Listen

God’s commandments are not difficult, because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son?

1 John 5:3b-5

Think

A high school friend and I went sailing on a lake with his father. The boat was small, and the strong breeze moved it across the water.

“Do you want to try?” my friend’s father asked me.

“Sure!” I said, and I moved so that I could control the tiller and the sail.

But sailing that boat was harder than I thought. The sail flapped and flailed, wrenching my arm, until my friend’s father showed me how to hold the sail so that the wind could catch it and move the boat along.

That’s what it’s like with God’s commandments. They often seem so difficult: I struggle and flail as I attempt to live a new life and love others. I need to remember to align myself with God’s will – remember that I am born of God, God’s very child! Only then will those commandments become like the wind in my sails moving me onward.

Jane Claspy Nesmith

Pray

Loving God, the wind in my sails, when I struggle to obey your commandments, remind me that I am your own dear child. With that knowledge, may I align myself so that I can do your will in this world. Amen.

Go

Wrapped in the peace of God

and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit,

take the love of Jesus with you

wherever you go today

and everyday.