Readings
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.(Psalm 62:1-2)
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)
Thought
The only problem with family gatherings, such as the one we had after dad’s funeral is that these days, they come with the risk of contracting Covid-19. We have spent so much time over the past two years trying to keep everyone safe that it seemed a little ironic that it was probably the gathering after the funeral that gave my mum Covid. As usual I came up to Lincoln last week to look after her, knowing that she had Covid and knowing that quite probably if I spent four days in close proximity to her, I too would catch the virus from her, which I did. So, this week we both have the virus and we are together looking after each other as best we can. My younger brother is close by to help out with shopping etc. to ensure we have everything we need. However, we know that what we have to do is rest and take on plenty of fluids and then allow the body to heal itself.
Taking on plenty of fluids is not a problem for us, we are both quite good at having hot drinks during the day, it is the resting bit that is more difficult. Both my mum and myself are people who like to be busy doing things. We are not naturally people who find resting during the day that easy. And on days when the sun is shining and you can see that there is work to be done in the garden, sitting indoors resting seems like a bit of a waste of time. Even now some might say that writing this thought for the day is not properly resting, but I am at least sitting down while I am doing it so it is not particularly active.
Taking time to rest in God’s presence is also vitally important for us to stay spiritually healthy, yet so often we find ourselves too busy to spend quality time with him. The activities of our lives often get in the way of spending time with God, even though we know that it will do us good. Isaiah acknowledged that ‘even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;’ but he also told us what we need to do when he said that ‘they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;’
If we want to be strong in our faith, then we must spend time waiting and resting with God, he is the only one who can renew our spiritual strength.
Prayer
Father, help us to rest in you so that we are renewed people.
Amen
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