by Rev. Robert E. Mortensen

When sick and discouraged and tired of sin's load,
When dark is the way and rugged the road,
When gone is the comfort of friends and abode,
Jesus will welcome and save.

When trials, disappointments and cares come my way,
When I faint with my cross in the heat of the day,
When I look for kind friends, but find none as my stay,
Jesus will welcome and bless.

When into my actions wrong motives are read,
When put in my life are words I've never said,
And misunderstanding with grief bows my head,
Jesus will welcome and keep.

Oh, He is the One who is fairer to me
Than all of earth's loveliness ever could be;
Yes, e'en at death's door this my one theme shall be,
For Jesus welcome me home.

Contemplating on what needed to be said here and how to say it, I prayed for several days. Last week, my husband came to me with a book he was reading. He asked me to read a page in it. As I read the page, I knew God had answered my prayer. That page needed to be inserted here. Now the book, which had been my father's, is not a new book. The copyright date is 1955, but it speaks to us today as well. Please take the time to read what it says.

Excerpt from:
A DIARY OF READINGS

"Being an anthology of pages suited to engage serious thought one for every day of the year gathered from the wisdom of many centuries."

By John Baillie

Day 3, Mercenary Piety

by Jean Nicolas Grou

"If we look into our hearts, we shall be filled with confusion when we see there the mean, mercenary ideas that form the bond of our intercourse with God.

Are we not of the number of those who"" have no object in their prayers but temporal benefits, those who pray earnestly for the fatness of the earth but never ask for the dew of heaven? Are not our churches full (1975) whenever public calamities overtake us, and quite deserted in times of prosperity? When our domestic affairs are disturbed, or we are involved in a vexatious lawsuit, or are in danger of some serious loss we become very devout, we resort to prayer," and ask our religious leaders "and pious friends to help us. When our life, or the life of our husband or beloved child is in danger," we call on God. "Events and circumstances awaken our religion, as though there were no need to pray to God, except in illness and sorrow. As soon as affairs take a turn for the better and the danger is past, our devotion vanishes; the most we think of doing is to thank God for the successful end of our troubles; after a short act of gratitude we forget Him, and think of nothing but our pleasures. Speaking generally, it is true to say that the necessities and accidents of life form the main subject and the actuating motive of the prayers of the ordinary Christian.

Do you blame us, they may ask, for thus appealing to God in times of temporal need? I am very far from doing so, since it is God's own intention to call us back to Himself by such needs, and we can do nothing better than appeal to Him on these occasions. What I blame is that He is never invoked except for these needs, as though there were no other blessings and no other evils than those of the present life. What I blame is that God is forgotten as soon as these needs are supplied, as soon as these evils are averted and these blessings secured. Truly it is altogether too material, too carnal, to make piety a matter of such aims and events as these."

This has become my prayer, "Dear God help me in good times and in bad times. Give me the strength of my convictions in the good times. Help me to keep my eyes on You and to be faithful in my prayer life and in my Bible reading. Father God, help me in times that are difficult, be they illness, grief, sin, or sorrow. Guide, guard, and protect me at all times. Amen."

"Let you light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

From POEMS OF THE SOUL