Spiritual First Aid Kit

By John Zehring

This is a first aid kit for your soul.  It is for urgent situations, personal crises, emergencies, high-stress experiences, worries, or big problems when your spirit needs first aid.  The kit contains bible verses, meditations, poems, hymns, and prayers for when you need comfort and strength most and fast.  At the end of the book is a Quick Summary to turn to quickly for first aid for your soul. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: Apr 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224627165

John Zehring

John Zehring served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine.  Prior to parish ministry, he served as a vice president and teacher at colleges, universities, and a theological seminary.  He is the author of more than fifty books and is author of recent Judson Press books on church growth and on stewardship.  He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion.

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John Zehring

Copyright 2024 John Zehring

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Contents

Introduction

The Lord is my Shepherd

You anoint my head with oil.

A very present help in trouble

My times are in your hand

Renew your strength

Serenity, courage, and wisdom

Be Still, My Soul:  The Lord is on Thy Side

You have help pulling your burden

Your help comes from the Lord

God stands by you

Refocus your worry

God’s surprises never come to an end

Seize the hope

Do not let your heart be troubled

Believe that you can

Out of suffering springs fortitude

Do not be paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake

Keep on asking

A personal faith statement

And I know he watches me

Eternal Father, Strong to Save,

When you are in distress...

Be Strong

Yield to God

Do not punish yourself for feeling that God is far off

Not sure what I believe

I Need Thee Every Hour,

God is your fortress

God hears your prayer

Draw Near to The Heart of God

God has been, is now, and will be your help

Find refuge in the shelter of the Most High

Jesus Loves Me

You have a friend

When you feel far away from God...

Put on the armor of God

When you get stuck upside down

How shall I pray in my urgent need?

Precious Lord, Take My Hand

Gratitude

Quick Summary:  Spiritual First Aid Kit

About the Author

Books by John Zehring

Introduction

For Thou art with me.

Psalm 23:4

This is not really a book.  It’s a kit.  A first aid kit.  For your soul.  Hence, a spiritual first aid kit.  It is for urgent situations, crises, emergencies, or high-stress experiences when your soul needs first aid and you reach to get your internal workings stabilized.  Hence, I am keeping this brief, to be useful to you.

I’ve written many books, but this one comes from my own personal use.  I have a list which I call my Spiritual First Aid Kit which is a group of Bible verses, prayers, and hymns.  I have it on word processing, I keep a copy on my iPhone, and I print it out and carry it in my pocket when an urgent situation arises.  These are the thoughts I turn to quickly and center upon when stress, anxiety, worry, or fear raise their heads.  When the doctor says go to the ER, out it comes.  When test results are positive rather than negative, it is the first place to which I turn.  When preparing for a stressful situation, I consult it.  Then, I pick one or two, repeat them over and over, make them my mantra, and at the pitch of the anxiety, they cradle me in their arms.  It is, of course, God who cradles you, but these first aid comforts guide you at a time when you can’t think straight or don’t even know what to think or how to pray.  This book provides abbreviated meditations on each item in the kit, but at the end you will find a Quick Summary to allow you fast access to all of them.

In other books, I have written on these themes in greater detail.  Most of this work comes from those books, yet detail is not what is needed here.  What is needed is the suggested text.  Like when you go to a restaurant, you cannot really plan what you will get, because when you get there, your choice depends on what you feel like at the time.  Same with this kit – review the summary and select what you feel is most needed in that moment.

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A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BOOK

All scriptures in this work come from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) or the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE) unless otherwise noted.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered another author’s reference to God as he.  I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father.  Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

I hesitated to produce this book because a substantial amount of this work is adapted from other books I have written, combined here for you and also for myself as a reminder of the resources we possess in our spiritual first aid kit.  I hesitated because I have already written these words elsewhere.  And yet, I found it useful to re-purpose them into one book because there are times of urgency, emergency, and high stress when we want to turn quickly to God and to hear God speaking to us and embracing us with God’s beloved arms of comfort and strength.  This is the book I want to take with me into the ER.  My books can be found by searching online for John Zehring books.

This Spiritual First Aid Kit has proven itself especially useful to me and so I hope it will be useful to you too.  May it lead you to the comfort, peace, and serenity found only in the arms of God.

Rev. John Zehring

The Lord is my Shepherd

Psalm 23:1, KJV

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. 

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul. 

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil. 

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Psalm 23, KJV

To recognize that you are the sheep and God is the Shepherd is a choice which goes against every fiber of our independent natures.  Are we not inclined to desire to be the master of our fate and captain of our soul?  Yet here in five words is a personal faith statement that yields to the will of another.  Jesus taught followers to pray Thy will be done.  To choose to follow the Shepherd indicates a willingness to be yielded.

This is a Psalm for those who desire to belong to the Shepherd, to be owned by God, and to be see God as owner and manager.  We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3b).  God is not a shepherd.  God is my shepherd.  We need the shepherd to guide us, lead us, comfort us, and help us to settle down and to thrive.

It is interesting to learn that shepherds can recognize each sheep individually.  When I view a heard of sheep, they all look the same to me, but the shepherd knows each one.  When Jesus called himself The Good Shepherd, he was describing this behavior:  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me. (John 10:14).  It is fascinating to consider that you are known to God.  To declare The Lord is my Shepherd is to radiate a trust that holds fast that God knows you and desires what is best for you.

Religion, theology, faith, and life can become complicated.  The majesty of Psalm 23 rests upon its simplicity.  When you are in your valley of dark places, perhaps it is enough to declare ever so simply that The Lord is my Shepherd.  Then, everything else in the Psalm flows out of and then returns to this verse.

You anoint my head with oil.

Psalm 23:5b

Why in the world would a shepherd anoint a sheep’s head with oil?  Perhaps you are thinking of anointing the forehead with a holy oil to sooth or to symbolize God’s healing touch.  Does it suggest for you some sort of religious ritual?  But the meaning is not so lofty.  Rather, it is all about bugs. 

Phillip Keller who was a sheep herd manager and who wrote a book about the Psalm from the shepherd's point-of-view says that for the sheep man summertime is fly time.  Hordes of insects appear with the warm weather.  Only people who have kept livestock are aware of the serious problems for animals presented by insects in the summer.

Flies are everywhere in the summertime on the tablelands and the worst of these are tiny little bot flies or nasal flies.  The nasal flies buzz about the sheep’s head, attempting to deposit their eggs on the damp, mucous membranes of the sheep’s nose.  Keller explained that if the nasal flies succeed, the eggs will hatch to form small, slender, worm-like larvae which work their way up the nasal passages into the sheep’s head.  They burrow into the flesh