​God’s Regenerating Grace

​God’s Regenerating Grace
High anxiety, sorrow, and grief define many of the people I encounter as a front-line, spiritual first responder. Two years of isolation, the loss of jobs, the loss of loved ones, and growing financial insecurity have created a mental crisis all around us. God’s ability to restore the soul amid the anxieties and grief of these trying times can be overwhelming even for faithful believers. Today’s psalm is a song of hope for anyone struggling with emotional hardships. This psalm of hope encourages us to wait expectantly on God’s regenerating grace. It reveals a promise for all believers who shed tears in trying times. This psalm reminds us our mounting sorrows will not endure forever, that God’s grace will sustain us and restore us and our joy will one day be complete.
Friends, before our seeds of sorrow, can become sheaves of joy, time must pass! Just as a farmer sows seeds in the spring and then 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 bring about sheaves of joy. We must endure as those roots of faith are watered and nourished daily. We must place our hope and trust in the One who makes our deserts like a garden. In the fullness of time by God’s regenerating grace, when it seems like nothing is happening, sprouts of new life begin to emerge, and we know that our weeping, which provided the watering, was not in vain. So, trust in the Lord and remember that this drought shall pass, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!”
Grace and Peace!
Fr. Greg+

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