My bishop left for a mission trip to Russia. I was a little nervous about being "in charge," but we had finished all our shut-in calls, there were no scheduled meetings, and things had been quite at the hospital.
Monday morning I got a call to come to the hospital right away, a member who had been ill for some time had been re-admitted and was not doing well. As you can imagine from the title of this post, that member died.
I was all alone with a funeral to prepare for! I was nervous, but it was such a great opportunity to share the gospel, such a great opportunity to minister to God's people and show them His love and the hope we have in Christ.
I cannot overemphasize the importance that prayer played in my week. Numerous hospital visits with a grieving family, other hospital visits, office equipment problems, preschool open houses, sermon preparation, funeral preparation and three nursing home services sure is a lot to get done. Thankfully, the burden of all this was not on my shoulders! Because of the wonderful gift God has given His people in prayer, because we know that Christ has won for us righteousness before the Father, because we have the assurance that God works for the good of all who love Him and have been called to Him, we have peace.
It is this peace that God gave to me over this last week. It is the peace that passes all human understanding, it is the peace that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It is that same peace that will sustain the greiving family now after the funeral, and the same peace that is available, at no cost, to all who greive and are in difficult situations.
This was a busy week for me. It could have easily been used by the devil as a tool to discourage me, but thanks be to God we have prayer.
My encouragement to any who still read this thing after so long with no posts is to establish an active and vigorous prayer life. I am not suggesting some kind of "works righteous" activity by saying this, I am suggesting we use the gifts, the tools and the weapons our Father has given us.
When you feel overwhelmed or discouraged, turn to God as a child and seek His peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment