This weekend’s pearl of wisdom comes from a classic of Christian spirituality called The Imitation of Christ by the Catholic monk, Thomas a Kempis who was a member of the Brethren of the Common Life in Holland in the fifteenth century. He writes this in the imagined voice of God:
“My child, I am the Lord Who gives strength in the day of trouble. Come to Me when all is not well with you. Your tardiness in turning to prayer is the greatest obstacle to heavenly consolation, for before you pray earnestly to Me you first seek many comforts and take pleasure in outward things. Thus, all things are of little profit to you until you realize that I am the one Who saves those who trust in Me, and that outside of Me there is no worth-while help, or any useful counsel or lasting remedy.”
Thomas reminds us how slow we are to come to God when we face challenges and hardship. We tend instead to only come to him once we have exhausted all our own solutions. But God wants us to come to him first and recognise our ultimate dependence on him.
Bring your uppermost concerns to God in prayer now.
Read Philippians 4:4-7.
