I think the time has again arrived for us to consider a few short, concise lessons in our editorial effort for today. A few little thoughts that I've run across and jotted down for future use. So, in keeping with a phrase that someone once coined, "the future is now."
Some time ago I read a little story emanating from World War 2. It seems that a "prayer group" was organized by one of Winston Churchill's advisors during the dark days of the bombing of England by the Germans. This group would stop whatever they were doing at a selected time, every evening, and pray for the safety of the country and for peace.
I'll finish my thoughts on that story in just a moment, but first I want to remind you of a Bible passage with which we're all familiar. It was spoken by Jesus in His sermon on the mount. In Matthew 6:26 He tells His listeners to note the "birds of the air." That their "heavenly Father feeds them."
With that passage in mind, I'm now going to combine it with my closing thought on the story of the WW2 prayer group. Yes, God feeds the birds, BUT, He doesn't throw the food in their nests! Yes, the "prayer group" stopped work at a certain time and offered their prayers, BUT, they went back to work!
The lesson here: yes, prayer is a wonderful thing in that we can thank God, we can praise God, we can obtain cleansing from God and we can appeal to God for His consideration in specific areas. BUT, I do not believe that it removes our responsibility for doing what we can and should do.
For my next little lesson I'd like to continue on with the topic of prayer. Many times we hear those offering congregational prayers ask for "strength to face everyday life," or words to that effect. I was reading a lesson written by Bro. Russ Lawson wherein he used a quote by Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian writer of short stories. I'm going to borrow this quote for my mini lesson here. The quote says: "Any idiot can face a crisis, it's the day to day living that wears you out."
You know, when you get right down to it, we don't face too many real crises in our lives do we? Of course one does come along every now and then, but really, most of our problems are of the day to day type, aren't they. It's the day to day problems that seem to pile up on us. And a lot of the time it's our own fault because we defer (read: put them off) to a later date. Maybe we do that hoping that they'll go away or solve themselves. Mostly, that's just wishful thinking, isn't it? They have a way of coming back to haunt us, and usually at a more inconvenient time than when we first deferred them.
In the passage I referred you to earlier, the one in Matt. 6 where it's talking about God feeding the birds, what Christ is talking about in that paragraph is our tendency to be over anxious about things of life. And all of us do that at times, don't we? But, He doesn't just tell us not to be anxious and leave it at that. He tells us how to live with and survive the nagging problems of everyday life. In verse 33 He says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
The lesson here: to get our priorities in the right order. When we put God and living righteously first in our lives, then we are able to face and overcome the "wear-you-down" problems of everyday life.
Our last and final little lesson today is one based upon the subject of "faith." In Hebrews 11:1 is that oft quoted passage on faith that reads, "Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction) of things not seen." I'm going to provide you with a little story who's author is unknown to me, but it teaches a great lesson about faith, especially in a world occupied by many skeptics.
A medical student once dissected a cadaver completely. Then he said, "I opened every organ of the body and found no soul, so how can religious people say a soul exists?"
The professor, apparently a very wise and astute doctor, replied to him in this manner. He asked the student, "When you cut open the brain, did you find an idea?" The student answered, "No." The professor then asked, "When you cut open the heart, did you find love?" Again, the answer was "No." The next question was, "And when you dissected an eye, was vision seen?" Once again the answer was, "No."
The professor/doctor then replied to the student with the following advice. "Because some things are not seen and/or proven conclusively to exist, is no reason to conclude that they do not."
Ron Covey
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