Tag: Bible

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

April 7th 2020: Psalm 55:13-23

Psalm 55:13-23 New International Version (NIV)

13 But it is you, a man like myself,
    my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
    at the house of God,
as we walked about
    among the worshipers.

15 Let death take my enemies by surprise;
    let them go down alive to the realm of the dead,
    for evil finds lodging among them.

16 As for me, I call to God,
    and the Lord saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon
    I cry out in distress,
    and he hears my voice.
18 He rescues me unharmed
    from the battle waged against me,
    even though many oppose me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old,
    who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
    because they have no fear of God.

20 My companion attacks his friends;
    he violates his covenant.
21 His talk is smooth as butter,
    yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
    yet they are drawn swords.

22 Cast your cares on the Lord
    and he will sustain you;
he will never let
    the righteous be shaken.
23 But you, God, will bring down the wicked
    into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
    will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

Listen to Psalm 55 here: Psalm 55 audio

Have you ever looked at someone else and thought ‘I used to really like that person but now I’m really glad I’m not like them anymore’? That seems to be what’s going on in today’s reading.

Even though the outcome at the end of it all is fantastic and something that is an ideal aim for any of us in these pressing times – ‘But as for me, I trust in you’ – as I read these words today I want to sound a note of caution. It’s a note of caution that when we look back in a few years’ time might not seem rational or relevant but which I think is key now. We have been asked to live a certain way at this time for the good of one another. One another = both ourselves and everybody else. It’s perfectly easy to look about us and see people who are not living to the standards that we think they ought to at the best of times, but that is especially so now. Have any of us tutted as we’ve seen people walking past our houses less than 2 feet apart recently? That’s a bit like the psalmist and his companion. Both once worshipped together in the temple and expressed love for God and one another, but then the psalmist reckons that he kept to the rules he’d been given whilst his companion certainly did not.

This is all well and good except that right and good, or righteousness looks different in different people depending on who is looking. What I mean is this: I have quite a high awareness of my faults. You reading this might know about some of them but I’ll bet you don’t know all of them. I might look at you and think that you’re brilliant, but you might tell me that that’s only because I only see a certain side of you and if I really knew then I would lower my opinion.

I hope what I’m saying is making sense…Whether we puff ourselves up, do ourselves down, or do the same to other people, the Lord looks on he heart, the motivation we have, where we put our trust, as well as looking at our actions. Where is your heart today? What are you trusting? Don’t worry about what others are doing as much as you make sure that the log in your own eye is being attended to. Then when you say you trust God, when I say I trust God, it will have a better chance of actually being more fully true.

Something To Do

Think about whoever you live with or who you most regularly talk to. What is great about them? Make a list. If you’re feeling brave (!) tell the person what’s on it. It might surprise them!

Something To Pray

Pray that God would help you to see others the way He does and pray that He would increase your trust in Him today.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

April 6th 2020: Colossians 1:18-23

Colossians 1:18-23 New International Version (NIV)

18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleasedto have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven,and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.’

Listen to Colossians 1 here: Colossians 1 Audio

What we need at a time like this is words fit for a time such as this. What we need at a time like this is a Leader, a King, a Saviour, a Friend, fit for such a time as this. There’s not a prince, president or prime minister who could come close to the goodness of Jesus ‘for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things’. Wait a minute, I knew Jesus was great, but all the fullness of God, every part of God, all the bits I understand and all the bits I don’t understand, the bits that will stay beyond my comprehension for the whole of my life, all of it dwelt in Jesus? That’s mad. And  that’s not even all of it is it. Through Jesus (notice, not through Haydon, or you, whatever your name may be) everything is brought back together with God, whether it’s on Earth, in Heaven, or anywhere else. That’s even madder, isn’t it?

We can be presented holy and without blameless and accusation to God. That surely can’t be right. Even the most perfect-seeming of us is blamed for something, or accused of something, even if it’s only by us ourselves. More likely, we’re all the subject of blame and accusation, and rightly so. And you, Paul, writing this so that the Church can hear, having already said that Jesus is the head of it all and is the one who holds it all together, you’re saying that we can be free. We must have to do a huge amount for this freedom, surely?

We have to continue in the faith, stand firm, trust God and hold to the hope of the good news of Jesus Christ.

In one way really easy. At least for those of us who live in societies where we are not persecuted or prosecuted for following Jesus, but in another way a real challenge. What is the good news of Jesus Christ? Amongst other things, ‘no man knows greater love than to lay down his life for his friends’ or, ‘if you want to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me’, or again, ‘in this world you will have trouble’, not ‘you might have trouble’, but ‘you will have trouble’, ‘“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.””

