Life is filled with many uncertainties.  Because of that we all look for something or someone we can depend on to bring some stability to our lives.  When the winds of life make a sudden shift in the direction they’re blowing, they have the ability to throw us off course and make everything seem so unstable.  When things become unstable there isn’t a sense of security.  There is only the fear at times that we will end up being somewhere that we didn’t want to be, doing something that we hadn’t planned to do, for a reason determined by something other than ourselves.  For those who have no knowledge of God, living with that kind of instability may be normal.  Not knowing what life may hold for a person may in fact be acceptable.  But in the end, we will all reach for that one thing that will secure our life in the midst of life’s challenges.  For those of us who have found faith in Christ, Jesu has become our anchor.  He has become the one who steady’s our life’s ship in the midst of life’s storms.  He is the one who has the power to say to the winds and the waves, “Peace!  Be still!”  And it’s within the authority of our Christ that we have come to find our stability.  When we make a mistake, we live with the assurance of God’s forgiveness.  When we feel we should be punished, we live with the certainty of God’s mercy.  When we believe that we’ve done something so outrageous that we believe we couldn’t be forgiven and that we’ve become unlovable, God’s love through Jesus Christ is there as a guarantee.  We have the promise of God that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.  And it is that astounding and amazing love that secures our world.  It is the one certainty that everyone can rely on.  God loves us, and we can’t do anything about it!  Of that we can be certain, and with that we know that Christ is our Savior.

• What is it about knowing that you and God’s love are inseparable gives you confidence that Jesus is our Savior?
• What does that mean for you when personal and spiritual trials come into your life?
• How does knowing that Christ is your savior, shape you faith and confidence in God to hear your cries of distress?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, thank You for Your gifts of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and restoration. Because Your love for me is unstoppable, You have saved me forever.

         A story is told of a young boy who loved to sail.  He learned to sail from his father.  He tells the story that at times he would be allowed to go out on the sailboat without his father as long as he took a friend with him.  But there was always a certain care that had to be taken because he was in charge of the boat, and — in some real ways — in charge of the life of his friend.  His greatest times sailing, he recalls, were the times when his father would go out on the water with him.  It seems that his father was no stranger to sailing.  His father had managed to sail across the Atlantic, spend 5 days sailing in the midst of hurricane force winds and survived.  He explains that when he was on the boat with his father, he had complete confidence in him and any trouble that would arise on Lake Michigan, his father could handle.

           When we are placed in a position to place our complete trust in God, all of our worries about how things will turn out seem to go away.  It’s because, like the young boy on the boat with his father, we know that God is able to handle any difficulty that comes up in our lives.  We can rest assured that our lives are in good hands, and so we don’t have to fear when tribulation comes.  We don’t have to become anxious when storm clouds like sea billows roll.  And when life throws its worst situations at us, we know that our confidence in God is enough to get us through.

         There is a real blessing when we can put our trust in the Lord, counting on our God to save us from the perils of this life.  And if we have to suffer, we acknowledge that because of our relationship to God through Jesus Christ and our confidence in him, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.  Our safety and security rests in the One who controls earth and sky, land and sea, and offers the gift of salvation to those whose cries reach God’s listening ears.

• Is there a time in your life when your confidence and trust in God allowed you to dismiss all of your worries about what you were going through?
• What does that kind of freedom from worry or anxiety mean for your faith life?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, when I’m caught up in the storms of life, let my confidence and trust be that with you, nothing can overwhelm me. You are the anchor of my salvation that brings me peace of mind, heart, soul, and spirit.

         Today is the day when those of us who acknowledge Christ as Messiah recognize and memorialize his last supper with the disciples and those who have come to believe in him.  We call it Maundy Thursday and Holy Thursday.  Paul has fashioned his comments subsequent to Jesus’ meal with the disciples and after his resurrection as a call to remembrance.  He was not there.  But his faith in Christ has caused him to remember the meal that he has come to receive with great reverence, devotion and emotion.  But it is more.  It is a call to remember that while Christ is not physically present as we partake of the sacramental elements, he is spiritually present in the remembrance of it, inviting us to remember his life, his grace, his mercy, his love for us all and the broadening sense of community of those who will one day sit and be challenged to remember who he was and what he did to win our salvation.  As each of us sits at table with Christ, we will no doubt remember his time with the disciples, but we will also be compelled to remember Jesus’ importance to us.  We cannot faithfully proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes short of us believing that he was crucified, dead, and buried and on the third day he arose from the dead, and will come again to receive those who have, by faith, believed in the saving power of his blood.  It is truly in this act of receiving the Holy Sacraments that we proclaim him as our Lord and Savior.

• What is your most important reason for celebrating Maundy Thursday?
• How does remembering Jesus’ last meal with his disciples affect the significance of you taking the meal?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, always keep me aware that as I come to Your table to symbolically eat Your broken body and drink Your blood of the new covenant, that You endured the next 3 days that I might be saved.