Good morning, I am so glad you chose to worship with us here at Harding Street this morning. Today is our monthly birthday and anniversary potluck. I hope you have made plans to stay and enjoy some fellowship with us following services this morning. It is so important in our Christian lives that we come together to enjoy each other’s company; to build a stronger bond with each other so we can help each other in times of need.
The daily verse from my Bible app this week that stood out to me was James 5:13, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” Isn’t it so good that we have a God that we can go to in our suffering. And notice in the verse, it doesn’t specify the suffering. It doesn’t say a level of suffering that you have to attain to be able to go to God in prayer. Oftentimes we don’t pray, or we don’t ask for prayers because we think that our problems are too small. We start to compare our sufferings with other people’s sufferings. Now it is good to understand that we don’t have it as bad as other people do, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve the help of God when we are struggling. We also teach that nothing is too big for God. We go to God when things become too much for us to handle because He is big and great enough that He can handle it. But why do we never think of the flip side of that coin, that nothing is too small for God. The verse does not say, is anyone among you suffering big or small, but just suffering. We need to be better about going to God in prayer about everything in our lives, whether big or small. Sometimes if we can ask God for help with the small things, then they won’t become the big trials in our lives because He will handle it when it is still small.
Then what about the next part of that verse. Are we singing songs or praise to God when we are cheerful? Are we praising God’s name when good things happen in our lives? I have a few friends on Facebook who will post pictures of their meals, or their cars, or their equipment that allows them to work, and in every post they say, “Thank you God.” Do we have that same attitude towards the things in our lives that God has blessed us with? Do we give God the credit that he is due for the things He has done for us, or do we try to take credit for things that are not our own doing? Let us remember to go to God in prayer in our suffering, whether great or small. Let us also remember to praise God for all the good things He does in our lives.
-Geoffrey Bane
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