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MEDITATION:

Written by Chelsea Lenora White, a contemporary author.

The concept of freedom has been rattling around in my brain lately. I am focusing on the freedom afforded all of us who claim salvation through Christ. There is something quite liberating when you know or realize that you have been “set free.” Have you ever thought about what that really means? The word release comes to my mind. However you want to describe it, I think the revelation of Jesus as Lord and Savior removes a lot of barriers and obstacles and yes, burdens, that we as human beings place upon ourselves. That’s why I believe as people initially come to Christ, they are overcome by a fresh perspective about life. It’s an enlightened one; one filled with less pressure. I think that’s why folk cry in church when it happens In a very real sense, this type of freedom provides incredible spiritual insight where addictions are overcome, hurt feelings are healed, guilt is removed, and insecurities conquered when Jesus enters the picture. Whatever you have been enslaved by you become freed from. One of the biggest things that happens when Christ enters your life is that fears are conquered. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we all have fears. I know I do. It can be the fear of being alone, of being without, of being humiliated, ostracized, or even the fear of dying. The knowledge of Christ in all of these situations cancels those fears. You are released from them. That’s what I believe people mean when they say “set free.” That’s how I’ve come to understand real joy in the context of spiritual awareness. I have been set free from fear, anger, greed, selfishness, self-doubt, and even self-hatred. Believe it or not, so have you.

These things have hopefully been replaced with honesty and integrity, hope and truth, confidence, self-worth, the promise of everlasting life, and yeah, I know, above all love. One of the hardest things to understand in this life, and then act upon, is this love yourself thing. God even commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Without Christ in your life, I believe that concept of self-love can sometimes be distorted and in many cases become perverted. Love with humility is an awesome thing. When love is set free within you, life takes on a whole new meaning. You no longer have to live in the shadows of pretense; rather, you can now live in the light of truth. I can be who I really am and so can you. Then the world will see you as God sees you and not who you think it ought to see. I am who God made. If that’s good enough for God, then certainly it’s good enough for anyone who wants to deal with me and that includes you. I am free and it is wonderful. Freedom is my gift from God paid for by Jesus Christ. Know the truth and the truth shall set you free. You are not what the world would have you be. You are what God made you to be. Seek Him and you will undoubtedly find the real you. May God bless and bless and keep you always.

PRAYER:

Written by Louie Giglio, a contemporary American pastor, speaker, and writer.

Father, thank you that your mission all along has been to lift those who have been pounded by the waves of life, to free those imprisoned by addictions, sin, and shame. Father, when I felt left behind for dead, discarded, and forgotten, You sent Jesus to save my life. Give me the grace to rest in Your freedom today and to trust that you are not finished with me. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by R.C. Sproul (1939-2017), an American Reformed theologian, pastor, radio broadcaster, and founder of Ligonier Ministries. This is an excerpt from his book “Essential Truths of the Christian Faith.”

There are many things in this world we “hope” for. We hope that we will receive a raise in our salary. We hope that our favorite team will win the World Series. This kind of hope expresses our personal desires for the future. We have hope concerning things that are uncertain. We don’t know if our desires will come to pass, but we hold out hope that they will. When the Bible speaks of hope, however, it has something different in view. Biblical hope is a firm conviction that the future promises of God will be fulfilled. Hope is not mere wish projection, but an assurance of what will come to pass.  Hope takes its place alongside faith and love as one of the Christian virtues that the apostle Paul sets forth. Hope is faith directed toward the future.

Hope is used in two ways in the Bible. The less common usage points out the object of our hope. Christ is our hope of eternal life. The more common usage is as an attitude of assurance regarding the fulfillment of God’s promises. The Christian is called to hope, that is, to have full assurance of the resurrection of God’s people and the coming of God’s kingdom. Hope is inextricably bound up with eschatology. Paul reminds Christians that until the kingdom comes in its fullness, believers can only have an assured hope; they must “walk by faith, not by sight.” This hope is neither unfounded nor groundless. Though the life of the Christian is marked more by suffering than triumph, the foundation for hope is in the Godhead. Biblical hope is a matter of assurance rather than wishing. Hope is a virtue, not a weakness. Faith is trust in what God has already done. Hope is trust in what God promises for the future. The resurrection of Christ gives us hope in the midst of suffering. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, gives us hope. His presence is a guarantee of the coming kingdom of God.

