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Rossford UMC
To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known
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    Thursday, April 3, 2025

    John 5: 43-44

    43I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?

     

    Our minds fill with things we can see, taste, touch, and experience. This is why, the moment we begin to truly pray, we find ourselves concerned with all the trivia of daily life. Did I pay the light bill? What should I do about my friend who is ill? I am angry because the woman at the drug store wouldn’t forget the rules and fill my prescription, which was all used up too early because a doctor told me to take more medicine. How can I overwhelm the pharmacist with my arguments? Oh, well, I can’t win. So, what should I say in my next e-mail to my sister? Will my sick wife be healed? Oh Lord, my mouth hurts from implant surgery. How the wind is whistling outside my window!

    Jesus speaks of two levels of reality.

    The reality we can see, taste, touch, and experience and another reality which seems somehow less imminent, less visible, more difficult to comprehend. Which reality, he asks, do you believe is most important? Which should we believe first? In which reality will we find peace and hope?

    The chaos within us can keep us from prayer.

    A great and wondrous secret: God loves us, even the chaos within us. God has given us the ability to convert chaos into prayer, to make it part of our heavenly conversation. If we pay attention to the higher reality, we will discover God is concerned about our chaotic state of mind. God wants to hear about our chaos. Hearing, God will speak, and the heavenly thought will be incredible. 

     “Come to me all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

    When we speak and fold our chaos into our prayer, we discover it is no longer most important. Our chaos changes. It becomes the ground where God speaks.  No matter on earth is too small or too mean for God’s ears. Even our doubts, anger, and frustration are grist for prayer. Perhaps those things most of all.

    Speak.

    God will listen and answer.

     

    Hymn of the day: Bridge Over Troubled Water. Online at Rossford UMC - Media.

     

    Rev. Lawrence Keeler