The Lord is Near

REFLECTION
This past week we had an extra small home group meeting with various friends out sick or unable to make it. Those of us who were able to attend were burnt out with the many cares of life: work, raising small children, and questioning “how do I possibly fit in working out on top of everything else?”. We also discussed feeling guilty for a lack of hour-long daily devotions and not prioritizing prayer like we should. I felt a little bit like Christian in Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey where he laments, “I’ve failed so many times, I don’t deserve to be a pilgrim. I don’t deserve to enter the Celestial City. The King will never let me in now”; or in current language by Christian artist Andy Mineo in his song “Death of Me”: “God, I’m sorry, I mean it. All I want to do is walk with you but my priorities [are] wrong, I talk about you more than I talk with you”. Yet it was in this moment of conviction where God was at work, taking us from our own feeling of being ashamed to a renewed allegiance to Him. We encouraged each other and discipled each other to not buy into the lie that goes something like “If I can’t pay 100% attention to this Bible podcast or pray/read my bible for a long time I might as well not at all”.

In short, we reminded each other as Tyler Staton states in his book “Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools” to pray as we can. In his book, he makes a great point that we often read these next verses from Philippians as a command to not be anxious as if the reason we shouldn’t worry is because our cares somehow aren’t that important. But that isn’t the reason why we are not to worry. Our cares may be big, but we are told to turn to prayer rather than giving in to anxiety because “The Lord is near”. This simple fact was like a light bulb to me; This is why we can have peace amidst chaos, and this is why we put into practice praying as we go throughout our day.

SCRIPTURE
“The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. -Philippians 4:5b-7 (NIV)

PRAYER
Father, thank you for your reminder that you are always near. Help us to prioritize speaking to you and reading your word. Help us to not stop before we’ve even started because we feel like we aren’t “doing it correctly”. We surrender to you our daily life, our anxious thoughts, especially in the mundane moments. As we walk through our day with you please change our lives to look more like Jesus so that we can reach our neighbors with your gospel. Help us to love and forgive like you have shown us, all while your peace guards our hearts and minds, to the praise of your glory!

In Jesus’ Name, I pray,

Amen.