“If need or affliction in temporal things comes, which many of us both have experienced and will experience, then He wants us to seek help with Him and through Him, in His name, with the Father. He wants us to learn that even if we use the abilities and means He has given us, we should still entrust ourselves to Him alone. He knows exactly what we are like, both in our hearts and in our homes. He knows our circumstances. He knows what earthly possessions we have, how we use them, and what is good for us to have. He is at every sickbed and knows all our pains.
My dear listeners, do you usually talk to Him about what is in your heart? Do you think perhaps that those things are too trivial, that there’s no use to talk with Him about such things, that they are just temporal things, and so on? Beware of such thoughts, dear friend! … He didn’t think that it was too trivial for His concern when He helped various sick people, when He restored children to their parents, when He was concerned about food for those in the wilderness. Yes, He even provided wine for those at the wedding in Cana.
So, talk to Him, pray to Him in all your concerns, ask Him for help in all your afflictions and then wait for His help. But don’t expect that He will help you in the exact way that you figured out. …
He sends us tribulations and the various needs, in order to teach us through them to ask for comfort and relief. And then when our conscience is also awakened by the tribulations, and our sins confront us, then He also appears to us through the Word and lets us hear and learn what it is to have as Savior and Shepherd the One who has all things in His hands and who came into the world to save sinners.”
Rev. Ulrik Koren
U. V. Koren, “Fourth Sunday in Lent,” in U. V. Koren’s Works, vol. 1, ed. Mark DeGarmeaux (Lutheran Synod Book Company, 2013), 159–163.
Sermon Text: John 6:1-15