Maybe it’s not so easy after all.

But in the end Jesus, who holds all things together and brought us the possibility of peace is the one who presents us to God. There is hope. Hope in Jesus. Hope is Jesus.

Something to Do

Think about your hopes for the next few weeks and months. What will you do to achieve them?

Something to Pray

Pray for those who are losing hope today, that they would know comfort. Pray that someone would come to mind for you to get in touch with today.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

April 2nd 2020: Psalm 42

Listen to today’s Psalm here

It’s not always the case, but it is today: I’ve written a song which features a good portion of this psalm. Here is a recording made by Ghostree of that song back in 2011 in Nashville

Hope by Ghostree

Now we’ve got that out of the way, on to the passage itself.

It’s safe to say that the writer of today’s passage is not having a happy time of it. Things are going far from well. To have a downcast soul is more than just an expression we use after a bad day, or even a bad week or more, it seems to me that it’s the cumulative effect of being used to being downcast and disappointed over and over and over and over and over and over again. And so on. Not to be flippant about it at all. What I mean is that this person is desolate, in the depths of despair.

We see the writer remembering days gone by, when going to the Temple (Church for us today, perhaps) and joining with the throng praising the Mighty One, the Holy One, the God of the people was the thing that the writer was able to do, loved to do, looked forward to doing.

It’s only been a few weeks for us since we were able to join together face to face to worship God. I wonder, in the days up to the time that we were asked to stay away from places of worship, had you got into the habit of going through the motions with God, with Church, with a life of worship? It’s easy for any of us to fall into that trap. And then so soon any of us can find the option of worshipping together in a physical Church building taken away, either as we do ourselves now, or through persecution or for a whole variety of other reasons. As the writer has done here, it would be easy to become downcast, in the depths of our being. When will this be over? When will this pain and sadness, fear and uncertainty, when will it stop?

Be like the writer here. Talk to yourself if you feel this way and tell yourself, ‘even so, I’m still going to praise God’. Praise God however you can, whether on your own, on the phone with others, joining in with gatherings online or however you’re able to. Whatever’s going on today, put your hope in God. We will praise Him still, our Saviour and our God.

Something To Do

Praise God! Praise gives fuel to faith and faith and trust in God is what will see us through whatever we may face now or in time to come.

Something To Pray

Pray for those who haven’t been able to gather with their fellow believers for some time because they have been attacked and persecuted for their faith. Pray that they would be strengthened and that when the right time comes, they would be freed.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

April 1st 2020: Psalm 62

You can read today’s Psalm below

 Truly my soul finds rest in God;
    my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

3 How long will you assault me?
    Would all of you throw me down—
    this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
4 Surely they intend to topple me
    from my lofty place;
    they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
    but in their hearts they curse.[b]

5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
    my hope comes from him.
6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God[c];
    he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.

9 Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
    the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
    together they are only a breath.
10 Do not trust in extortion
    or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
    do not set your heart on them.

11 One thing God has spoken,
    two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
12     and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
    according to what they have done.”

You can listen to today’s passage here: Psalm 62 Audio

I’m writing this post towards the end of the working day on Wednesday. A few hours from now, at 7pmGMT  I’ll be leading a short service of Evening Prayer on the Emmanuel Group of Churches Facebook page

During the time of the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak in the UK in 2020 it’s been a great joy for me to find that the Bible has words of comfort and hope as well as challenge. I know that a lot of people dismiss the idea that a book, or collection of books could have power beyond the words in other books, but it is fascinating to me how day by day something from this ancient collection of texts, songs and poems has connected very closely with me.

Today, the psalmist, David, repeats in a variety of ways that his soul finds rest, peace and hope only in God. David was a man who was reported to be ‘after God’s heart’, or to put it another way, someone God saw something of himself in. We can look for rest, peace, hope, even perhaps a little joy, in a  lot of places, particularly in uncertain times like those that we are living through at the moment, but true rest, true peace, true hope and true joy, I’ve only ever found them why I’ve admitted my need for God and invited Him to take my life and use it for His glory. I know that sounds church-y. Some of us just want to get out of this period of time alive, still breathing, still able to enjoy the delights of the world around us. That’s understandable. David was writing, and living, under pretty extreme pressure – sometimes through his own fault and sometimes because of enemies seeking to destroy him. A lot of talk recently has been that Covid-19 is an invisible enemy. So it would be easy to curl up and use every resource we have just to keep on breathing over these next weeks and months, with every hope and good wish that all will be ok in the end.

