The God Bag

Heather's Cottage - Georgian Bay oil by Helen Tilston

Jeanne from Collage of Life recently posted  about  "Making Lists".  As many of you know,  Jeanne is  moving from England to Vietnam this week.  Her blog is one of my favourites and has been for some time.   Jeanne  responded to my comment on "Lists" and suggested I post on this subject.

Jeanne's "List"  brought to mind a Mission/Retreat I attended some years ago. The subject was:  How to Live a Happier life and  be free from Worry.  We were all asked to write down, on post it notes, a list of the items that weighed heavily on our hearts. Mathew 7.7 and Luke 11.9 were referenced, "Ask and it shall be given".  The requests are to be in the past tense.  e.g.  Thank God for healing Uncle John (rather than, please heal Uncle John) We must believe and have confidence in our request. The Priest then gave us each a brown paper bag. He called it a "God Bag"

 

 In it we put our list of worries and he suggested we lock the bag away in the back of our closet. He said not to keep bothering God by asking when your request will be granted or God have you forgotten me, there is to be none of that. The point being to believe and trust that God is looking after this issue. He suggested we visit the bag in a year and read the list. Yes, you guessed it, after a year most of the worries had disappeared.   The point being to hand over our worries to God and get on with life and put our gifts to good use.

 

I know many of you have been minimizing and purging from your closets.  Do you think you have room for this bag in your closet?