Let us join together in
prayer for Ukraine. Pray for the Church in Ukraine that the Lord would pour
upon His fresh grace and power to trust Christ under intense oppression. We
come against all oppression, all tyranny, around the corner and around the
globe.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.
We are called to enter into a season of prayer, praise, self-denial, and
discipline. May we all use this season to grow deeper in our faith journey and
claim the miracles of Jesus.
Last year a woman named
Margaret Geary made the news. She's an 85 year old nun, who lives in a convent
near Baltimore. All of the other sisters in her convent were going to a three
day conference and she had to stay behind. For three days she was left alone in
her convent. Shortly after they left, she came down from her room to the
kitchen to get a snack. She went to the refrigerator, pulled out a jar of water
that had celery sticks in it, and walked back to elevator, got on and pressed
the up button. Well, the elevator went up about two feet and then it stopped.
She went, "Uh oh," and she tried to pry open the doors, and right then the
electricity went out. Then she realized, "Oh, don't worry about it, I have my
purse with me and it's got a cell phone." So she rummaged in her purse, pulled
out the cell phone, and realized, "I can't get a signal inside this elevator
shaft." At that point she started to panic. Then she realized, "You know what,
I can either panic or I can pray. And it looks like I'm going to be taking a
three day prayer retreat and I didn't have to reserve the space." So she sat on
the floor of the elevator and ate some of the celery sticks and prayed, and then
she drank some of the water and prayed. And then she rummaged in her purse and
pulled out some of the cough drops down in the bottom and sucked on those, and
prayed. And when she got tired she curled up and used her sweater as her pillow
and put her purse in her back to keep that from hurting as much, and she
prayed. And when the sisters finally got back three days later and got her out
of the elevator, they said, "What were you thinking? What was it like for you?"
She said, "Well, I finally realized God had provided for me an opportunity to
draw closer to him."
Right now some of us feel like we
are stuck in an elevator that is not going anywhere. We can't get out. We
can't pry open the doors. The lights have gone out and our cell phone is not
working. We are thinking, "Would somebody come and get me out of this thing!"
Yet, if we will choose to see it through the promises of God's Word, this can be
an opportunity that God has provided for us to draw closer to Him.
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment