Being the Beloved - A Monthly Blog from CFDM Northwest
By Rev. Stan Jacobson, CFDM Northwest Board Chairperson
CFDM Blog – Mar 2023
During my early morning quiet time, I read “Show me a sign of your favor….” (Psalm 86:17a). Then it struck me, like a loud shout of ‘Alleluia” from a congregational member while a preacher is giving his/her sermon to a stoic, mainline church. Without asking, God showed me his favor the previous night. Let me explain.
My wife Nancy and I have a difficult time sleeping, sometimes only receiving a few hours of sleep a night. Before trying to sleep we mark each other with the sign of the cross and pray the benediction over each other: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you his peace.” On that particular night I prayed that God would allow Nancy to sleep until at least 4 a.m.. Then Nancy, laughingly, also prayed that I might sleep till at least 6 a.m.! (By the way, that is not the first night we had prayed for sleep, and still experienced a great deal of difficulty sleeping.). On this night we both woke up at 7 a.m. the next morning!
An hour later, I read Psalm 86:17a, “Show me a sign of your favor.” Without asking for such a sign, God had showed both of us a beautiful sign of his favor, his grace and mercy, his love and presence. I could not help but be overwhelmed with praise and thanksgiving, overwhelmed with a renewed sense of God’s love and grace. AWESTRUCK!
The prayer of asking for sleep seemed so inconsequential in the scope of world catastrophes, and yet the answer to the prayer revealed to us the magnitude of God’s love for his childen. So often praying for the “little things” of life allows us to be awestruck by God’s answering love and grace. Pete Greig in the book How To Pray: A Simple Guide For Normal People wrote, “When you pray about the small things in life, you get to live with greater gratitude. If you only ever pray about big, ugly, gnarly problems that seem onerous and serious enough to warrant divine intervention, you will only very occasionally experience miracle.” Nancy and I experienced the “miracle” of sleep and we were filled with gratitude.
What a blessing it is to be awestruck by God’s love!
What books, media, activities are nurturing your heart, soul, mind, strength in this season as we are loving God and our neighbor as ourselves? Post in the comments below or hop on over to our Facebook page and share with one another.