Friday’s Reflection
EVERY MORNING, I give thanks for all God has given me–for my bed, my breakfast, my cup of tea from my leaf-shaped teapot. But as I pray, I know that beyond my home, beyond my country where freedom and peace are taken for granted, beyond all the blessings of my life lie poverty, slavery, and corruption.
So every day, I close my eyes and pray, not only out of gratitude but also from a burden that’s too big for me. I pray that God’s righteousness will come like a flood, that the hopeless will know hope. … I pray, knowing that I have not begun to touch the world’s need, that I am privileged and sheltered from suffering. I also know that Christ was neither privileged nor immune from suffering but died bearing the world’s burden.
When I finish my prayers and enter the business of the day, I do so trusting that his arms are spread wide over us, that he still carries the burden, and that he hears our prayers.
–Rachel Starr Thomson
From p. 36 devozine, July-August 2010. Copyright © 2010 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
Pray for someone else today. Share your reflections.
Today’s Scripture Reading
“Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.”
- Luke 14:27, gnt
This Week …
- Special Need:
- This Week: Pray for single parents. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.
- Tips for Your Spirit:
- What’s your type? Do you approach spirituality through your mind or through your emotions? Are you more interested in serving others or experiencing God in silence? Find out your spiritual type by taking the MethodX Spiritual Types Test.
- Saints, Inc.:
- This week we remember Albert Schweitzer (September 04).
- Lectionary Readings:
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