Comfort. Easter. No idea what to call this.

Easter's over. The day has passed, we've gone to church, come home, had a nice dinner, and now we're back to "real life" - whatever that may be. So, Easter's over. Right?

WRONG!

As long as Christ is still risen, Easter continues! We celebrate Easter every single Sunday - the Eighth Day of Creation! HE IS RISEN! We still rejoice, we still celebrate, we STILL live for Christ every day.

OK, fine, I know what people mean when they say "Easter's over". This year's occurrence of Easter Day is now several days ago, and we're on with our lives.

What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that....wait. Sorry. Habit. :D

Although I am going back to Luther.
Look at my previous post. That one down there, called "Martin Luther's Prayers". Go ahead, I'll wait.

I want to focus on just a few words from his prayers. You'll notice the second half of each of them is identical, and I think it's because they say something so very important. First, how many times have we prayed these, and just recited the words without thinking? It's easy to do - repeating it at night, or at our evening devotion, or at the beginning of the day, or our Sunday School opening or whatever. But really look at those words for a second.

They're incredibly powerful.
Take a look at just this ONE little bit:
"For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all things."

Wow.

Think about that.
With this prayer, we are telling God that we trust Him to take care of every single thing and be in charge of every single second of every single day. Leave off worrying about...well, anything, really. God will take care of it!
Granted, He doesn't always act the way we would like Him to, but then again, we're not praying for that, are we? We don't say, "for into your hands I commend myself - and make sure you do it my way," are we? No we are not.

We hear the Good News of Christ's resurrection every week, so it's (sadly) rather easy for us to forget exactly how Good this News really is! And exactly WHAT it means to us. We get distracted by the world, and our personal problems, and forget the incredible wonder of Easter. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If I can trust God to care for my eternal life, which is the biggest and most important thing EVER, then surely I can trust Him with the small things, all the "what-ifs" and "what happens whens" and the daily needs of my life!

And that's what I'm telling him with that prayer! I'm saying, "God, I trust you to care for me - for ALL my needs, not just the big ones. I trust you to order my life the way it should be ordered, in accordance with YOUR plan for my life. I trust that anything you give me will be far superior to that which I may have had in mind to take for myself, or that I could have achieved BY myself."

That's a powerful statement. Whenever I start to worry, or fuss about the future, or what will happen when / if this or that happens, I remember "...my body and soul AND ALL THINGS." Right. ALL things.

And, while I have no idea what that means for me, nor where I'm going (even though I'd very much like some ADVANCE NOTICE sometimes), and it can be incredibly frustrating, stressful and (occasionally) depressing to be in situations where the ONLY thing I can say is "God must have a plan," where the ONLY way I can get through it at all is to say, "Well, God, I trust that YOU, at least, can see some good in this, and I trust that YOU have a reason for this," I know that I can always trust that I will eventually see the good that God is working through me, and in me - often despite me.

My body, my soul, and all things belong to Him.
And I am comforted.