Umbrellas

It is another overcast and wet day today here in Connecticut. It’s okay, I have a new umbrella. Yeah, it’s a NY Jets umbrella! I find umbrellas to be funny. Not their function. They work great. If you are walking from your car to a store (Remember in the old days, when we used to go to stores?), anyway, on that short journey, umbrellas so well at keeping you dry. When walking from your workplace through the parking lot to your car they do same. Umbrellas just work. They have for a long time. The earliest known umbrellas or parasols are seen in Ancient Egyptian art dating back to 2450 BC! Did you know that February 10 is National Umbrella Day around the world? Why all this talk about umbrellas?

Well, what I find funny about umbrellas is that most everyone I know owns one. So, why is it then, when it is raining, I watch people shrug their shoulders, hunch over and run thinking that will somehow keep them magically dry? Where is the umbrella that I know they own? At home. In their car. At the office. Too bad, because an umbrella works. Unless, you don’t use it. Then you get wet.   

In a similar way, faith, prayer, Scripture, these are all things that work too. Jesus said about faith in Matthew 21:21, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt…You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.” Of course, we are not talking about mountains of earth literally moving (though if that was God’s will, that would happen). Jesus is saying that any seemingly unmovable challenge that lies before you can be removed with faith. Prayer. James 5:16 assures us; “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” And, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

Yes, like umbrellas, faith, prayer, and Scripture, are work too, but only if we use them, and you can carry all of them with you at all times. Download the You Version app onto your phone. You Version has 2,049 Bible versions available in 1,399 different languages all right at your fingertips.

Do not get caught in another spiritually overcast day without your umbrellas of faith, prayer, and God’s Word. They work, but only if you use them.  

 

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