{"id":352,"date":"2020-04-24T08:37:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T15:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-24-2020-by-dr-terry-swicegood\/"},"modified":"2020-04-24T08:37:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T15:37:22","slug":"e-votional-april-24-2020-by-dr-terry-swicegood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-24-2020-by-dr-terry-swicegood\/","title":{"rendered":"E Votional April 24 2020 by Dr. Terry Swicegood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>THE STATISTICS HAVE NAMES AND FACES<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nEach day we hear about more cases and more deaths. This morning (April 24) there were 867,000 cases in the US, 50,000 deaths, and 80,000 recovered.<\/p>\n<p>As I have watched the numbers grow, I have felt growing anguish and anger. Anger especially at officials in Washington who responded far too cavalierly earlier this year as to the threat of the virus. Anger at the protesters who have endangered others by gathering to to protest the closures. Anger at who else? God perhaps for creating a world where a virus can decimate civilization.<\/p>\n<p>I once heard a professor talk about this. He said \u201cIt\u2019s all right to be angry at God for the suffering and evil of the world. He can take it. God knows what it\u2019s like to suffer. Look at the Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I understand that my anger is normal, but I know it\u2019s not very helpful. It doesn\u2019t do anybody any good to be angry at Washington or at the \u201cOpen Up\u201d protesters or even God, although I hope my anger gets God\u2019s attention and causes God to work harder to inspire medical researchers to find a vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>My anger and anguish are especially acute today because two members of my church have just been diagnosed with the Corona Virus\u2013a mother and daughter. The mother has significant underlying health issues which has made her particularly vulnerable to the virus. The daughter is young and healthy. So here\u2019s hoping and praying for both.<\/p>\n<p>The statistics have faces now. Two more added to the 867,000. These two women are members of my church. I am their pastor. I care for them both. I feel helpless to know how help them. I only know one thing, and that\u2019s to pray:<\/p>\n<p>Most Merciful and Triune God,<br \/>\nWe come to You in our weakness.<br \/>\nWe come to You in our fear.<br \/>\nWe come to You with trust.<br \/>\nFor You alone are our hope.<\/p>\n<p>We place before You the disease present in our world.<br \/>\nWe turn to You in our time of need.<\/p>\n<p>Bring wisdom to doctors.<br \/>\nGive understanding to scientists.<br \/>\nEndow caregivers with compassion and generosity.<br \/>\nBring healing to those who are ill.<br \/>\nProtect those who are most at risk.<br \/>\nGive comfort to those who have lost a loved one.<br \/>\nWelcome those who have died into Your Eternal Home.<\/p>\n<p>Stabilize our communities.<br \/>\nUnite us in our compassion.<br \/>\nRemove all fear from our hearts.<br \/>\nFill us with confidence in Your care.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus, I trust in You.<br \/>\nJesus, I trust in You.<br \/>\nJesus, I trust in You.<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE STATISTICS HAVE NAMES AND FACES Each day we hear about more cases and more deaths. This morning (April 24) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-votional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}