Reflection: Sunday 15th August and for the week ahead:

From the Collect for Trinity 11

O God, you declare your almighty power

most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:

mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,

that we, running the way of your commandments,

may receive your gracious promises,

and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure

God is no finger-wagging tyrant, out to condemn, but a loving Father who, like any good human parent, wants only what is good for his children’s happiness and wellbeing. The Commandments have been described as a road map for life’s journey, a guide for living. They do not force us Into unnatural ways, but go with the grain of what is best in human life, bringing genuine peace, contentment and fulfilment.

‘What does the Lord require of you?’ asks the prophet Micah, ‘but to act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’.

Your commandments are more to be desired than gold...

And in the keeping of them there is great reward. (Psalm19)

Revd Rosemary