Today's Reading: Introit for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

(Psalm 27:1a, 11-12, 14; antiphon: vs. 7, 9b)

Daily Lectionary: Joshua 8:1-28; Acts 11:1-18

Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD! (From the Introit for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Only a prayer focused on the character and promises of God can pray the word "wait." "Wait" is not in the vocabulary of fear. Or need. Or threat of violence. When the focus of our prayer is our fear and not our God, "wait" doesn't work because we need help now. When our prayer can only be answered by our enemies disappearing and their plans coming undone, help isn't actually measured in the presence of a good God, just in a lack of evil around us.

If your prayer can only be answered by a lack of evil, God will seem very silent. When God's silence in the face of these prayers sounds like you are being forsaken, pray Psalm 27. Each verse is a reflection on His character and ability to combat the fears and enemies that surround us. You have a gracious God, a God who gives good gifts. How could He not hear and answer? Your Lord is light and salvation. Who can undo what Christ has declared finished? The way of the Lord is also the truth and the life. It is a level path that enemies cannot make treacherous. So even surrounded by adversaries, false witnesses, and violence, we can wait in strength and courage, because we wait for the Lord.

Even as we wait for Him, we start to see Him at work, not in the absence of evil, but working good in the midst of it. Prayer that focuses on God can find Him working where He promised to be, among and for sinners. He is with us in the valley of the shadow of death. He makes the rough places plain. He daily and richly forgives your sins. He richly and daily provides you with all you need to support this body and life. He defends you against all danger and guards and protects you from all evil. Start with His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, especially if you're having trouble seeing God's goodness simply because there's evil around. God's divine goodness and mercy was what put Christ on the Cross to win you a salvation that no evil could take from you.

Prayer focuses on the character and promises of God. That means if we have to wait to be free of an evil, we can do so knowing with all certainty that we have already been given the victory over it, as surely as Christ is risen from the dead. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Be still, my soul, before the Lord; On God in patience wait. God's love, unseen, surrounds your life; God's help will not be late. ("Be Still, My Soul, before the Lord" LSB 771, st.4)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Duane Bamsch