I’ve been reminded lately of how God provides. There has been a lot of change in my life, as I’m sure with everybody to some degree - some of it welcomed and some of it not. And it is easy to, in this uncertainty, to develop anxiety. There is one thing that has brought me peace and comfort routinely, and that has been the partaking of communion. At Kingship, we offer the Lord's Supper each Sunday Morning that we gather. It is part of regular worship as a church to do this in remembrance of what Jesus has done for us. However, it is also a sacrament that Jesus put in place for us - His grace meeting us in our weakness.
The changes I’ve experienced in the last year have not been unique, nor exclusive, nor anything of particular interest and sympathies. I graduated college, moved away from my closest friends, left relationships behind, began a new job, and had to learn to acclimate to this new life with countless unknowns. And while I know that globally my problems are more-or-less champagne problems, I can’t ignore the stress and anxieties they cause, and the consequences of catering my soul to my worries.
However the uncertainties of my circumstances, I have taken refuge in the reassurance of two, rather rhetorical, questions. And these questions, likewise, speak truth to anyone’s set of circumstances but have prepared my heart the most when receiving communion.
The first one is this:
Does Jesus love me?
It seem a rather simple question to ask, the subject of Sunday School songs of my upbringing, and it would be a cliche if it weren’t one of the biggest questions to exist. And to this question, I can calmly answer “Yes, Jesus does love me.”
Romans 5
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
The second question I ask myself is this:
Does God promise to provide?
Romans 8
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
In the Sermon of the Mount, we’re told to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and how God provides for them. And then we’re told to consider how much more a Father, our Heavenly Father, will provide to his children. This is not a promise of prosperity, but of provision. We are also not told how God will provide - A recently developing pet peeve is when I’m told “God has a wife out there for you” because I’ve read through the bible and I did not see that written. But we are promised that God will provide to our needs that bring us under the span of His glory.
Philippians 4
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
The night before Jesus died, before the world was forever changed, Jesus made a promise to His disciples. This was during the implementation of communion. With the cup in His hands, He said “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s house.” In this moment of Jesus implementing the sacrament of communion, he gives us hope of what is to come: an eternal of community life with him. And in this sense, we can take comfort in not only what God has done (that is, the establishment of the new covenant), but what God will do. And we can have confidence in this promise! If Jesus is who he claimed to be, then He is eternal and true. Thus, His promise is forever assured and I will dwell in my Father’s presence forever.
So when we are anxious, let us hold to this promise and give thanks. Because Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it, in foreshadow of how He laid down his life for us. Similarly, He took the glass, gave thanks, and said “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” to demonstrate how by His blood, we are made clean. Then Jesus concludes by sharing the promise that "we will be with him in His Father’s kingdom” and through all these things, we have great hope.
Revelation 1
5bTo him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6a and made us a kingdom,
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