DAY 155: Follow Daily

DAY 155

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-three Sunday 16 August 2020

Follow Daily

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. - The Book, of Common Prayer: Prayer for the Sunday closest to 17 August

My mother had Parkinson’s disease. She lived with us for four years before entering a nursing home - and she never complained – ever. She knew the Lord in her life and when she went to be with Him her Central American caregivers, in the Presbyterian nursing home where she lived her last days, came in to tell us that she never complained. She spent half her life sick and never complained, an example for all of us should we become similarly afflicted. Her secret? I think it was her deep faith and her favorite song: “One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus.” She took it literally.

Alcoholics Anonymous members train themselves to take their lives and their addictive personalities one day at a time. Jesus told us to do the same: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34.

While it is most recognized as being from the musical “Godspell,” the text is actually a prayer written by Richard, Bishop of Chichester, England, (1197-1253):

Day by day, dear Lord of Thee three things I pray:

To see Thee more clearly,

Love Thee more dearly,

Follow Thee more nearly,

day by day.

If you pray this prayer every morning you will find yourself increasingly freed up to live “one day at a time, sweet Jesus,” and enabled “to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life.”

Reflective question: What can you do today to embrace the prayers in this devotional?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 118:24  - “This is the day that the Lord has made,…”

Reflective hymn:

“One Day at a Time, Sweet Jesus – Merle Haggard (1937-2016) 

One day at a time, sweet Jesus that’s all I’m asking of you,

Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do.

Yesterday’s gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine,

So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.