Thursday 25th June | Ruth Feathers
Readings
Reflection
Gideon has this encounter with God when he is full of doubt and worry. God is patient with him and waits for Gideon, rather than getting angry or frustrated. In response to this experience Gideon builds an altar and names it ‘The Lord is Peace’. In times of anxiety, use God as your comfort as He is the bringer of peace. Know that you can rest your worries on him as He is with you and He is for you. Often when I meet with God, I know that he is with me as I feel a real sense of peace.
In Psalm 56, David says that when he is afraid, he puts his trust in the Lord. I know I certainly struggle with this as it is very easy to just cling tightly to control over your life as how could anyone know me better than me? God knows you and He loves you and He ‘sends forth his love and his faithfulness’. Put your trust in the Lord for will always be by your side no matter what you’re going through.
In the Luke passage, the Pharisees counted it as a sin to ease a person’s pain on the Sabbath and tried to trap Jesus with their rules, but we see Jesus remain kind and help the man even under their scrutiny. He tells us how we should retain humility so that we may be exalted. Jesus is the best example for this as He fulfilled it perfectly. He had come from most high but put himself in the lowest place for our salvation.
Prayers
Father God,
I pray that you will bring us peace in our worries and comfort in place of anxiety.
May we learn to trust in you more every day so that we can give you control.
Please help us to be humble so that we can focus our attention on you, rather than be fixed upon the opinions of those around us.
Let us encounter your love afresh we pray.
Amen.
Collect
Lord, you have taught us
That all our doings without love are nothing worth:
Send your Holy Spirit
And pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
The true bond of peace and all virtues,
Without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ’s sake,
Who is alive and reigns with you,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.
Amen.
