A Season of Hope ~ Preparing Our Hearts for Easter
Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
As you may have gathered by now, the Reverend Peter Marshall, who was Senior Pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC from 1937-1947, as well as Chaplain of the US Senate from 1947 until his death in 1949, is one of my all-time favorite preachers. Often there is a quote, sermon, or prayer of his that fits so perfectly into a devotion or series I’m working on that my words would pale in comparison. As I read through his works, I can imagine hearing his Scottish brogue that gave a clue to his birthplace.
He had a keen understanding of the issue of fear, and worry as his time in pastoral ministry included the period when America was at war with Germany and Japan. Though many years have passed since he left this earth, his works come alive—often with a poetic style—and have a profound resonance for our time. Such is my sense with this prayer, “To Lift the Burden of Worry.”
As the subject of recent devotions has been the issue of “fear,” one could substitute the word “anxiety” or “worry” and it would be applicable. We all need reminding that worry, fear, and anxiety are not from God and He has replaced them with His peace. We so often stand in the way of His provision of peace and a sense of His presence. So, as we continue to prepare our hearts for Easter by embracing this Lenten season of hope, let us fix our eyes on Him, by forsaking fear, worry, and anxiety, and replacing them with trust in our risen Savior.
“Father, some of Thy children find life hard. It is for them we would ask Thy help now. Many of them are burdened with loads that they need not carry. Many of them clutch dark burdens of anxiety and worry, when no child of Thine need be anxious. There are many who carry loads of fear when there is nothing to fear: many who make themselves miserable when they might be filled with Thy peace.
We ask Thee, O Lord, to teach us all how to live without strain. We have to confess to Thee that most of the things we have worried about have never happened.
Teach us the secret of living just one day at a time, knowing that each day brings with it so much joy that we cannot fully explore it, so many blessings that we cannot even count them—much less enter into them all.
So, help us to be like children, content to live fully each hour as it comes. Then shall we escape the corroding care, the agonizing worry that destroys our peace of mind, renders us unfit for happiness and dishonors Thee. Then shall we be filled with joy and that peace which no circumstance can take from us. We thank Thee for Thy ceaseless bounty for that joy and that peace. Amen.”
~ taken from The Prayers of Peter Marshall, edited by Catherine Marshall, 1949
~ painting by John Sloane
