Devotion

Quieting the Angst of Our Souls
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. --- Psalm 131

When we come together on Sunday mornings to worship our Lord and Savior, the time we spend together as His unified body is consecrated. We are united both in person and through the internet during a period of time that is solely devoted to giving our attention, love, praise, and worship to Jesus. Our preparation for coming together as one body and one mind for the Lord does not begin once we are gathered. It begins before we gather, and then we bring our pieces together to make one. But our pieces have gone through some stressful things over the course of a week, and world news and events compound us with more feelings of anxiety, anger, and fear. These things make us weary before and during our worship, and they are an ominous weight upon us for yet what another week may have in store. These things interfere with our solidarity when we come together to worship. But do not be dismayed. We can quiet the angst of our souls by calling these things what they truly are - weapons  of warfare purposed to detract (take away the quality and value) the power, healing, joy, and blessings that abound when we lay all weights aside and collectively allow our vessels to be completely consumed with peace and Presence of Jesus Christ. God knows all about what is going on in us, with us, around us, and through us. None of it has ever caught Him off guard or required Him to cancel our time together as a body of one. Therefore, we don't have any reason to let the angst interfere with our times together nor our times apart, because our hope is in the Lord Who reigns forever!