Here is an extract from today’s New Testament reading, along with a verse from yesterday which was omitted as the Feast had its own readings: ‘It is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies’.

God’s glory shines through our weakness, in fact it shines better through our weakness than through our strength, for then it is clear that the ‘transcendent power belongs to God and not to us’. His beauty, His love, are shown forth in our trials and difficulties, when we trust Him. As the Psalmist said, ‘Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him …’

May He bless you, and pour His grace out upon you in all things this day.