by Verena Johnson
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It’s amazing how we can see things with so much more clarity when we look back on them. Then there’s foresight, where we can predict future possibilities and prepare for them.
There’s another ‘sight’ that you may not have heard of. Probably because I just invented it. I wish I had ‘middle-sight’, where I could see what is really going on right in the middle of things and not have to wait until later or try to predict it earlier.
After reading this story again, I am amazed at how everybody seemed to understand exactly what was going on while it was happening. There appears to be no confusion or questioning. No-one doubts that it’s God’s plan and his doing. They can all see God’s hand so clearly as the story unfolds. Laban sums it up by saying, ‘This is from the Lord’. He goes on to add that there is nothing more they can say about it.
So why is it so hard to see God’s hand in our lives at times? Then, when we do, why do we second-guess him, doubt him, question him and have so much to say?
Sometimes we fail to see the hand of God in the midst of things simply because we’re not looking for it or even expecting it. Maybe it’s because we have a set idea of how he should be acting and what he should be doing, and we’re not looking anywhere else. If we can’t see God’s hand, it’s not because he’s not actively working in our lives. He is. He is always at work and blessing us beyond measure.
We can ask God to open our spiritual eyes to see his hand more clearly in our everyday lives and then actively look for him, expecting to see him at work.
Think back over the last few days. Where can you see the hand of God? How has God been active in your everyday life?
Loving Father, thank you that you are active in my life. Thank you for all the blessings you give me each day. Open my spiritual eyes to see your hand more clearly in my life. Help me to look for you and expect you today. Amen.
Verena is a Church Worker Support Officer for the LCA’s Church Worker Support team, through which it is her privilege to support congregations, pastors, lay workers, employees and volunteers of the LCA. In her spare time, she is involved in drama ministry, women’s ministry and prayer ministry. She has three children and nine grandchildren in three different states.
by Verena Johnson
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
As for me, the Lord has led me … (Genesis 24:27b).
Read Genesis 24:1–27
What is the hardest thing you’ve ever been asked to do?
How about: ‘Go to a far country and find a wife for my son, and you can’t take him with you to meet her’?
The interesting thing is that, in response to receiving this fairly daunting task, the servant only asked Abraham one question. I would have had a whole list of them. Abraham did assure his servant that God ‘will send his angel before you’. But I still can’t help wondering what must have been going through this poor man’s mind on his long journey to that strange country. He had plenty of time to think about what he had been asked to do.
The real standout thing about this story is what the servant did when he finally reached his destination. After he found a likely spot near a spring, the first thing he did was pray. He handed the whole daunting task he had been given over to God and asked him to do the heavy lifting.
Before he had even finished praying, God answered his prayer with nothing short of a miracle. God helped the servant to accomplish his task successfully, and he knew it. His immediate response was to worship and praise God and tell Rebekah how the Lord had led him.
In this story, we can see how God is actively involved in the lives of his children. He is keenly interested in our everyday decisions, both big and small. He wants us to turn to him. To hand the things we are asked to do to him. To let him do the heavy lifting when we are carrying the weight of responsibility. To make prayer the first thing we do and not a last act of desperation.
How has God led and guided you in the past?
Take a moment to thank and praise him for those times.
Where is God leading you and guiding you right now?
Take a moment to talk with him about this.
Dear God, I’m sorry for the times when I failed to turn to you and tried to do it all in my own strength and wisdom. Help me to turn to you first when I need guidance. Lead and guide me today in all I do and say. Amen.
Verena is a Church Worker Support Officer for the LCA’s Church Worker Support team, through which it is her privilege to support congregations, pastors, lay workers, employees and volunteers of the LCA. In her spare time, she is involved in drama ministry, women’s ministry and prayer ministry. She has three children and nine grandchildren in three different states.
by Verena Johnson
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
Read Mark 10:35–45
Have you ever asked a stupid question and then really wished you’d kept your mouth closed? I can think of a few times when I just wanted the ground to swallow me up.
