9-24-2018

Good Morning All,

       Psalm 145: 15-16; “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.  You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

    I have been reading again about the nutritional value of various foods.  I feel like I am watching a ping pong match.  As foods go from good to bad to good to bad for you.  Dairy, eggs, red meat, butter, bread have all switched sides through the years.  It seems we never really know what is good or bad for us.  We know what tastes and usually just hope it is, at least, not real bad for us.

    They try and use a food pyramid to help us understand the number of servings that we need to eat each day.  It advises different amounts of fruits and vegetables, dairy, proteins and fats.  It seems at times that this pyramid changes shape as the recommendations change but it is still pretty much the same.

    In our faith life, we need to be fed and nourished as well.  We need to do so for most of the same reasons we need physical nourishment.  It provides us energy for building muscle.  It provides for the needs of our body on a daily basis.  God provides these for us.  He gives us His Word and sacraments, prayer and praise and worship.  We need to see these as the faith pyramid.  These are the elements by which our faith is strengthened.

    We have God’s Word where he reveals his love for us.  He reveals his plan of salvation for us.  He offers us his words of forgiveness and hope.  We need to daily take this important nutrient to heart to find the comfort and the consolation we seek.

   We have his sacraments to nourish our soul and to give us forgiveness.  It is through these gracious gifts that we receive the nourishment that we can feel and taste.  We can taste just a tiny bit of the heavenly feast that we will share with Jesus and all the believers.  We need to consume these on a regular basis.

    God gives us prayer to help nourish us.  We can use prayer to speak to God from our heart.  We can go to him crying from the depth of our fears; we can go to him lamenting the pain of our suffering and we can go to him singing with joyful hearts the wonder of his love and blessings for us.  God uses prayer as a way to nourish us by changing us as we speak to him.  We should be in constant communication with our God.

     Through all of this we will experience God’s mercy and we should give thanks.  We should give thanks to God for his wondrous mercy showered upon us minute by minute.  We should praise his glorious name as a way to remind us of what God does for us at all times and in all ways.  We should praise him morning, noon and night.  The wonders of his love are never lost.

Father of all love and mercy, you nourish us so that we may be stronger in this walk of life.  Through your generous gift of hope we sing with joy. Guard us by your Spirit.  Be with those who are undernourished and are feeling weak.  Bring them safely into your loving arms.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen savior we pray amen,

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret