Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5.7 (NIV) Have you had those nights? When you've just got so many thoughts rushing through your brain that you can't sleep? Some of them seem reasonable things to keep you up - sadness after watching the news, concern for friends or family. While others are just something you did during the day which you could've said in a better way, or even half dreams you've had and now you're just awake thinking about them! Every now and again you look at the clock and see the night slip away. And you know you're going to be so tired in the morning, but try as you might, sleep doesn't come.
Well there is somewhere we can go when this happens. One of my pastors was sharing how she experienced this, and she was so wrapped up dwelling on 'what ifs' and worries, that she just tossed and turned and twitched and... gave up. In the end she searched out this verse in her Bible. 'Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.' She took God at his word and wrote down everything she was anxious about, on little pieces of paper. And then she slept. In the morning, she places those pieces of paper in a box, since called 'My WORRY Box'. If you're struggling to deal with all your thoughts and anxieties, why not make your own box - a physical way to signify giving them all to God. God cares for you. Think about that. God really cares. For you. Wants what is best for you. Wants you to thrive. Wants you to be free from the heavy weight anxiety settles on you. So take God at his word: cast your cares on him, and let him care for you. Stay safe, and take care!
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But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will wise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Malachi 4.2 (NLT) Not so long back, around January, I was exhausted all the time. I would go out to work, and by the time I got home it was not abnormal for me to just climb into my bed and fall asleep. Now, I wasn't working long hours, and I'm the sort of person who is usually go-go-go, so it was frustrating and a little alarming in its almost constant-ness. The tiredness also made me get ill more often, which when you're in your first year of working in a school anyway means getting ill A LOT. So after a few weeks I decided to go to the doctor and had a blood test - nothing serious, just on the low side of a few things, one of which was Vitamin D. Unsurprising given it was the middle of winter and I live in the UK! I talked to a doctor at my church (because I didn't really understand my test results and because there was nothing terrible, my doctor never called about them...) and he suggested a daily multivitamin including iron and vitamin D, and so that's what I got! And since then, I've been absolutely fine! I've had lots of energy, done lots of things, and feel stronger. Sadly, I still caught things at school, but they certainly didn't hit me as hard. I was surprised at how much of a difference it has made!
But maybe that's like our faith too. We go about our normal lives and suddenly we find there's not as much energy in it - not as much zest or interest. We've been doing all the things we were supposed to be - exercising (doing good things), eating healthily (studying the Bible), creating head-space (praying regularly), and yet, it's just become tiring! Well perhaps just as I was so dependent on this "sunshine vitamin" that I hadn't been getting enough of, our spiritual life takes a slow-dive when we're not getting enough exposure to the 'sun of righteousness'. We can't always take our to-do lists into our faith. Productivity can't always be our goal. Slow down - soak up the rays of health and healing. God has what you need. As always, stay safe, and take care! This is the message which we have heard from God and declare to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1.5 (NKJV) The message from my church for today began with a statement posed as a question:
'I don't know what print you left last week, and what print you want to inscribe this week?' It made me think: What print did I leave last week? Who did my actions affect? Were they affected positively or negatively? What do I want to do this week, and how do I want it to affect people? During working from home, I seem to be struggling a lot to adjust back to the week on Mondays - by Tuesday I'm somewhat productive, and last week, I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in a tizz of busyness. Stopping to think about what I actually want to do, and what it is important to spend my time on this week, seems like it could be a really valuable thing to do. I will try to do it. One of the things I want to make more time for this week is sharing light with others. When I look back on this week, I want to know that the print I left gave some light - some good, some help, some beauty. The light that I've seen, and the message I've heard, well, it seems worth sharing, like it would do some good! Stay safe, and take care - why not share something good this week! “Peace be with you.” John 20.19 I want to share with you my Pastors’ words today, because I thought they could do with sharing!
”One of my friends who is in lockdown lives in a flat. She is on her own. Even though she keeps contact with family and friends by phone, at times, the isolation is suffocating. ”She feels frightened, forgotten, frustrated, by this virus that has taken her captive. ”I wonder if a story in the life of Jesus can help us when we feel like that? ”After his resurrection, Jesus visited a group of people who were in a lockdown of their own making. They were not afraid of a virus, but they feared the loss of their lives because of their friendship with Jesus. ”But because Jesus understands the loneliness, fear, and thoughts that go round and round in our minds when we reside behind locked doors, he visited his friends, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” (John 20 v 19). Jesus also offered them reasons to trust in him. Instead of their hearts then being filled with loneliness, they overflowed with joy! ”If you are finding lockdown difficult today, then invite Jesus to visit you and experience that peace for yourself.” ~ ~~ words were written by Pastor Mary Barrett. I hope they help you to feel more peaceful, as they did for me. 😊 Stay safe, and take care! Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! Psalm 119.118 I guess lots of the thoughts in these posts recently have been about hope. Throughout the Bible, there are so many people who depend on their hope in God’s promise of a good life, a long life, productive fields, good weather, idyllic peacefulness... (like that depicted above). They believed that if they lived faithfully to the ways God had told them to live, God would be faithful to them to, in the form of the promised goodness and blessing they’d been covenanted.
In some respects, this is why I live in some of the ways I choose to live too. I believe God has given us insights into practices and ways to try and live that benefit us, those our lives affect and the planet we live on. This is why I eat a mostly vegetarian diet, why I don’t drink caffeine or alcohol, and why I set my life around a rhythm of weekly rest. It’s also why I do (nearly) regular exercise, choose to give away a percentage of what I earn and try to be kind and generous to the other people in my life. Of course, there are ways I could do better - some days I eat too many Skittles, for example! Sometimes I don’t feel like being kind, and want all my time for myself. Some weeks exercise is slow and painful or boring or just too much effort! But I try. And just like people in the Bible - they realised that even sometimes when they were trying really hard to live in all the right ways, it could never guarantee the idyllic, perfect life they’d been promised. And on those days, they - like I - found God’s promise true still, but yet unfulfilled. And they kept hope in its future fulfilment. Crying out to God, “...and let me not be put to shame in my hope!” Interestingly (to me, anyway!), there is at least some benefit starting to be seen in trying to make health choices in line with biblical principles. There were some studies a little while back called The Blue Zone Studies, which featured Seventh-Day Adventists as some of the people who live the longest, which it puts down to our ”discouragement of eating meat, rich foods, caffeinated drinks and ‘stimulating’ condiments and spices” (whatever they are, lol!). God has promised good things. And in my life, I have known numerous times when God has followed through on that promise. I have also known times when it’s certainly felt like those promises had been abandoned, only to realise later that they were still there, ready to give me new hope precisely when I needed it most. That’s life! This is what the Bible shows - through good times, and through droughts, through joyful dances, and laments, God is there and gives us purpose and direction in how to live in line with the hope we have been given. Hope of what is perfect; hope of painless, fear-less, stress-less good! So we pray, and we hope! As always, stay safe, and take care! |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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