Ancient Anglican

We do not turn to earn God’s love but we turn in order to give thanks and enjoy God’s vast love for us. As John writes, we love others because God first loved us. 1 John 4:19.

The first step in developing a Christian life is simply turning. We need to turn toward God and away from self-centeredness.

Darkness is not explained, but it is defeated. Night is not a riddle to be solved, but a mystery to be endured until it too is overcome by the light. In those dark times, we must always remember the end. It might be Good Friday, but Easter is coming.

Joy is not a matter of unrealistic optimism or an intentional looking away from the trials of our lives. Rather, cultivating joy is to see that deeper reality of living in the very presence of God.

Our hope is not only that Christ will be found among the afflicted, but that affliction itself will end. We long for a day when everything that is broken – in our bodies, in nature, in relationships, in society, in politics, in policing, in global economics – will be mended and made right.

Inth ePrayer, we ask that God might feel what we feel, to enter into the dark room in which we find ourselves and sit with us in our pain and vulnerability.

In soothing our suffering, Jesus does not make us stronger. He may not even take away the cause of the suffering itself. But the promise he gives us is that in facing our suffering he will make it known that his grace is sufficient for us. 2 Cor. 12:9.

As followers of Jesus, the promise is that will not escape suffering, but the promise is also that at the depth of our suffering, God will be there and the Holy Spirit will comfort and guide us.

These depths of human vulnerability birth a particular kind of blessedness. What does it mean to find blessing in the darkest moments of our lives?

Our faith is in a God who has come to rescue His creation from the absurdity of sin and the emptiness of death and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred.

In silence, we come to rest in the ineffable presence of God and come to be patient with God’s own silence. It is in our silence, at the point of exhaustion, that our questions simply melt away, and true rest is found.

The promise that Jesus makes to us is that in our weariness, he will give us rest, and we will find our rest within him.