Word of Encouragement (05/30/2022)

Here is another prayer to begin a new week:

“O GOD, you are alive from eternity to eternity. You are not just at one time or in one place, because all times and places are in you. I long to understand my destiny as a child of yours. Here I stand, weak and mortal amid the immensities of nature. But blessed are you, O Lord God, for you have made me in your own likeness, and you have breathed into me the breath of your own life. Within this fragile body you have set a spirit that can relate to your own Spirit. Within this perishable being you have planted what cannot perish, and within this mortal, immortality. So from this little room and this early hour I can lift up my mind beyond all time and space to you, the uncreated One, until the light of your face illuminates my whole life.

Let me remember that my mortal body is only the servant of my immortal soul;

Let me remember how uncertain my hold is on my own physical life;

Let me remember that here I have no continuing city, but only a place for a brief stay, and a time for testing and training;

Let me use this world without abusing it;

Let me be in this world but not of it;

Let me be as though I have nothing, and yet possess everything;

Let me understand the vanity of what is time-bound and the glory of the eternal;

Let my world be centered not in myself, but in you.

“Almighty God, you raised your Son from the dead and set him at your right hand in everlasting glory. Thank you for this hope of immortality with which, through many ages, you have cheered and enlightened the souls of your people; a hope which you have made secure through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

‍