It is a pretty typical Monday morning, getting up, getting breakfast made, making lunches, taking out the dog, loading up the car, getting everyone out the door to work and school.

Add to it a weekend with a funeral and a wedding, and a bunch of other things, I was stressed before I got out of bed.

Then I read the daily lectionary text.  If your day started like mine, definitely read this passage.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:25-34

Need I add more?

May this day and this week be a blessing for you.

Pastor Bill

Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of rushing rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; there he bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” Then he said, “Go again seven times.” At the seventh time he said, “Look, a little cloud no bigger than a person’s hand is rising out of the sea.” Then he said, “Go say to Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind; there was a heavy rain.  1 Kings 18:41-45

There was a great drought that caused famine across the land.  The people were concerned, the people were frightened, the people were upset.  Every day was filled with the struggle of the crisis, a lack of food, a lack of water, a lack of the daily needs of life.  The stress must have been unbearable – and that sounds familiar to us, doesn’t it?

Some turned to God in prayer, only to receive no answer (or at least not yet).  But then the prophet Elijah tells Ahab rain is on the way.  Ahab could see nothing, so Elijah tells him to look seven times when Ahab sees the tiny cloud, promising the much-needed rain.

Can you see the tiny cloud in your life?  Can you see that little positive image way off in the distance while you remain in the tensions of the day? If not, have you looked seven times? 

We are all still going through incredible struggles with the pandemic, with the tensions in our nation, with the ongoing political divisions, yet there is a cloud of hope in the distance.

Let’s all look “toward the sea” for the signs of God’s action.

Peace,

Pastor Bill