The thing is, unless hope has a foundation, it’s not really hope at all. It’s a strongly held wish. There’s a song we sing at Emmanuel along with Churches around the world that starts

‘My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness’

The goodness of God which David knew is the same goodness of God that Jesus showed in His life – his righteousness, his goodness was proved because He did what He was asked to do and completed the task set out for him without sinning (turning away from God and doing His own thing). His death, though hugely unfair and unimaginably painful, opened the way for anyone who wants to to know God and to be known by God. My hope is built on the truth that God knows and loves me and wants me to know Him too.

Power belongs to God, not me, and that’s exactly the right way round.

Something To Do

Make a list of the things you have hope in. Is God on the list? What else is?

Something To Pray

Pray for those who are powerless at the moment, that they would experience God using His power for their good.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

March 30th 2020: Psalm 121

You can read today’s passage here: Psalm 121 text

You can listen to today’s passage here: Psalm 121 Audio

Problems sometimes feel like mountains, don’t they? Looming over us, looking down on us, judging us, mocking our inability to cope, to offer a defence. We’re unable to think about doing anything about them because they overtake us. We’re powerless. Powerlessness leads, in my experience, to fear, anger, resentment and to turning in on myself, turning against myself. By the time I do this, I’ve long since given up raging against how unfair the world is. To be perfectly honest, I’ve probably given up doing what I should know by now is the great and right instinctive response when faced with crisis too: look to God for help.

As I read the passage today, it struck me how ironic it is that these mountains that loom over us, so powerful, so insurmountable, are exactly where our help  comes from? Where does help come from? It comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth, the one who made the mountains and put them in their place. I use that turn of phrase deliberately. If we look to the Lord for help, He will put our troubles in their place which is, I believe, under His authority. All of us have problems, trouble, pain, suffering that we’ve faced in the past, are facing now and will face in the future. There’s no doubt about that. When we do, it takes faith and trust to hold on to the beautiful promise of this Psalm that the Lord will watch over us, He will watch over our going out and our coming in. Whatever happens, God doesn’t sleep. He has His eye on us. His love is for us every step of the way. It might be scary to think that God has His eye on you all the time. I truly believe that when He looks at you He does so with love. He loves you. It’s an old-fashioned phrase ‘He will keep your soul’ but that is the phrase that gives me the most comfort from this reading today. It is God who cares for me the most. Imagine the most cared-for you’ve ever felt in your whole life: that’s just a small picture of the care and the love and the passion that God has for you.

Something To Do

Think deliberately about trying to be as caring as you can towards those around you and yourself today. It might sound silly but I bet it helps.

Something To Pray

Father, thank you for caring for me, for keeping your eye on me. Help me to trust you and help me to know your love for me. Amen

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

March 27th 2020: Psalm 102

You can read today’s passage here: Psalm 102

You can listen to today’s passage here: Psalm 102

Some of us have been through times when we’ve wanted to lament – to let it all go, say what we really think, at a time, or times, when  it’s all been too much. ‘It’ could be a huge variety of things and I wouldn’t want to seek for you when you think about the reasons or situations you’ve been in that have led you to lament. When we’re talking about lament, though, we’re not meaning to lament your football team conceding a last minute goal to lose. We’re talking about something which has really changed the course of your life. Perhaps something that made you aware of your mortality, or something that was so deeply sad that it cut you right to the core. Each of us would have something different in our histories which is the thing that we most immediately think of when I describe such a feeling.

The writer of today’s psalm is in that place exactly. Such a feeling of pain and desolation as they describe could, for some of us, be unimaginable, but I bet it isn’t for all of us. This person is at the end of themselves and sees that their very life might end soon. And yet they want their words passed on so that future generations might praise the Lord. That’s quite some faith, right there. Further, the psalmist recognises that once their days are over, the Lord will still be the Lord and, as He is still God, the order of things will still be right.

Is your faith as strong as that? Is mine?

Looking forwards, the psalmist sees that those condemned to death will be released by God. As we live in uncertain times, times which none of us are certain of living through to the other side of, today’s psalm reminds us be faithful to God and to trust Him that those who live beyond us will be free to worship Him without fear.

Something To Do

At the end of reading or listening to a sobering psalm today, send an encouraging message of some kind to someone in a future generation reminding them to stay faithful to God.

Something to Pray

If you feel like lamenting today, then do. Be honest with God. If you don’t feel like lamenting today, pray for those around you who are in a place of sorrow that they would know comfort in their weariness and struggle.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

March 26th 2020: Psalm 53

You can read today’s passage here: Psalm 53

You can listen to today’s passage here: Psalm 53

The message today is stark and straightforward: God is looking to see who trusts Him. I think it is implicit that if He looks and finds people trusting Him then they will be invited to do good things in the name of God, to make God known to other people and to set am example in how with how they live so that people don’t just see them as ‘nice’ or ‘good’ but godly too.

