Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Learning to Live as God's People

Jim:

James 5:13-18
Here I focused on verse 16: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” Healing can take a lot of forms and it doesn’t always mean physical healing. Sometimes the healing we need it spiritual. Sometimes it is emotional. Sometimes our relationships need reconciling, or our outlook on life needs improvement. Whatever the case, the community of faith can be a powerful source of support. As a Presbyterian I strongly affirm the priesthood of all believers. We all bear responsibility to one another, to support and care for each other and to respond to each other’s needs. As a community we have a lot of healing to offer when we reach out to one another. Prayer, of course, is one of the most effective tools we have, and the willingness to pray for each other, even for people we don’t know, is a profound gift that we can offer.

Luke 12:22-31
Verses 22 and 23 say, “(Jesus) said to them, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.’” And verse 31 adds, “’Instead, strive for God’s kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.’” Personally, I have a hard time not worrying. I worry about a lot of things, food, clothing, and money included. So Jesus’ words are as much a challenge as they are a comfort to me. But what I find most helpful is the encouragement to strive for God’s kingdom, to make God’s will that which motivates me in my day to day activities. To do so requires trust, of course, and it requires a lot of effort because it means going against the basic human instinct to provide for yourself first and foremost. But I’m convinced that to concentrate on doing God’s will frees us up and allows us to see God’s grace in new and surprising ways. Maybe then we’ll come to see that we don’t need all the things we thought we did, that we really can be happy with less, that we really don’t have to worry so much about things that just aren’t so important after all.

No comments: