A Prayer To Live Well And Be Involved In Efforts That Show Our Interests and Skills

 Living through this Covid-19 pandemic has been filled with the chaos, confusion, boredom, hope, frustration and a few other extremes as well.  It’s been difficult by times to be at peace in mind and body.  It’s important for us to remember that when we allow circumstances to direct our sense of well-being then we will probably not find much peace.

God is our peace and God wants us in peace to enjoy life and use the creativity He has hard-wired into us to bring beauty and blessing to the earth and others we meet along the way.

The verse that forms the foundation of my life and then the expression of my gifts in Partners in Hope is in Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10

You’ll find this verse all over things we’ve said, written, and recorded.  It is an important principle to know that God has created us for good and made us wonderful in the middle of it all. 

Some people, during this pandemic, have felt robbed of their sense of worth and usefulness with loss of employment or long days socially isolated at home – any number of challenges we’ve faced that have impacted our mental health and well-being.  In the face of these challenges I think it’s important that we remind ourselves of the truth behind the visible.  What was God up to when He made us and what was He planning for us to be creatively involved in at this moment in time in 2021?

I find the answer to that question in some of the sentences that are written before those favourite words of mine.  Look at this with me:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7

Thank you God that in your great love for us You saw something worth rescuing and saving in us.  There is something so lovely about Your vision of things that we are so desperately in need of today with all the challenges to dignity and worth in our individual worlds.  Your plan has always been and will always be to show the incomparable riches of Your grace through us as we live our lives in the kindness of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

What is it of your great goodness that you are wanting to show through our lives today?  Help us to be ourselves and do what we can to develop the skills and talents we have and at the same time to hold onto the truth that we are in fact, those who have been created to do good today. 

We reject and renounce every thought and accusation that says we have no hope and no way forward and nothing useful to do today.  Whether we are youthful and trying to find work or retired and wondering what to do now with our lives, we pray to start by asking You what good You had in mind for us to do today. 

We’re also grateful that we don’t have to dig around and wonder and worry about what that is.  Your gift to us of who we are is just that – a gift. 

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:8-10

And so we open our hearts and minds and say, “Thank You God for the gift of my life, for the gift of my personality, for the gift of the skills and talents You’ve put within me.  Thank you for this day to express Your great love and kindness through what I say and do today.  Along with John Wesley we pray today to:

Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.

As vaccinations continue to increase and we begin to be able to consider what a “post pandemic world” might look like, it’s time to use the new interests and skills we’ve been involved with to fill time while we’ve been at home, as well as to move forward and develop new interests and skills with the new opportunities that are before us.

Interests and skills are varied but we can all share those things we have learned or enjoy.  Each of us can contribute in some way.  Let’s do it today.