The corresponding outcome for those who ‘say in their heart there is no God’ is pretty stark. In short, the outcome is not good. However every person has the choice in whether they say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to God. I’ve always found it fascinating how respectful God is of the human ability to choose or reject Him. That is until the end of it all, when ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Or that’s how it appears to me, at least. So is it a real choice or just an illusion of one? I wonder….Either way, it seems pretty clear that the better choice to make now, today, is to be God’s person and follow His ways. I’m doing my best.

Something To Do

Be aware of the choices you make today. Where you know that God would have you do something in a particularly way, do your best to take that choice.

Something To Pray

‘Help me to trust you, even and especially on the days it’s hard.’

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

March 20th 2020: Hebrews 7:11-28

You can read today’s post here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+7%3A11-30&version=NLT

Hebrews is a complicated book. It, or the English translations of it at least – I can’t claim to have read in other languages – is full of close argument and complex sentences which take a lot of unpicking. Take the 18 verses we’re given in the Morning Prayer Reading from the Church of England today. People could write books about exactly what is being argued here. Indeed it’s been done. But breaking it down to the core important single point the writer is making is what I am hoping to do in the next few sentences.

The writer is making the point that God set up priesthood – people who point people to God and represent them to Him -first with the tribe of Levi and Aaron. The covenant – the contract or relationship between God ands people – was continually broken by the people as they turned from God and did their own thing, living life in their own way. And so God set up priesthood in a new line, the order of Melchizedek – Melchizedek means ‘My King is Righteousness” – God wanted a King who was truly good, in the deepest, most meaningful and foundational sense of the word and so Jesus, who was ultimately good, ultimately put the kingdom of God first, justice mercy, joy and peace first and showed what true love was, this man was able to properly show God to people and people to God and so the new relationship was made possible.

I’ve tried to keep that short and so would probably be accused by some of cutting corners or missing out something central to Christian belief and history, but the key point is this: we couldn’t ever get to the point where we were who we were designed to be on our own. We needed Jesus to show us what it is to be a Godly person. He put God first in His life. He put the needs of others before His own. He didn’t ask to be served. He served others instead. His actions backed up His words. And His words shared love, joy, mercy and peace, as well as justice and a warning that one day a moment will come for each of us where we will be asked to account for what, or who we put first in our own lives. Jesus sacrificed everything so that we who often put ourselves first, so selfishly, don’t receive the consequences our selfish actions deserve. If we put our trust in him, ask for forgiveness for what is gone past and every day seek to live facing in a new direction, his direction, then we can be free in the freest sense of the word free.

I want that kind of freedom, but not so that I can put my feet up, metaphorically or literally and live just as I want to, but so that I can live in a way that is as close to the way that Jesus did it as I possibly can. Wouldn’t it be good to feel free? It doesn’t mean things won’t be hard or go wrong in the future, but it does mean that we have the kind of freedom, the kind of peace, that it is just not possible to manufacture on our own.

Something to do

Commit to doing 5 things tomorrow that will definitely put someone else first, rather than just making you happy or more comfortable.

Something to pray

Ask God to show you things from today from your life which have been selfish, have hurt others, hurt you or been not the way that he would want. Ask him to forgive you. If you do that and really mean that you won’t live the same way from now on, you can know that you are free. Make sure to (safely!) spread some of that freedom tomorrow.

Categories
2020 Bible Reflections

March 18th 2020: Psalm 1

March 18th 2020: Psalm 1

You can read the text of today’s reading here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+1&version=NLT

The text of this reading is pretty straightforward: if you want to be blessed, for life to be as it should be and to receive all that life has for you, all that God has for you, even, delight in the law of the Lord. It goes well for people who do, and it doesn’t go well for people who don’t. They are ‘the wicked’ (in the traditional, rather than modern sense). Most of us don’t want to be ‘the wicked’. We’d rather be the ‘good’. So, there’s a pretty big question: if we’re to delight in the law of the Lord and think, meditate on it day and night, what is that law?

