Just a thought by coppi

Henri Nouwen was right: “The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God, and that I can be free in the world—free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and to be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries.”

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:6-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness – not his reluctance. This scripture was given to me years ago. I was going through a trying time. My marriage of 32 years had fallen apart. It happened so quickly, I didn’t have time to do anything but think ‘why’. Back then I really didn’t know if God loved me or not. I grew up in a church that preached too much hell and damnation and not enough love. So fear and anxiety became my companions. I was in Corpus Christi, Tx at my sister-in-law’s home standing in their family room when the post person arrived. We received letter from someone I knew of but did not know. As I read it, the above words stood out “prayer is laying hold of God’s willingness- not His reluctance”. God was willing to help me. He would be willing to lead me through this mess if I would surrender it to Him. Prayer became my companion. It was not easy. In fact at times I thought He had forgotten me. It was years before I crawled out from underneath the circumstances, but when I did the things I thought were so important were not. I guess one would say “I changed”. It was not easy – it was difficult – but I did learn to pray and hold on to God’s willingness to bring me out from under all the debris. Prayer, trust, faith, love are great companions much better than fear and anxiety.

Just a thought by coppi