Daily Meditation for Saturday 17th of August 2019

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6

We can hang on to our attempts to control ourselves and others and stay anxious. Or we can let go and let God.
We are anxious because we think we have to take care of everything and everybody. We are anxious because we believe we cannot be happy unless we can control the people we love. We are anxious because life's problems are more than we can handle, but we try to handle them on our own anyway.
God invites us to give up our anxious way of life. We do not have to take care of everything and everybody. We can, instead, let God take care of us. We can bring our anxious hearts and our long lists of concerns to God.
Responding to this invitation requires a great deal of us. It requires that we acknowledge that we cannot do what we have been trying to do. We are powerless. It requires that we turn to God. It requires that we release our control, our anxiety, our very lives into God's care.
God invites us to serenity. "Give up your anxiety," God says "bring the concerns of your heart to me."
I am anxious, Lord.
And I feel guilty about feeling anxious.
And I feel anxious about feeling guilty.
And I feel anxious about feeling guilty about feeling anxious.
Help!
I am overwhelmed by all I am trying to do.
I need your invitation to serenity.
I bring you my requests today, Lord.
I bring them to you.
I admit that I do not have the power to solve these problems.
I acknowledge that you are Powerful.
I ask you to take care of me today.
Amen.
Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan

This Morning's Entry

I found this morning's message from Our Daily Bread to be one of great value and I am hoping that you will also find wisdom and truth in it. Sometimes, more often than not, I find that my reflections on the events of the day to bring me to a discouraging and negative attitude but, after getting some sleep and waking with a fresh mind and perspective, my outlook in the morning is one of renewed hope and anticipation for the possibilities of the coming day, based on God's abilities, will and knowledge of things to come and not on my plans and actions based on my limited ability to only "see" and "know" in the moment. I have to remember and remind myself everyday that my hope can only be founded on God's infinite wisdom and not on my speculations for the day. If I base my hope on the outcome of my plan, I am thrown into complete chaos, uncertainty, and loss of hope  with the first thing that doesn't fit into my plan

Our Daily Bread -- Hope To Continue On

September 3, 2014

READ: Lamentations 3:19-33

The solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse can fly day and night without fuel. Inventors Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg hope to fly it around the world in 2015. While the plane flies all day by solar power, it gathers enough energy to be able to fly all night. When the sun rises, Piccard says, “It brings the hope again that you can continue.”

The idea of sunrise bringing us hope makes me think of Lamentations 3 from our Bible reading for today: “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through theLord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (vv.21-23). Even when God’s people were in the depths of despair while the city of Jerusalem was being invaded by the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah said they had reason to hope—they still had the Lord’s mercies and compassions.

Sometimes our struggles seem worse at night, but when sunrise comes it brings hope again that we can continue. “Weeping may endure for a night,” the psalmist says, “but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5).

Thank You, Lord, for the hope You send with each sunrise. Your mercies and compassions are new every morning!—Anne Cetas

New mercies every morning,
Grace for every day,
New hope for every trial,
And courage all the way. —McVeigh

Each new day gives us new reasons to praise the Lord.

Insight:For 2 years the Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem. Conditions within the besieged city were desperate and deplorable. Starvation during the siege even led to cannibalism (2 Kings 25:1-4; Lam. 2:20; 4:10). Sadly, Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of the city and temple (Jer. 52:12-27). In five emotionally charged dirges, or funeral laments (one for each chapter of Lamentations), he described the sufferings of the people and the reasons for their suffering. But he also wrote of hope in the midst of despair (Lam. 3:21-32) and of restoration that would come (5:19-22).