Serenity

Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
January 31, 2024
Isaiah 40:21-23, 25-31

Serenity – “A state of being tranquil, peaceful, unclouded and clear” (Webster’s II University Dictionary). Ah, that sounds wonderful. Have you ever been in that state? I have visited many states in my time; the state of confusion, the state of anxiety, the state of fear, I’ve been in a fitful state, an angry state, and even a hopeful state, which has led me, many times to Serenity, that clear, unclouded, peaceful and tranquil place where I simply trust God and rest in Him. How about you? What state do you visit most?

I would love to say that I spend more time in Serenity than any of the other states, but that would not be truthful. Still, this meditation is to encourage all of you who might be traveling between states, just now, to find comfort in the above listed scripture passage in which God speaks to a people venturing into many of the tear-filled states like those I have listed. The original audience is the people of Judah who are living a slave like existence under Babylonian rule in the nation of Babylon, so far from home. They are becoming hopeless that brighter days will ever come, and even less hopeful that they will ever see the home they remember ever again. A portion of our passage today reads; “To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal? Says the Holy One…Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

I have a little card with The Serenity prayer by Reinhnold Niebuhr that helps summarize what I hope to do, to encourage you to pray as you travel between states; “God, grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to Your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.”

Amen!