An Advent meditation and prayer
John, son of Zechariah, came out of the wilderness to proclaim the advent of the Messiah. Jesus, the Messiah, entered the wilderness to wrestle with Satan to forswear his calling, to be other than the self-sacrificing Love of God incarnate.
O Lord Jesus, by your Spirit, teach me and teach me again (for too soon I forget) that you are present not only at times and in places of favor, but also and especially in the desolate spaces of life where darkness looms, where temptation thrives, where want and need are constant cries, and fear is slow to die. Teach me, O Lord Jesus, and teach me again to wait in trust for you, for you, never forsaking me, are there. Amen.
© 2022 PRA
Illustration: Christ in the Wilderness (1872), Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837-1887)
#trust #wilderness #temptation
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 
Thank you Paul! I’m catching up on all of your great posts! I do wish we didn’t forget so easily that trusting and waiting is what we need to do!! I appreciate the reminder!!
Love
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Loretta, I’ve come to believe that waiting is a fine art; one that requires the energy of my attention, which is to say my intentional focus. For I’m so quick to identify what I want, and then to say and to act with the intensity of “right now”!
Another thought: Waiting, for me, isn’t so much a matter of slowing down, but rather turning my attention to being more passionate about hope; that is, deepening my appreciation for the good that is yet to come. This requires my ability to visualize what that good is (and I don’t mean to fulfill my personal needs and interests, but rather for others, for the world, and then to reorient my actions to do what I can, where I am, when I can, and with what I have to bring what has come to light in my imagination to life in this world).
Love,
Paul
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