PRAYER:

Written by Izwe Nkosi, a contemporary South African author who is passionate about worship and prayer.

 Jesus, Your Church has sometimes strayed from trusting Your way of meekness. We can be tempted to put our hope in other powers to fight our battles. I pray for my church now. Forgive us when we haven’t looked to You. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Mother Teresa ((1910-1997), a Catholic nun and missionary who served the poor of India. This is from her book, “Words to Love By.”

If you are preoccupied with people who are talking about the poor, you scarcely have time to talk to the poor. Some people talk about hunger, but they don’t come and say, “Mother, here is five rupees. Buy food for these people.” But they can give a most beautiful lecture on hunger.

PRAYER:

Written by Lloyd Wicker, a contemporary pastor and chaplain in the US Navy.

Lord Jesus, give us eyes to see the people around us and to care for their needs, even if it may be inconvenient or difficult. Give us the desire to share your love. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Jill Briscoe, a contemporary author, editor and speaker.

Our lives should offer relief from the heat and shelter from the storm to those who need it. People should take one look at our ever green lives and make a beeline for us. Our lives should be full of healing, relief, and balm. Are your leaves used for healing? You can be a tree of life for others. If I think about my life in recent days and years, I ask myself, “Have people beaten a path to my door because they know where help can be found?” I want to be a tree Like Jeremiah describes with its roots in the river, its leaves ever green, and fruit that never fails. When I heard about my father’s cancer, I knew the heat was on. Coming from a family with little evangelical background, I knew there would be lots of opportunities to offer my leaves for healing in the days to come. But this was my great test, too! This was my beloved father who was entering the valley of the shadow. I would be struggling with my own huge sense of loss. How could I help others when I needed such a lot of help myself? The answer was the river, the river of life. Life in the Spirit offered a source of life to me in the very face of death. My job would be to keep my roots in the river, my leaves full of sap, and stay ever green. It was a hard, hot, desert experience for me, but the Spirit of God was sufficient to supply all I needed, not only for myself, but also for others. God was indeed a life-giving spring. What can you do to help make a difference in the lives of your families, neighbors, or co-workers? How many times do we walk by someone’s troubles without even giving a thought to rolling up our sleeves and getting involved? When’s the last time you shed real tears for the people around you? We are to live a life of compassion and serve others. Love is a servant. Just look at Jesus!

PRAYER:

Written by Tia McCollors a contemporary Christian author.

Lord, help me to see when the enemy is trying to shroud my thoughts with darkness. Shine your light upon me and keep the flame for You burning in my heart. I’m thankful that Your light inside of me will shine brightly for others to see. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Jon Payne, a contemporary pastor, a lecturer in practical theology, and author.

Genuine Christians abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ means making Him the object of your faith. True faith accepts, receives, and rests upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life (Westminster Confession of Faith 14.2). We abide in Christ by exercising faith in Him, and nothing else—not family connections, moral strivings, or religious experiences. In addition, true faith does not seek Christ in the realm of personal subjectivity. No, genuine, Spirit-wrought faith clings to Christ through objective means—the Word, sacraments, and prayer. God has attached His gospel promises to these means, and through them He communicates Christ and all of His saving benefits to His flock (Westminster Shorter Catechism 88). The early church believed this … To abide in Jesus is to devote oneself to the ordinary means of grace… Therefore, dear Christian, abide in Christ. Devote yourself afresh to the means by which He promises to give you Himself.

PRAYER:

Written by Megan Johnson, a contemporary church planter and author.