Today’s reading includes one of the most stupid requests in the Bible. James and John start off with, ‘Do whatever we ask’. Really?! What on earth were they thinking? Then they follow it up with, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory’. What kind of a request is that?
James and John were already in Jesus’ inner circle with Peter. Maybe that gave them big heads or an inflated sense of importance. They weren’t even being secretive about this – the other disciples all heard. Again, what were they thinking?! Had they learnt nothing from all their time with Jesus and his teaching and example?
Three times, Jesus had predicted that he would suffer and die in Jerusalem. In Mark 8:31–33, 9:30–32 and just before today’s text in 10:32–34. Somehow, these two disciples made it all about them and completely missed what Jesus was saying.
Of course, Jesus knew what was in their hearts, but he still asked them anyway. If it were me, I’d be rolling my eyes and not even bothering to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Jesus probably just sighed internally and lovingly prepared to use it as a teaching moment for the whole group.
Teach them he did. Again. Christians have called the way Jesus described his kingdom ‘the great reverse’. Jesus turned everything upside-down or backwards. The last shall be first and the first last. To be great, you’ve got to become a servant or slave of all.
Forget James and John for a moment. What about you and me? We can also struggle with our own sense of importance in wanting recognition, power, position, influence and even glory. We struggle with living the great reverse and being last or being servants. Serving ourselves instead of Jesus or others comes naturally to us.
Thank Jesus that he ‘didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’. Thanks to the ransom he paid, we can be forgiven, like James and John, for our ungodly desires and actions, our daily stuff-ups, and even our stupidest questions.
Jesus, thank you that you came to serve and give your life as a ransom for me. Forgive me when I fail to serve you and others and instead serve myself. Help me to live today in service to you and those you send into my life. Amen.
Verena is a Church Worker Support Officer for the LCA’s Church Worker Support team, through which it is her privilege to support congregations, pastors, lay workers, employees and volunteers of the LCA. In her spare time, she is involved in drama ministry, women’s ministry and prayer ministry. She has three children and nine grandchildren in three different states.
by Pastor Peter Bean
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The Lord is your protection; you have made God Most High your place of safety (Psalm 91:9).
Read Psalm 91:9–16
Many people say this is one of their favourite psalms. I can understand why. It is full of promises. If you read the whole psalm, you will see how verses 9 to 16 more or less parallel verses 1 to 8.
It is a psalm of confidence, hope, protection and abundant life. It is a psalm that was obviously spoken or written when the writer was in a good place, life was going well, the psalmist had recovered from a distressing time and the psalmist could look forward to an ongoing, abundant life. Which is terrific. And it would be a wonderful place to be in.
But we are not always in that place. In this world, life has a habit of hitting us in the face and slowing us down. When a relationship goes sour, a business fails, a friend dies suddenly, or illness strikes, life does not seem so good. Abundance can seem to have disappeared. We need to honour those times. They will not be enjoyable. They will take time to get through. They may leave us anxious or distressed. They may leave us frail and in ill health. Where is the protection, then? Where is the place of safety?
Perhaps that is the time to turn to this psalm again. (And perhaps not. Don’t flog yourself trying to feel good. Read the psalm when you are ready!) In her paraphrase, Nan Merrill renders verse 9: ‘I will surrender myself to you, abandoning myself into your hands without reserve.’ Can you do that? Can you turn to the Lord, surrendering life with all its ups and downs to him? Can you put your trust in him?
The reality is that God is your protection – even in the down times, as well as in the good times. Make God Most High your place of safety. And look forward to an abundant life.
God of comfort, protection and safety, please remind me of your presence in my life. Be with me in times of trouble. Be with me in times of abundance. Help us all to live in harmony. Amen.
In early October, Peter enjoyed a family camp with his children and grandchildren at Lake Bonney, South Australia. Then, he returned to weeding, planting, riding, reading and relaxing!