Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
The discussion in Refresh this evening was wide ranging. We finished with this reflection inspired by hearing something Brian McClaren had said; how often do we lean on our understanding of God not on God himself? A simple observation.
In our discussions previous to this we refected on how we should proceed as a group. Inspiration was found in reading from 1Timothy 1 and we dwelt on the verses,
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
I personally felt reassured by this because as we gather it gives us confidence to be who we are in all sincerity. We can be confident that we don’t need to get it all right because Jesus goes before us and we are made clean by him.
Dwelling in him and walking in obedience to him will testify to our authenticity, not our clever words.