PRAYER MOMENT
Friday
17 April 2015
GLAD
TO SUFFER
Pause. Enter into the stillness of God
within.
Reading: “An so they left the
presence of the Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation
for the sake of the name.” (Acts 5:3-42)
Reflection. The notion of being happy to
suffer sounds untterly foreign to us. Yet a mother will rise as often as
necessary at night to attend to her teething baby. It was not so different with
the disciples in our teething church. It was painful to be flogged and humiliated
by the Jewish leaders but the apostles knew this was the way they treated Jesus
and he had often said they would fare no better. So we are told they were glad
and Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, even
boasted of the many trials that he endured. Yet when an unexpected trial comes
we panic. Our first reaction is; why this? Or; why me? Let me quote words I
read recently: “the logos, (the Word)
that gentle non-violent force for truth and reasonableness which took human
flesh in Jesus Christ and whose destiny, revelation shows, is not to thrash the
world into submission but to suffer all the malice and opprobrium thrown at it
and yet rise again, vindicated as God's Truth ... (is) work(ing) through the
intricate brokenness of the world, the twistedness of human iniquity, slowly
and deliberately carrying out its mission ..." (Damian Howard, The Tablet, 14 Feb 2015)
Prayer. Lord, help us to see our
sufferings bring healing to us and to our world. Amen.
davidharoldbarry@hotmail.com
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