Waiting
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer/Poem: Winter
Season of slowness,
Of pausing, reflecting.
Season of contemplation,
Drawing on the sap of past gifts and graces.
Dreaming of tomorrow’s Spring,
Shrugging off learnings discarded,
Dry leaves of Autumn.
Daring to be open to light
To nurture
Yet unseen growth,
Of the most quiet kind,
The hope of the thawing, green shoots, the budding
Fresh warmings of the Spirit.
(Sourced from Whispers: Poems and Prayers for Personal Growth, by Ross Kingham, JBCE 1994)
Read:
Psalm 23.
Ask for God’s guidance, then read this slowly, pausing after words or phrases that touch you.
1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
3he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
Thought for the Day:
In this season of winter and this season of COVID, we wait. We wait for spring sunshine, and we wait for life to return to normal. We wait for a time when we can gather together to worship, when we can stand close to friends and greet them with a hug or a handshake. We wait for school to resume face-to-face. Throughout the bible we read of people who wait for a longed-for event to occur. Hannah waited for a son. Abraham waited for descendants. The prophets of old waited for their people to turn to God, longing for them to act justly and with mercy. Jesus longed for people to know a God of love and spent many hours waiting on God in prayer. At one point he stood looking over Jerusalem with longing, saying “‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem! … How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”
God’s promise to us is not that we always receive what we long for. God’s promise is that God will lead us as a shepherd leads their flock, always present, waiting with us, always looking out for our welfare. As the psalmist writes “I fear no evil, for you are with me.”
What are you finding difficult in this time of waiting? In what ways is God present with you, waiting with you? Read Psalm 23 again, noticing those words that bring you comfort. Finish by rereading “Winter” by Ross Kingham.
Seek Me
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
outside me yet your Holy Spirit is present within me,
let me carry through this day’s life a real sense of your power and glory.
God present outside me, may I not look at your creation today and give no thought to you its creator.
May the heavens declare your glory to me and the hills your majesty. Let the beauty of the earth be a sacrament to me of the beauty of the Lord Jesus.
I thank you for my family, friends and the Living Faith Church family including our Minister, and ask your blessing on them all today.
(From Elders Prayer Diary 2, Morning of Day 2.)
Read:
Isaiah 55:6-12. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
(Isaiah 55:6-12. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Seeking God should be a part of everyday life. Finding God is not something you achieve but something that God offers, and our passage reminds us that when God gives his word it is effective. The first time we seek and find God it gives birth to joy and overflows into song and dance and smiling.
We fickle human beings are not constant like God and our attention and service to our loving God goes up and down like a roller coaster. On the ‘downs’ our joy fades as we go our own way, but God is faithful and ready when we wise up and seek him again. “Seek God … call on him while he is near.” He is near right now.
Search Me
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
By your grace, Lord Jesus, let no thought enter my heart that might hinder my communion with you, or let any word come out of my mouth that is not pleasing to you. So shall my courage be firm and my heart be at peace. Amen
Read:
Psalm 139:19-24. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:19-24. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
A kinder Minister would have just given you the last two verses, but I believe God gave us all six verses together for a reason. Taken as a whole, they reveal to us that the composer had a blind spot as he wished evil things on people who did evil things. He had hatred for those who hated. At least in in his anxiety v.23 he is aware that something is not quite right and with great wisdom he asks God to help reveal it to him.
If this could happen to someone so spiritual that they could pen one of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible (see the verses before these, Ps 139:1-18) it could be true of me and you too. I think that is what God is trying to convey to us in this disturbing passage.
But the question is, ‘Do you want to know what God might reveal if you prayed this prayer in verses 23-24?’ Do you want God’s honest feedback and help to deal with whatever comes next? If so, pray that prayer now.
Thanks
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name
1 Chronicles 29:13
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Philippians 4:4-9. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
(Philippians 4:4-9. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
We Christians are renowned for seeing what is wrong in life and saying something about it(sometimes out of a concern for social justice and sometimes out of self-righteousness). And our prayers tend to reflect this habit. But Paul’s habit was always to begin with thanksgiving and dwell on what is going right in the world whether in his letters to churches or in prayer to God.
How about we try Paul’s habit for a week. Dwell on what is true, noble, excellent, praiseworthy for a few minutes before starting your daily prayer to God. I wonder what difference you will discover by the end of the week?
Praise
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: For the renewal of our hearts
Instruct our mouths, O Lord, with a new song;
that, our hearts being renewed,
we may always rejoice in your praise
and in the company of your saints,
O God, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Ancient Scottish Prayers, 1595
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Psalm 150. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
(Psalm 150 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Praising God is the most natural of activities. The psalmist doesn’t complicate it with lots and lots of reasons why we should praise the Lord. Instead he/she focuses on how we should praise the Lord. Most of the verses are talking about a variety of ways of expressing and letting loose the love we have for God.
The world is full of cultures, styles, music and poetry to praise the Lord. What would you like to do to praise God right now? Sing, silence, speak out a written prayer, or simply lift up your heart with a grateful smile? Whatever it is do it now. There is no unacceptable praise in God’s kingdom.
Jonah Shocked
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: Forgive them all
Forgive them all, O Lord:
our sins of omission and our sins of commission;
the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;
the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;
our secret and our more open sins;
our sins of ignorance and surprise,
and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins;
the sins we have done to please ourselves;
and the sins we have done to please others;
the sins we know and remember,
and the sins we have forgotten;
the sins we have striven to hide from others,
and the sins by which we have made others offend;
forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake,
who died for our sins and rose for our justification,
and now stands at your right hand
to make intercession for us,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
John Wesley, 1703-1791
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Jonah 3:1-10. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.
6 When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. 7 Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:
“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. 8 People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. 9 Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”
10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.