People have been confused about this forever. Even the disciples of Jesus, the people who were closest to him and learned from him and did their utmost to follow what he asked them to do needed help working it all out, as we find it Matthew’s gospel,

“36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””

So, isn’t this timely? In a moment in world history where we could choose to be only about ourselves and seek safety and security for us and our families, avoiding the consequences of Covid-19, we are told that every single one of the many (and if you don’t know how many there are, there really are many, many) laws and details of how people that want to delight in the law of God and know what it is to be truly free have to follow is this one: Love. Love for God, recognising that we need God, that we can’t do life on our own. Love for self, casting aside the words that have hurt us and put us down over the years, the actions of others and the actions and thoughts of ourselves which make us think that everyone else is great but we’re not worth love; that kind of love. And love for our neighbour. I often ask kids in school, ‘who is your neighbour’? And they sometimes say, ‘Mr Smith’ or ‘Mrs Jones lives across the road’. More often than not, though, they’ve got it much better than most of us adults. They say ‘everyone is my neighbour’. The whole community is our neighbours. Obviously love means different things in different relationships, but we have to show love to everyone, we have to value everyone as if they were the most precious person on the whole of the planet, and we have to let them do the same to us. If we do that, and if we have God at the centre of it all, then we’ll be going some way towards delighting in the law of the Lord, being like a tree planted in streams of living water, one which bears the best kind of fruit. Don’t you want to be like that? I do.

Something to Pray About

Pray for those who are working hard in hospitals caring for the sick, for those in isolation at home with sick relatives, worried about who might catch the virus next. Pray for those in laboratories working hard and unseen on behalf of all, that God would guide their hard work and give them wisdom.

Something To Do

Check in with your neighbours. Say hi. Ask about their day and how they are. If they say ‘fine’, ask again until they tell you the real story. Get to know their story. Be brave enough to listen and brave enough to share your story.

Haydon

Categories
2020 Lectionary Ramblings Lectionary Ramblings March 2020

March 17th 2020: Psalm 38 and Hebrews 6:13-20

As my ramble through some of the daily readings offered by the lectionary (the set readings many Churches use throughout the world for their daily prayers) you’re welcome to join along if you would like to. You can read today’s readings here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+38&version=NLT

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+6%3A13-20&version=NLT

‘18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.’

What a fantastic promise we’re given from the letter to the Hebrews today. God bound himself with an oath and he’ll never change his mind because it is impossible for him to lie.

It all feels very uncertain in our world today. I’ve been ‘isolating’ at home for three days already and it has to be said that the initial shine of having plenty of time to do all the things I’ve been meaning to do for ages hasn’t taken long to start wearing off. When times are scary, uncertain, or just very different from what we are used to, the easiest thing for us to do is to look to ourselves for the strength and the force of will to get through things, to make it out the other side of whatever issue we face – Covid 19 at the moment – and to think about how much we’ll congratulate ourselves when the troubles of this moment are over and things return to ‘normal’. The thing is, the more I think about it, the more I realise that there’s no such thing as ‘normal’ at the best of times, even less so now. This can send me into a spiral of doubt and uncertainty about what’s at the centre of my life. What am I about? What is this life for? What should I be aiming to do with the time I have? Of course there could be not much of it left, so how do I make the most of it? It’s tempting to flee, but if I was going to do that, the only place to flee to that truly makes any lasting, life-giving sense is to flee to God. He is firm and unchanging in uncertain times

I love Psalms. Songs, prayers and hymns from a time long ago, but a time when people seem to be just as disgruntled and discombobulated as we are often today. David writes the one that we have today and he is not happy. Everything is going wrong in his life and, a little bit like I do when I list my various entirely justified complaints to God, my wife, my family or anybody else, the majority of the song today is about how it’s all falling apart, but David is clinging on to God, clinging on to the hope that he believes will see him through. I wonder how many of us feel like we’re already clinging on. Or perhaps we feel like we’re rising above it all, but have a little note in the back of our minds that we might need some kind of safety net if it all eventually goes wrong.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews that the second reading up at the top of the post is from points to Jesus as the proof of the truth of God’s promise. His goodness, or holiness,  is astonishing enough, but the invitation that he extends to us to follow him, to take refuge in God and to invite others to take refuge in God too, that is all the more astounding. Who would give their whole life so that others could experience what it was like to be truly free, truly loved, truly the people that they were made to be? As we try and love and serve our families, our communities and ourselves in these testing times, perhaps there’s a moment or two available to us each day to ask the question what if? What if Jesus really is not just good, but Good? What if the hope and peace we’re all searching for is within touching distance? If it was, wouldn’t you want it? Wouldn’t you want it for all the people you are concerned and fearful for and about at the moment? I know I would.

Something to pray for

Pray for all people who are scared and fearful at the moment, that they would have the courage to ask God for help and peace.

Something to do

As you’ve been reading this, I’m fairly sure at least one person has crossed your mind. Phone or message that person and give them some of one of the most precious gifts you have to offer: your time and attention.