Morning Prayer...

(I don't often have time to blog in the morning, but wanted to this morning after receiving a huge dose of encouragement from my morning reading...)

We pray for you all the time -- pray that our God will make you fit for what he's called you to be, pray that he'll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jessus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus, Christ, giving himself freely. (2 Thess 1:12-13, The Message)

It always astounds me to have a prayer that seems meant "for my ears only" leap of the pages of the Bible.

I was feeling pretty discouraged this morning. I'm struggling with Greek (REALLY struggling) and have found it harder than I figured it would be. And I'm facing a busy week with ministry, family, school and "life" so I know I'm at a time crunch. When you know you are swimming upstream, it's daunting. It was hard to toss off the covers and start the day.

After Reedy Girl left for the bus an hour ago, and I had a bit of time with the Bearded Brewer, I started my morning routine. A wave of discouragement poured over me. I'd love to say it was lack of sleep (though I was up late last night grading papers!) but it is more than that.

It was not a lack of faith, but honesty, that showed me this summer that the kinds of things God has called me to do are not options where I worship and serve right now. It was the reason God graciously dropped a teaching assistantship into my lap, to begin to transition me into whatever role in ministry is next. What I once thought were options, God seems to have taken off the table. I know there is something God has in mind for me. The problem is, I don't really know what that is.

But. God. Does...

As I continue to read through the New Testament, I'm starting 2 Thessalonians. I know Paul was writing to the church in Thessalonica and it was almost 2000 years ago. But the words in my morning reading were exactly what I needed as a reminder.

I think we all face this battle of discouragement from time to time. It's especially hard to believe that God is battling through life with us when the day seems to be way too short for our responsibilities!

Yet... God is there...

When the tasks seem mountainous...
When there are more questions than answers...
When we act in good faith and find out we are being second-guessed...
When the gossip mill makes up what it can't find out...
When we show kindness to someone and are taken advantage of...
When we are ridiculed because we choose a different path...
When we serve willingly and get used up...
When we make mistakes and pay the price dearly in terms of our own time and resources...

God is there...

I don't have answers. I do have God's strength and peace and power, holding me up.

And so I start today, choosing to walk through a day that attemps to honor God...

Deb