Daily Reflections ...

Much of scripture is filled with moments of direction, instruction and examples of ways to live a ‘good’ life. Although these can sometimes be challenging, they exist and can provide somewhat of a road map for those looking for a little direction around ‘how’ to live a Christian life. Today’s scripture is not one of those moments.

While this one line of Matthew’s Gospel may seem simple, herein lies a great challenge for many of us. It is those who do ‘the will of my Father in heaven’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, and who of us truly know the will of the Father, except the Father himself? How easy it is for us to look at the choices of others and make judgements about whether they are living a ‘good’ life – a life worthy of an eternity in heaven. And yet, how could we possibly know the disposition of the heart of another. That can only be between an individual and God.

The next time we are tempted to applaud those who cry ‘Lord, Lord’ loudly and with conviction, or to silently judge those we are not sure are on the right track, let’s remember that one day we will all stand before our Father in heaven and only he will decide who will enter the kingdom of heaven. We are all in need of his compassion and mercy

by Emma Plant