In these next few moments, I believe you're going to encounter the presence of Jesus and feel loved,

feel encouraged, and feel built up.

So let's start this moment of prayer by taking a deep breath and just letting go of whatever you're holding on to, whatever

you carried into this moment, and be open to whatever God wants to speak to you. Let's take

that breath together. In Psalm 23 and verse 6, a psalmist prayed as he wrote this song,

and he said to God,

why would I fear the future?

For your goodness and your love pursue me all the days of my life.

Then afterwards, when my life is through,

I will return to your glorious presence and be with you forever.

Do you ever find yourself fearing the future? Do you ever find yourself worrying or wondering

what lies in store for you? I want to do this in this moment. Close your eyes. And I want to picture

that you're being chased. So often we hear about being chased and it's a fearful thing. And you

see somebody in a dark alley who's nervous and scared and worried that there's something ominous coming behind

them. I don't want you to picture that kind of chase. I want you to picture a little kid who is

playing tag with their parents. And even though their parents could apprehend them in a few moments,

the parents pretend to run slowly as the child giggles,

and the child giggles and maybe stumbles and falls,

and then the parents pick them back up

and keep chasing them again,

and the game continues until the parent wears out,

because we all know the child never does.

...