Take Part

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    There are times when our hearts are heavy, burdened by sadness and a deep sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Our hearts are weighed down as the reality of sin, the reality of evil and the reality of pain fill the headlines. Even if these realities aren’t in the headlines we see them in our lives and in the lives of those we love.

    A heavy heart is a sign to us that things are not as they should be. And as our hearts are heavy so is even greater the heart of God. So tell him about your sadness, vent your anger at injustice, ask him if there is anything you are called to fight for. And if you are, fight well. We get to take part in the good in the world.

    So take part in the world. Take part because you follow a God who desires justice, peace and wholeness.

    Take part because you love as God loves, in grace and truth.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Good Will Overcome

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Some days it is hard to believe that good will win, that good will overcome evil. So many days it seems like evil is taking over, that we should expect more evil than good and that goodness will not make it.

    Some days our faith dwindles and we cannot see how good will come through, how God will come through. Some days we are grasping for any evidence of goodness and we hold on by a thread.

    Today, may God give you the grace to hope and the faith to believe. May your hope increase and your faith grow even in the seeming absence of goodness.

    Good will overcome.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Recalling Goodness

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Spend time in prayer today recalling goodness. Goodness expressed to you by God through friends, through family, through a neighbor or even a stranger.

    How has God been good to you? Reflect on these moments and memories.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

When God Doesn't Move

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    At times we wonder why God will not move. He will not take action. If He can do (fill in the blank) then why doesn’t He do (fill in the blank)? Why does God hold back? At the death of Lazarus people were asking why Jesus didn’t keep Lazarus from dying if He could open the eyes of a blind man. Two core questions are really being asked by these people and by us. Is God good and is God sovereign? In other words, is He both loving and great? There is a struggle to reconcile if God is BOTH good and great. There are times when God is obviously great but He doesn’t seem like a very loving God. There are other times when God is obviously good but doesn’t seem to have much power.

    The truth is that God is both, all the time. He cannot be good without being great and He cannot be great without being good. God is always loving even though the outcome is not what we wanted it to be. God is still sovereign even though the outcome is not what we wanted it to be.

    My struggle to reconcile these truths and my experience varies depending on what I am going through. Do you struggle with one or the other? Maybe you struggle with both? Talk to God, let Him know how you’re struggling and allow Him to meet you in your struggle.

Have more than two minutes: Read the story mentioned about in the Gospeh of John 11:28-37.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

God Keeps His Promises

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    God keeps His promises. He is good, He is in control. His promises bring great freedom.

    His promises include (and are not limited to) unconditional love, great hope, great joy, that He is good, that He knows your heart, that He created you just like He wanted you, that He delights in you and that He will never leave you.

    Will you believe His promises today?

**Sit again for as long as is available to you.**

Fruitful in Affliction

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, for one minute before reading.**
    Affliction. I don’t know about you, but I tend to want to either run from affliction or get rid of affliction. I do not like it, I do not want it and I do not pray for it. Run from or get rid of. That is what I do.
    Yet, affliction comes. Affliction comes in various forms, at various times and for various lengths of time. Joseph was intimately acquainted with affliction. He names his second-born son “Ephraim” (Genesis 41:52) which means, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction".
    Ephraim's name acknowledges the truth of God’s actions. Joseph lived a life of affliction. Various forms, at various times and for various lengths of time. Yet he got to a point in life when he could say “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction”. What a gift to get to that place!!
    So many of us are in the midst of affliction. In the midst of affliction we cannot see fruit. Even if we can see any fruit we still wonder if it is worth it. In the midst of affliction it is sometimes all we can do to simply speak, “God is good, God is sovereign”. We speak it because it is true and because it is our prayer - we struggle to believe.
    My prayer is this, that we would have to joy of being able to say that God has made us fruitful in our lands of affliction. Just to be able to say it. In saying it, praying it and repeating it, may our faith grow stronger to believe that God is good, He is sovereign and He redeems, bringing fruit whether we get to see it or not.
**Sit in silence again for as long as is available to you.**

Storing Up Good

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

    Storing up good. The things that come out of our mouths are a reflection and overflow of the things that are stored up in our hearts. If bitterness, anger and jealousy are stored up in our hearts then our words will be flavored with these things. If good things such as hope, joy, peace and love are stored up in our hearts then our words will be flavored with these things.
    This week I want us to consider “storing up” good things in our hearts. As we consider storing up good, we’ll also consider what is taking residence in our hearts instead of good.
    Spend some time in prayer today. Ask God to help you see His goodness. When you see His goodness, store it in your heart, thank Him for it and look for more signs of His goodness. It’s all around.

Have more than two minutes? Read and meditate on Luke 6:43-45.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**

The Blindness of Anger

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

    You've heard it said love makes you blind. So can anger. Anger can make you blind. It can make you blind to hope, to possibilities, to redemption and resurrection. Anger can make you blind to transformation. Anger makes you blind to goodness and to peace. It makes you blind to joy and gentleness. It blinds you to the opportunity to forgive. It blinds you to the opportunity for healing. Anger consumes so that all you see is anger and its close companion, bitterness.
    Anger can be a good thing. It can reveal something that is wrong, unhealthy or something that needs to change. Anger can lead to justice and freedom.
    Anger can also be blinding. It can blind to that which is good. Does anger play an unhealthy role in your life? If so, how has it blinded you? Spend some time in prayer, asking God to show you if anger has blinded you.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**