fear, saturday

Saturday, October 18

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

          

Opening Prayer: O Lord our God, help us to live our lives with the faith and courage necessary to live by love and not by fear.  Forgive me when my seeing and my thinking get so distorted that I allow fear to control me and make me its slave—even when I don’t fully realize it.  Seize my heart and soul with your perfect love in such a way that it drives out all fear and gives me the freedom to truly love, rather than manipulate, those in my life and world.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

         

Scripture Reading for the Day: Romans 8:12-17

Reading for Reflection:

     “There is nothing like it on earth,” said the old preacher, “when the spirit of God comes pouring through, and he has poured through me in fair weather and foul, for sixty-four years.”

     “Have there been dry spells?” asked the rector.

     The preacher pushed his plate away and Lottie rose to clear the table.  Father Tim smelled the kind of coffee he remembered from Mississippi—strong and black and brewed on the stove.

     “My brother, dry is not the word.  There was a time I went down like a stone in a pond and sank clear to the bottom.  I lay on the bottom of that pond for two miserable years, and thought I’d never see the light of day in my soul again.”

     “I can’t say my current tribulation is anything like that.  But in an odd way, it’s something almost worse.”

     “What’s that?”

     “When it comes to feeding his sheep, I’m afraid my sermons are about as nourishing as cardboard.”

     “Are you resting?”

     “Resting?”

     “Resting.  Sometimes we get so worn out with being useful that we get useless.  I’ll ask you what another preacher once asked: Are you too exhausted to run and too scared to rest?”

     Too scared to rest!  He’d never thought of it that way.  “When in God’s name are you going to take a vacation?” Hoppy had asked again, only the other day.  He hadn’t known the truth then, but he felt he knew it now—yes, he was too scared to rest.

     The old preacher’s eyes were as clear as gemstones.  “My brother, I would urge you to search the heart of God on this matter, for it was this very thing that sank me to the bottom of the pond.”

     They looked at one another with grave understanding.  “I’ll covet your prayers,” said Father Tim. (At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                  

Closing Prayer: Almighty God, you know the difficulties we face each day.  Remind us that you are very near to us, that indeed you are a shield around us.  We do not fear our adversaries because salvation comes from you.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for All Who Walk with God by Rueben Job, Norman Shawchuck, and John Mogabgab)