Afi Ruel Today (Good Friday) was our weekly 6:30am prayer meeting at New Life Church. The prayer topic was the mission of Jesus on the cross. I was reminded of a time when I was stationed in Djibouti and was talking to another Sailor about our experiences of growing up in the AME church. I shared how I hated the recitings, singing the hymns and how robotic it all felt. He shared my sentiments but also shared a story that changed how I thought (and felt) about my roots.
He said that he was in Afghanistan or Iraq going on a patrol. Suddenly he and the rest of his group came under fire. All he could think was to recite/pray the Apostles Creed. If you know it, you know that it is the Gospel summed up ending with the victory of Jesus. He said if it hadn’t been for all those recitings of the Apostles Creed, he never would have learned it or thought to call on it at an intense time in his life when he was literally under fire.
I think about my own life and the times I’ve come “under fire” and I know now it was the grace of God and what Jesus accomplished on the cross that allowed me to overcome. Not only that, but the older I get, the more I find myself singing those old hymns when I don’t know what to pray or when I’m happy about something. When I was a girl, I did not know God as Yahweh or as Jehovah and his many names and so those hymns and recitings didn’t mean anything. But now, I know Jehovah as my Nissi, my Jireh, my Rapha, and my Shalom. They remind me of all that God has done in my life and give me hope for what he will do. I look forward to personally knowing him as ALL of his names.
You may not have grown up in a church singing hymns like I did. But just read your Bible often throughout the week. I promise you’ll find yourself recalling God’s words when you need them the most and finding hope and even peace when you’re under fire.
Listen to this morning’s Good Friday morning 6:30am worship and prayer meeting at our church:
