THE BOTTOM LINE…
God is WITH us….Matthew 1:23
God is FOR us….Romans 8:31
God is IN us….Colossians 1:27
Psalm 62:5-7
For God alone my soul waits in silence,
for my hope is from God…my hope is in God.
God alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.
1 Peter 1:3-9 A Living Hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,5who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.6In this you rejoice,* even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,7so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.8Although you have not seen* him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,9for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Two gems in my life: Regular Holy Communion and The Rule of Benedict
C. S. Lewis held tenaciously the sacramental efficacy of the Communion in mediating to the believer the sanctifying presence and power of the risen Christ through the Spirit… “There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why God uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.” (Mere Christianity, p. 65)
Joan Chittister’s comments in The Rule of Benedict: “If God is my center and my end, then I must accept the will of God, knowing that in it lies the fullness of life for me. …The will of God for us is what remains of a situation after we try without stint and pray without ceasing to change it….God is in the dregs of our lives. That is why it takes humility to find God where God is not expected to be” (pp. 66 & 68)