Daily Reading: 23 January

(from www.christianaid.org)

There is more than enough. 

Something to read  

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing. 

- Psalm 145: 15 & 16 from full reading Psalm 145.  

Something to think about  

How hard it is to trust to others to meet our needs! Even in close relationships we look for ways to illustrate our independence and worry about looking needy. This is often rooted in the fear that we aren’t understood well enough to have our real needs met.  

This fear sometimes drives us to over-compensate: too much stuff, too many relationships, too many worries about money and security. 

The psalmist reminds us that God understands us intimately and completely, and when we can trust enough to look to God for what we really need, our desires are satisfied. 

Perhaps too, through that process, our fears are assuaged and so our desires can change. And as we get less concerned with protecting ourselves, we find that there is more than enough to meet the desires of all living things. 

Something to do  

Offer to share something you value with another. It may be time, it may be money, or an asset you have and they don’t.  

Examine how it feels to trust that it will not be time wasted, money ill-spent, or a possession diminished.  

Something to pray  

Openhanded God, enable us to lose our fear that we will not be supported unless we strive and strain to do it ourselves. Grant us the grace to trust more, grasp less and surrender to your promise that our desires are known and will be satisfied. 

Today’s reading was provided by Sue Richardson, former theology advisor for Christian Aid.