.jpg)
Thomas led our family prayers this morning and he took us to Ps 46: 1-3
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
with all that is happening it is good to be reminded to simply trust in God.
In v10 having declared the sovereignty of God over nature and the affairs of men the psalmist calls us to 'be still and know' that he is God! It has been a sad weekend for us with Clare's gran passing away and my mum very near the edge, but even though we cannot be present, God is, and we can entrust our loved ones to his care.
This morning I was reading a quote from Richard Rohr:
'
Now believe it or not, we are threatened by such a free God because it takes away all our ability to control or engineer the process. It leaves us powerless, and changes the language from any language of performance or achievement to that of surrender, trust, and vulnerability… that is the so-called wildness of God. We cannot control God by any means whatsoever, not even by our good behavior, which tends to be our natural instinct…
That utter and absolute freedom of God is fortunately used totally in our favor, even though we are still afraid of it… It is called providence, forgiveness, free election or mercy… But to us, it feels like wildness – precisely because we cannot control it, manipulate it, direct it, earn it or lose it. Anyone into controlling God by his or her actions will feel very useless, impotent and ineffective.
- Richard Rohr
I love the thought that the sovereign freedom of God is 'used totally in our favor'. When God proclaimed his name to Moses he declared that 'he would have compassion on whom he would have compassion and mercy on whom he would have mercy', There is great hope here for it means that nothing can prevent the grace of God from flowing, it is in his power to give and it is in his love to will and unleash it!
As I grow smaller may God become greater in my life, as John The Baptist said: 'he must increase and I must decrease'.