Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.
Psalm 131 says:
My heart is not proud, Lord,
nor my eyes haughty;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is a weaned child within me (vv. 1-3).
In Ecclesiastes, the preacher said, “There is a time for everything” (Eccl 3:1a). The poet in today’s psalm talks about a time to be quiet, a time to let go of ambition, a time to be content with our lot. Perhaps it is a time to set aside our endless questions and doubts, a time to rest in the answers we have, even if they are incomplete and ambiguous.We can rest from organizing and categorizing our lives and our thoughts and theology. It is a time to simply be still in God’s presence.
Our lives are full of unread books, people we should have coffee with, social media to review, and incessant debates about politics and religion and war. But the poet suggests we won’t solve the world’s problems this week. Let’s give ourselves a break from being grown-ups. It’s time to be still like a child.
Like a weaned child with its mother–not desperate to find a meal, not concerned about taxes or pandemics or enemies of the state. Just peaceful and calm in the mother’s arms, trusting her care, content in her love.
Do you ever find a quiet place like that with God? Or are you always asking, doing, seeking, striving?
Let’s pray.
Our father, we settle quietly into your presence. As thoughts disturb us, we let them go.
– We release to you the problems of nuclear proliferation and ballistic missile testing
– We release to you our obsession with COVID
– We release to you our fears for our children and their future
– We release to you our anxiety about aging
We rest in your arms, God, like a child with its mother. We trust you to watch over us today and tomorrow. We trust you to gather our small thoughts into your big thoughts, to collect our small works into the big work of your kingdom.
We trust you to hold the world together. We trust you to hold us together as we rest in you. Teach us to live in the sabbath of your eternal rest.
Amen.
I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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