’s help with that too.

I need God’s help with discipline.

I need God’s help not to get side-tracked with social media—blogs, twitter and facebook and online newspapers.

I like the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 steps

• Step 1 - We admit we are powerless over our addiction - that our lives have become unmanageable
• Step 2 - We believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity
• Step 3 – We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

Never had a problem with drinking too much, too terrified of the very thought of becoming an alcoholic; never experienced drugs--but I have recently realized how I use food as a way to deal with uncomfortable emotions—stress, boredom, highs, lows, depression, emptiness, the occasional tantrums and negativity in family life. And this must stop.

How? In this respect, I am coming as a begging child to her father for remember to seek the filling and fullness of the Holy Spirit, whenever I am tempted to eat for comfort.

Come Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus.

And praying blog readers—and I guess you would not have been able to read to the end of this post if you were not a person of faith--I would be most grateful for your prayers. Thank you!