We extend our thanks to Brendan Armitage for providing this week’s devotion.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Exodus 20:2
Pedro greets you from somewhere “South of the border”…. I’m not referring to our national border, of course, but simply the area of South Carolina that my wife’s family has chosen for their vacation/reunion spot.
I’d like to focus on the word “vacation” in that previous sentence. It comes from the verb “to vacate”, to abandon, or to leave behind. Many of us choose the summer months to vacate our normal routines. We go to the beach, the mountains, or another area of the world to visit something old or to see something new, or just to relax.
As you vacate those norms of your calendar year on vacation, there’s another way to relax, and to see something important in your life that you wouldn’t otherwise see with fresh eyes, and that is the totality of God’s love for you.
God is always with you. Always. Always there to give you strength. Always there to relieve your anxiety. Always there to remind you and me that through devotion to service and giving…that we most maximally receive. Feel free to give. God provides. Feel free of anxiety. God is in control. Be free to relax. Jesus has paid for your sins, and for mine.
You are blessed by God. You. See that truth this summer, on vacation, through eyes that were blind but now can see. As the ocean’s waves wash over you, smile in the love of God for you. As you awaken to a Monday that doesn’t involve your 9-5 work, smile in the knowledge that you are and have always been – free. Free to be a servant of Christ. Free to be the child of God you always have been. Free to live in the love of God and the promise of everlasting life in heaven.
So, as you take a week or two away from St. Peter’s this summer, pray for fresh eyes that see His gift to us in a new light. Pray on the understanding that your life as a Christian IS your life.
See you in church. Brendan Armitage
