“May your unfailing
love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our
hope in you.”
Psalm 33:22 (NIV)
This past Sunday was World Communion Sunday/Unity Sunday.
The churches of my denomination in our town held a Unity Service at the High
School auditorium.
This service came at the end of a weekend of being a part of
a retreat experience with women from another church. As a result, I spent time
reflecting on who I am, what I need to do to grow closer to the LORD, and how I
can let the light of Jesus shine through to others.
Our bishop spoke at the Unity Service and told of visiting
the place where a lot of his ancestors were buried. The caretaker of the
cemetery took him and his wife into a shed and showed them a wall that showed the
family tree of his people. The bishop asked a question of the caretaker. The
response he received was, “Since your name is ******, we’re cousins, it will be
all right.” Because they bore the same name, they had a bond. Because we bear
the name of Jesus, we are all related through the blood of Christ. We sometimes
forget that when the enemy throws his nasty darts at us.
Two of my close friends and I talked as we walked out the
door. We all felt the need to get more serious about prayer. As my one friend
and I drove from the parking lot, we agreed God will do some wonderful things
when He sees we are ready.
How do we get ready for God to act in our behalf? We spend
time with Jesus in prayer, study His Word, and ask Him to guide us through each
of our days.
That prayer part—we need to be serious about it, no praying
on the run. Spend a quantity of time at least each morning or evening in
prayer.
That Bible study part—we need to either get up earlier or
forgo some television time to be in His Word.
That part about letting Him guide—we have to let Him be ‘in
the driver’s seat’. God has the best of intentions for us, if we let Him be in
control.
Please don’t think I have reached perfection in these things
because I haven’t. I get frustrated about things; even say things that I
shouldn’t. This last week, I felt I had to apologize to two different women.
One for something I said and did to one and something I should have said to the
other. All I could do was pray about my inattention to what was happening. Both
were gracious to tell me they understood my actions.
My prayer group is praying for revival. One thing we took
away from that that Unity Service was we have a lot more things to pray
about.
We have to have hope in God that
He will guide us through issues that vex us and help us as we go through our
days.
Sometimes it helps to look beyond our little worlds through something like this to appreciate more needs around us. It is a blessing to go before the Throne and lift others up.
ReplyDeleteKaren: One of those friends talked to her niece who lives in Ohio this morning. It was a good talk . She, like us here, is praying for revival. She heard a group sing, "Breathe" Sunday morning. We heard it at our Unity Service on Sunday evening. She had the same reaction to it as we did--swept away. God was present.
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