Consecration

These short devotional have been written by Rev Malcolm Duncan, Elim Minister of Kensington Temple in London. They were written in 2024 to help Elim Ministers and members spend time consecrating their lives to God.

Select a day : 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12   (Day 13 on Wed)

We live in an age where it is easy to be cynical.

It is easy to be cynical about the local church, about God and faith and about Government. And it is easy to give into cynicism about our Movement. But cynicism is the incubator of hopelessness and hopelessness is the father of despair. The cure to cynicism is a consecrated and heartfelt commitment to community.

In these few words, Peter gives us a great life manifesto. Loving your spiritual family means being committed to it, speaking well of it and honouring it. There are plenty of places where it is life threatening to be a follower of Jesus and part of the Christian community – maybe we should do less moaning about the local church and more supporting? It is a beautiful thing if you look hard enough. Warts and all! And whilst I do not think we should say that everything in Elim is good and healthy and perfect (healthy movements can critique themselves), I also think we must look for the signs of life, and growth and hope in our Movement and celebrate them. We can, and I think we should, commit ourselves to speaking well of our colleagues, encouraging our leaders and affirming the continued hand of God upon our movement and its leaders. God is not done with us yet. We should also remember that God hears our words, spoken in private.

God is not just our buddy, our mate, or the guy at the end of the street. To revere Him is to give Him His place. We can't talk others down and think God does not hear us. We cannot re-cast His image into someone who agrees with all our preferences. We are not free to create the God we like and ditch the things about His character that challenge us. As followers of Christ, we follow the One who leads us to those in need, to the broken and to the poor. But we also follow the One who leads us to the God of Israel, a God of purity and holiness as well as compassion. We shouldn't treat God as if He is just a bigger version of us. Worship, service, devotion and obedience are all healthy words.

Our Movement may not be perfect, but we should seek to see it change with passionate and respectful discussion and debate. When we disagree, we should make our voices heard clearly, graciously and properly. Too often we only say something when we have something negative to say about others but not when we have something positive to say. But there are plenty of things to be thankful for in Elim. Passionate worship, people who love God's word, diversity, local engagement, great theologians and teachers, great leaders, caring and faithful pastors and teachers, amazing stories of healing and deliverance and answered prayer and a longing for a fresh move of the Holy Spirit and new churches to be birthed. We have apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers across our Movement, and a huge amount of potential just ready to be released. A consecrated Movement can celebrate, not just criticize.

Constructive criticism is one thing, cynicism has nothing to do with Christian faith – and should never be at heart of our Movement, our churches or our leaders.

For further thought –

How can you show your commitment to the Elim Movement locally, regionally and nationally? Think of one thing you can do and do it – it might be as easy as attending more regional gatherings, or it might be taking on the role you have been avoiding for a very long time. Can you encourage a colleague, or do you need to break cynicism in your heart? What can you do for good.