Journal

An FUM blog for writing on the life of faith.

Come to me, all you who are weary...

Many caregivers, healers, and pastors have given sacrificially of themselves, their hearts, their energy, their time, and their bodies. These people carry so much of their community with them. Even when given a respite and not responsible for all aspects of the worship, hands are still so full we are often unable to receive the blessing laid out before us. 

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Thirty Days of Prayer - Day Twenty Six

God is calling everyone to continually seek him through prayer. Some people pray expecting answers immediately, while others have lost the desire to pray due to unanswered prayer, lack of faith, or failure to understand their relationship with God. But this is not God’s will for us.

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Thirty Days of Prayer - Day Twenty Five

As One Who Seeks First The Kingdom Of God We need not beg to enter into the presence of God. Whether we recognize it or not, we are always and forever loved and watched over by the Divine Spirit. Instead of seeking and knocking to get into the presence of God, we have to knock on the door to get out of the prison of worldliness we have built for ourselves out of the things that we thought we desired but which do not satisfy us.

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Thirty Days of Prayer - Day Twenty Four

As One Who Listens Like many older people, my Dad spent his later years wearing a hearing device to amplify the voices around him. I’m sure he had a legitimate degree of hearing loss, but our family was often amused and sometimes irked by how Dad could miss something that was said clearly in front of him, yet pick up on a conversation going on in another room. Mom’s diagnosis was that Dad was just “hard of listening.”I wonder if that is how God might view me! How many times has God spoken clearly to me and I’ve completely missed it?

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Thirty Days of Prayer - Day Twenty Three

As One Who Lays Down Their Life For Others Friends derive our name from the Scripture passage John 15:15: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” When reading verse fifteen in isolation, there are no stipulations or directives—we are Jesus’ friends simply because he says so.

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Thirty Days of Prayer - Day Twenty Two

GATHERED IN CHRIST - As One Who Abides Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5 NRSV)

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