May 28th - Reflection

Psalm 66:8-20 (NRSV)
Be joyful in God, all you lands

Bless our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept us among the living,
and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
you laid burdens on our backs;
you let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

I will come into your house with burnt offerings;

I will pay you my vows,
those that my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats.
Selah

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
I cried aloud to him,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.

But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me.

Reflection
We stop and listen to God's Word and pray to our Father. And we find that God has listened very closely to us also. Listened so closely that God has felt our pain. God knows the anxious worry we have and our stress. God knows us first-hand. And as we listen to God our spirit is filled with hope, joy, confidence and rescue through all the trials we face. God is with us and God is closer than we can imagine. Through the storms of life we have a Savior! A Savior that leads us to that wonderful spacious place, beyond the storm and the wilderness is the bright shining Light of Jesus. And by our side we see the glow of Jesus' presence as he lights our path. Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, thanks for your presence in my life...thanks! --- Amen