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A word of encouragement today for anyone who is dis-spirited, disappointed, and feeling a bit of a spiritual failure. If you look at the mess you've made of things, and compare it with your best intentions, you are bound to feel depressed.
Towards the end of Exodus Chapter 33 there is a remarkable cry for assurance from, of all people, Moses. He wanted to see God and his Glory, and God said: "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.". So God put Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him with his hand. Then, when he had passed by, as it were, he withdrew his hand and Moses would see his back - not his face. In short, we humans cannot see God face to face, but in retrospect. Then we see his presence has been at work. So to help us today, a piece written I think by Godfrey S. Pain. You will need to apply it to your own life in your own way and circumstances. It goes like this:
"Under grey skies a ploughman was ploughing a field. The hand that guided the plough had not weathered many seasons and often the furrows were crooked. The ploughman finished his work and looked sorrowfully at the field; he was pained by the crookedness of the furrows, that glared like great scars on the landscape.
The weeks passed, a carpet of green formed which only recreated more starkly the crookedness of the furrows.
The months passed and the blade gave place to the ear and the ear to the full corn until harvest time showed a golden sea of waving stems unbroken and unmarred; no scars showed beneath the golden foam.
The young ploughman gazed once more on the field and his face shone with joy: 'There's many a full sack that comes from a crooked furrow', he thought."
Jesus said
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
When we work for Jesus, we can trust his power and not our failures. Even Confucius said 'It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness'.
A Prayer:
Then, Lord, let even my gutting little candle shine in the world's darkness.
Now read I Corinthians Chapter 3.
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