(Jonah 3:1-10 NLT)
Thought for the Day:
Jonah is the grumpiest, most sullen evangelist the world has ever seen. Feeling obliged to go to the Assyrians now that God had outflanked him with the sea monster, Jonah’s message is so short that he could not be bothered including the obligatory part about repentance. Imagine his shock when God uses even these few grumpy words to touch the hearts of the brutal Assyrians. They repent even though they don’t know if it will change anything.
Jonah is shocked because he has projected onto the Assyrians a rough callous persona but the reality is there is a lot of inner turmoil and troubled consciences that Jonah cannot see; but God can.
Do you project onto people what you expect to see? Perhaps God is calling you to speak words of love to these people?
Jonah Repents
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: A prayer to the Almighty God and Father who loves humankind
I bless you, O Lord,
that you have worked wondrous mercies upon me, a sinner,
and have been most loving to me in all things:
nurse and governor,
guardian and helper,
refuge and saviour,
protector of both soul and body.
I bless you, O Lord,
for you have granted me the power to repent from my sins
and have shown to me myriad occasions
to return from my malice.
For you have mercy and save us, O God,
and to you we send up glory, thanksgiving and worship,
together with your only-begotten Son,
and your all-holy, good and life-creating Spirit,
now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Excerpt from a prayer
to the Almighty God and Father who loves humankind,
St Basil the Great, 4th century
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Jonah 2:1-10. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. 2 He said,
“I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble,
and he answered me.
I called to you from the land of the dead,
and Lord, you heard me!
3 You threw me into the ocean depths,
and I sank down to the heart of the sea.
The mighty waters engulfed me;
I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves.
4 Then I said, ‘O Lord, you have driven me from your presence.
Yet I will look once more toward your holy Temple.’
5 “I sank beneath the waves,
and the waters closed over me.
Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.
6 I sank down to the very roots of the mountains.
I was imprisoned in the earth,
whose gates lock shut forever.
But you, O Lord my God,
snatched me from the jaws of death!
7 As my life was slipping away,
I remembered the Lord.
And my earnest prayer went out to you
in your holy Temple.
8 Those who worship false gods
turn their backs on all God’s mercies.
9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise,
and I will fulfill all my vows.
For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”
10 Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.
(Jonah 2:1-10 NLT)
Thought for the Day:
Jonah fled to prevent the brutal Assyrians having the opportunity to repent and change for the better. His hate blinded him to mercy.
Now God is giving him a lesson in empathy. Jonah, himself, is in a terrible situation in the belly of the sea monster. His only hope for escape depends on God and it is God who he has sinned against. Ironically, his salvation depends on repentance; the very thing he is denying to the Assyrians. Surely, this is an Old Testament story that teaches us this; “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Whose sin do you think is beyond God’s mercy?
Jonah Flees
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: For unity with all God’s children
Confront us, O Christ,
with the hidden prejudices and fears
which deny and betray our prayers.
Enable us to see the causes of strife;
remove from us all false sense of superiority.
Teach us to grow in unity with all God’s children.
Into your hands, a Lord,
we commend all for whom we pray,
trusting in your mercy now and for ever. Amen.
World Council of Churches 6th Assembly, 1983, Vancouver
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Jonah 1:1-2. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
(Jonah 1:1-2 NLT)
Thought for the Day:
Why did Jonah flee?
The Assyrians were known in their time as one of the most ruthless inhuman empires to have ever conquered the Middle East. They used terror to maintain control. They ripped people out of their homeland and their connection to their geographically based gods and placed them on reserves far away. They tried to stamp out their culture and their language. They did this to neuter them as a people and extinguish their uniqueness so they would never rise up again. They were infamous. But as I describe this cruelty that one seems to expect in the distant past I can’t help but get a shiver up my spine; I seemed to have also described the European settlement of Australia. I wonder if the Assyrians cast themselves as the heroes who brought civilization to the lesser peoples?
Back to Jonah. Was he afraid of what the ruthless Assyrians might do to him or was he afraid that the Lord was giving them a choice to repent? Remember that prophecy in the Old Testament was never a prediction of a single future but was always an offer to chose one of two futures depending on the response of repentance. It is suggested that Jonah hated the Assyrians so much that he was willing to disobey God to ensure their destruction.
Is there anyone you know who you would rather not learn of God’s salvation to them? What a question?! What will you do if the answer is yes?
Matthew 7 series: True Disciples
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer: The holy love of God
Deliver us, O God,
from a lazy mind,
all lukewarmness of heart,
and all depression of spirit.
We know that these must deaden our love for you;
mercifully free our hearts from them all.
And give us such a lively, fervent and cheerful spirit
that we may vigorously perform whatever you command,
thankfully suffer whatever you choose for us,
and always be eager to obey your holy love
in all things;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
John Wesley, 1703-1791
(Sourced from A Treasury of Prayers in Uniting in Worship, copyright 1988 Uniting Church in Australia)
Read:
Matthew 7: 7:21-23. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’.
(Matthew 7:21-23 NIV)
Thought for the Day:
So few lines and so many surprising comments by Jesus.
Can you imagine a person who says they are a Christian and doing miracles in Jesus’ name being disinterested in Jesus and his teachings? Or are these people who think they are Christians because they do super religious stuff but neglect the Christlike life of love, the discipline of overcoming self-centredness, and the yearning to make the world a place of justice and peace?
They appear to be surprised by Jesus’ rejection which implied they either wilfully misunderstood his instructions for discipleship or couldn’t be bothered with that self-awareness focus we have seen repeated over the last 2 devotionals.
Of course, these are not real people but an imaginary situation designed to tell us how serious Jesus is about taking his teachings seriously and incorporating them into our lives.
Not surprising that this teaching should be at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.