God's Word in Scripture

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 28 BCP 236)

The Collect for this coming Sunday has always been one of my favorites. Just the imagery of inwardly digesting the Scriptures is wonderful. But what hits me this year, in our crazy ongoing process of a year of concern and care, is the ongoing process of relationship with the Scriptures. We can't just listen to them or read them once, we also have to mark them, learn them, digest them. The only way we will hold on to the hope of everlasting life is by returning over and over again to the Scriptures. 

We all need hope right now. With so much uncertainty in our lives, our gratitude and hope in God's promises can be the bedrock of our faith and our future. As the prayer for this coming Sunday says, we need to return to the Scriptures in which we learn about those promises over and over in order to keep our gratitude and hope alive. It can be as simple as writing out a verse or two which helps you on a notecard and reading it periodically to remind yourself of God's love.

As we will gather online this coming weekend, we will return to the Scriptures to hear and read what God has for us. As we gather together from home, we can remind each other of the wonderful blessings God has given us in the past and has in store for us in the future. May we hear the Word of God and start to chew on it, knowing that God has spoken to us through these very words of Scripture.