God's regenerating grace

​God’s Regenerating Grace
“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:5-6 ESV
Increasing anxieties, sorrow and grief define many of the people that I minister to daily as a front-line spiritual caregiver. Months of isolation, the loss of jobs, the loss of loved ones and growing financial insecurities have escalated depression and grief all around us. God’s ability to restore the soul amid the anxieties and grief of these trying days, can be overwhelming for even faithful believers after so many months. Psalm 126 shines as a song of hope for anyone held hostage by a list of emotional hardships which seem to increase with each passing day. This psalm of hope encourages those who walk with weighted steps, to wait expectantly on God’s regenerating grace. The psalmist reveals a special promise for all believers who shed tears in trying times. He says that our mounting sorrows will not endure forever, that God’s grace will sustain us and restore us once more and that our joy will one day be made complete.
Before our seeds of sorrow can become sheaves of joy, time must pass! Just as a farmer sows seeds in the spring and must wait to harvest crops in the fall, we too must toss our mustard seeds of faith into the tear-stained soil beneath our feet and trust God to do what is necessary to bring about sheaves of joy. At times, all of us will water those small seeds of hope with our own tears. Trusting in God we must endure our sorrows as the roots of faith are slowly nourished, one day at a time. We must rest on the Rock of Ages and trust that our hope is not dependent upon us, but anchored in the One who is making our desert like a garden. It’s only in the fullness of time by God’s regenerating grace, when it seems as if nothing is really happening, that sprouts of new life begin to emerge and we know that our weeping which provided the watering, was not in vain. Friends, trust in the Lord, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!”
Grace and peace always,
Fr. Greg+

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