JourneyOnline
By Doug Foster, Synod Ministry Agent Coordinator
Renewing God, you are the one who invites us on a journey of renewal – the one who sees beyond, the one who calls us forward, the one who endeavours to constantly refresh our lives.
But we are not meant to simply rush into each new day, each precious moment. Instead, caring God, you invite us to pause before we move on. Within the Psalms, your people have written of this, when they encourage the reader to selah, to bring a pause to the movement of life. Not a pause to sleep or a pause to just forget. But God, you invite us to pause and listen more clearly to your word to us in that moment, the first step of the new journey.
We thank you when the pause allows us to appreciate the beauty of your creation in which we live. We thank you when the pause reminds us of the joy we experience at being able to love and to be loved. We thank you when the pause helps us to stop madly planning what could be and instead enjoy what you have given us to do.
When challenges and hardship overwhelm us, when the future seems uncertain and frightening, we pray that the small pause, the selah, helps us to experience your loving grace that Jesus promised when saying, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). And a pause as comes from Psalm 3:4, to know you are there, ever-present God even when we feel lost, “I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah (pause)”.
May we experience the refreshment and renewal that only Your love can bring, that it might bring a deeper connection with You and one another.
Amen
