Psalm 56:13 You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.

If you look at the graphic I’ve attached to this blog post you’ll notice there are a number of things going on here. This is an example of the daily emails I get from the Moravian Church which provides readings for the day from the Moravian Daily Texts (a reading plan that guides the user through the entire bible every two years). In case you’re not familiar with the Moravian Church it is a Protestant denomination akin to the Lutheran Church.

There are three different passages cited for each day, one from the psalms (in this case Psalm 56:13), Old Testament (2 Chronicles 9:13-10:19), and the New Testament (Acts 19:32-20:3). The texts for these passages are not provided so the user looks them up in whatever bible is preferred. Then there are two single verses (referred to as doctrinal texts) which do have the text provided – followed by a brief prayer connected to the single verses. Anyway, I generally choose one of the three cited passages to write about, but today (as you can see) it was one of the doctrinal texts that got my attention.

Over these months of coronavirus I’ve encountered many, many people who are deeply weary. And I don’t mean just tired, I mean depleted at their very core. It’s what I’ve been describing as “weariness of the soul”. I’m not excluded from this, I can assure you. Lately I’ve been really leaning into some spiritual disciples which are helping me come out of the darkness – scripture reading, reflection, prayer, fasting, Sabbath, and such. I’ll be honest, I’m not a naturally disciplined person so anything described as a “discipline” does not come easily for me. But, by the grace of God, I’ve been experiencing some breakthrough – a strengthening of my soul little by little.

Relief for a weary soul is something only God can do. And fortunately there are some things we know about which are part of the Christian tradition and can address this need in the deepest part of our being. If you’d like to know more, please message me or email me ernie@rejoicelutheran.org. I’d be delighted to share with you the practices which have restored Christians for over 2,000 years now.

Lord Jesus, give us grace to turn back from the darkness to walk with our God in the light of life. Amen.