Scripture: Matthew 6:3-4 (the Message)
When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it – quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.
Thought for the Day: Yesterday, I needed to run home over the noon hour to watch Zach while Donna went to a doctor’s appointment. I took my computer to do a little work. While at home, I put some soup in the microwave to heat up for lunch. After it reached a nice warm temperature, I pulled it out and promptly dumped it down my front…shirt and pants completely doused in broth and vegetables. I quickly took off my clothes, got them in the washing machine, heated up another bowl of soup, and did work while waiting for my clothes to complete a quick wash and dry cycle. And hour and 5 minutes later, I was pulling them out of the dryer… still damp along the collar. I got back to the office, and to everyone’s eyes, nothing looked different. They did not know anything that happened behind the scenes while I was home for lunch.
God often works in ways none of us really notice, behind the scenes. Through the gentle and gracious movement of the spirit that is not visible to the eyes of human beings, God is luring us into God’s future. Always remember, God is on your side whether you can see it or not. In the same way, we are to act on behalf of others without the need to be recognized.
Now just to clarify, my analogous story has my afternoon behind the scenes clean-up job being loosely compared to God’s magnificent unseen gracious movement. You must trust me, there is no real comparison. God is not sitting in the divine boxer shorts waiting for the buzzer to announce that work is complete (that may have been too much information).
Prayer: Thank you, Gracious God, for loving me and working in all kinds of ways to lead me into your future. Amen.
SUNDAY’S WORSHIP
Prayer Time
this Sunday
at 8:00am
in the Chapel
