Christian Reflection and Prayer

Verse

 

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness
like a never-failing stream!   Amos 5:24

Voice

The soil is the great connector of lives, the
source and destination of all. It is the healer
and restorer and resurrector, by which
disease passes into health, age into youth,
death into life. Without proper care for it we
can have no community, because without
proper care for it we can have no life.

Wendell Berry

 

Prayer

 

May we honor your creation and your image
in all things, O God.

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can
bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither
can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." -John 15:4 

We don't have this word in English, but the word in
Greek is Menno. Our best translation for this to abide.
Abide. Jesus says to do that in me -- abide in my love.
Abide in me, find a home in me,  and be safe in me, and
when you feel safe in my love. Instead of turning inward
and holding onto everything, you're going to learn to be
like branches on a vine that open up, bloom, and reach
out. You reaching out is you loving others as Jesus has
loved you. That's what it's all about: being rooted in the
vine, being safe in Jesus Christ, and finding the freedom
to be messed up, broken, flawed individuals we are. We
are safe in God's kingdom and can take off our masks
and say, friends, family, this is me. I love you. I'm scared.
I'm hurting. I'm a sinner. I'm broken. I'm angry. But it's
good to be real. You can love others because you're safe.
You can remain in his love. You don't have to prove
anything to anybody. You do enough. You are enough.
You don't have to prove anything to God. Just abide in
him and love others and everything else will fall in its right
place. That's the truth.

 

PRAYER:
Thank you, God, for allowing us to be real. If we abide in
you, we are free to be our imperfect selves.

REFLECTION: Are you abiding in Jesus?

 

(Bobby Schuller)