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A Boat with No Oars
Collage by Beth A. Richardson It has been a year since our lives were upended by Read More
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Kara Lassen Oliver | Read Exodus 17:1-7
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Sign Up TodayOnce we commit ourselves to a journey toward liberation as the Israelites did, leaving the wilderness of grief or shame or bondage of any kind, we begin our journey by stages.
At some point along the way we may wonder whether it would have been safer, more comfortable, if we...
Gracious God, when we cry and quarrel and blame and despair, hear the deep cries of our heart, the deep need that we are afraid to name. Remind us of your presence and sustain us. Amen.
Three of the passages this week connect water and faith. In Exodus and the psalm, we read about the Israelites grumbling in the desert. Although they have seen God’s mighty deeds in Egypt, they have begun to question God’s provision for them. God provides water through Moses, but the place is remembered (and named) as a site where the faith of the people fails. In John, however, a place to draw water becomes a site of salvation for the Samaritan woman and eventually for the people in her village through her faith. The reading in Romans goes a different direction. Paul emphasizes the importance of faith in the face of trials and the fact that God brings salvation through Christ when fallen humanity has no other hope.
Read Exodus 17:1-7. How do your memories of God’s provision sustain you through tough stages of your spiritual journey?
Read Psalm 95. What object, image, or memory serves for you as a symbol of God’s faithfulness?
Read Romans 5:1-11. How have you found hope in stages of life when God is forming your character through suffering and endurance?
Read John 4:5-42. When has letting go of your expectations or rules allowed God to work freely in your life or in the lives of others around you?
Respond by posting a prayer.
I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”
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