Tag: prayer

Entering God’s Presence

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say; rejoice. Let your gentleness be made known to everyone. Do not worry about anything but with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4: 4-7

This is a favorite Bible verse of mine. Lent can be a time to evaluate our relationship with God, and to think about what we need to change in our lives to please God. We might ask: Does God have a plan for my life? Am I living out that plan? What hinders me?

I tend to be a worrier. I often see the possible problems in given situations or circumstances, rather than the possibilities or positives. This verse tells me not to worry, but to trust God and turn over my concerns to Him. Prayer is that tool for doing this, but my/your prayers should not just be requests and cries for help. They should be punctuated with thanks for my/your blessings (which are many). And then a peace that surpasses understanding will come. I’m still working on that feeling!

Belonging to a faith community for fellowship, support, and understanding of God’s word has always been important to me. I have been part of a faith community since childhood. My dad helped start a church in our lake community in New Jersey. I went to Christian overnight camp. In college, I attended chapel each morning. I was a member of SUMC for 45 years and now of a UCC church in Plymouth. I taught Sunday School, served on Commissions, was in a Women’s Circle, and enjoyed Bible studies and many retreats. Some of my best friends I met through the faith communities I belonged to.

I think God put into my heart to enter His presence every day and to share my faith with others. Jim and I spend time each morning to pray together and read several devotions. I was part of a Covenant Group at SUMC, and Jim and I started one at our church in Plymouth.

There are so many ways you can enter into God’s presence daily. This pleases God. Gratitude for God’s creation, reaching out or visiting someone who is ill or hurting, thanking God for blessings rather than complaining, attending and participating in worship, and encouraging others are just a few of the ways that please God.

What will you do this Lent and beyond to please God and enter into God’s presence?

-Nancy Sweeney
[former SUMC member, now living in Plymouth, MA]

Fast

[Editor’s Note: below is a response to the writing prompt “Here’s a Lenten sacrifice I made and what I learned from that choice…”]

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.”

Mark 1: 12-13

In 1974, Ash Wednesday fell on February 28. My United Methodist youth group had committed to fast, not only on Ash Wednesday, but every Wednesday during that forty-day season of Lent. Each Wednesday evening, we met at the church after sunset, read scriptures, sang hymns, and prayed. At the end of the service, we would break the fast when we took communion.

The tradition of a Lenten fast is primarily observed in the Catholic Church, where fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory, and abstinence, usually from meat, is practiced on Fridays (hence the ever-popular Friday fish fry!). Although I had a lot of Catholic friends, I had never fasted before, and I had no idea what to expect. But when you are a teenager, and lots of your friends in youth group decide to fast, well, there are worse choices you might make.

At first it was fairly easy to avoid eating on Wednesdays, but as the weeks went on, it became more and more challenging to wait for that morsel of bread and shot of grape juice on Wednesday evening. At school, I would sit with my youth group friends during lunch lest any of us were tempted to eat solid food.

The choice not to eat from sunrise to sunset on Wednesdays was a spiritually and psychically formative time for me. I still remember it as a season of sacrifice, but one that was chosen and shared. The experience of shared denial was one that forged strong relationships as we all came to know and understand just a wee bit better the sacrifice of Christ in the desert for those forty days and nights.

I have practiced many spiritual disciplines during the seasons of Lent that have transpired since then. Some have been the practices of letting go, others the experience of taking on something new. All of them have taught me things about myself that were edifying. However, the decision to fast during that Lenten season of 1974 became a touchstone experience, one that I recall with gratitude whenever Lent arrives.

-Leigh Goodrich