Jesus – thank you that you remained perfectly in loving union with God. It’s amazing to think about you becoming human as we are, being made like us, being tempted and suffering so that you could be our faithful high priest, who sympathizes with our weaknesses. Yet, sympathizing as One who remained perfectly sinless, fighting hard a battle that we so often fail to fight. I thank you that I am hidden in you and clothed in your righteousness, and in your perfect abiding. But I confess my lack of abiding in you – my forgetfulness to live out the reality of my union with you. Show me where I unite myself more with my outward circumstances than with you, where I let go of your peace and enter the striving of productivity, self-righteousness, or my fears and insecurities. I repent of not thinking you are enough. I repent of not believing your grace will be enough for the future. I repent of not making time alone with you a priority – filling my mind and heart with the Words of life – your Word that sustains life. Thank you that your mercy is more than I could ever imagine. Thank you that your kindness leads me to repentance, and for your overwhelming grace and forgiveness for me in Christ. I trust He is enough. Your grace is sufficient. May I abide well, being rooted and strengthened in your love, not striving to enter a pseudo-rest of my own making, but always striving to keep a quiet heart and enter your rest you secured for me. In Jesus’s name, amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Shelley Langelaar, a contemporary author and addiction counselor.

God wants to have a relationship with you. Yes, you! God is all about relationship – in fact that is why Jesus hung on a cross – to bridge the gap between us and the Father. Some people shy away from this relationship as they don’t believe that they are worthy of it — Jesus is the One that makes you worthy. Other people shy away out of fear — fear of the unknown — fear of having to give things up — fear of ___________(fill in the blank). God continuously tells us in His Word to fear not, [that God will uphold us]. …Abiding in Christ is to have a close relationship with Him. It involves intimacy. Abiding in Christ is not merely acknowledging that He exists but being one with Him. In order to be truly intimate with someone we need to get to know that person at a deeper level. Having a relationship with another involves both people engaging in the relationship. Without dual engagement the relationship will falter. It is important to remember that when we abide in Him, He in turn abides in us. Abiding in Christ involves trust and submission.

PRAYER:

Written by Mary Southerland, a contemporary writer and speaker.

Father, my heart is filled with fear.  It seems like I am drowning in the uncertainties of my life.  Lord, help me to surrender my fears to You.  Strengthen me to face each one and walk through it, knowing that You are with me. I choose to trust You and doubt my fears.  I choose against stress and for peace.  I choose You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and theologian. This is an excerpt from his sermon “The Most High, a Prayer-Hearing God.”

With respect to God, prayer is but a sensible acknowledgment of our dependence on him to his glory. As he made all things for his own glory, so he will be glorified and acknowledged by his creatures; and it is fitting that he should require this of those who would be subjects of his mercy . . . [it] is a suitable acknowledgment of our dependence on the power and mercy of God for that which we need, and but a suitable honor paid to the great Author and Fountain of all good. With respect to ourselves, God requires prayer of us . . . Fervent prayer in many ways prepares the heart. Hereby is excited a sense of our need . . . whereby the mind is more prepared to prize [his mercy] . . . Our prayer to God may excite in us a suitable sense and consideration of our dependence on God for the mercy we ask, and a suitable exercise of faith in God’s sufficiency, so that we may be prepared to glorify his name when the mercy is received.

PRAYER:

Written by John Chrysostom (AD 347-407), the archbishop of Constantinople and an early theologian of the church.

Almighty God,

you have given us grace to bring our prayers to you,

and you promise that when two or three agree together in your name

you will grant their requests.

Fulfill now, Lord, our desires and prayers,

as may be best for us.

Grant us in this world knowledge of your truth,

and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Carlo Carretto (1910-1988), an Italian religious author of the Catholic congregation of the Little Brothers of the Gospel.  This is an excerpt from his book “Why, O Lord?”

The fact of the matter is that loving is difficult. And so is forgiving, truly forgiving. It is difficult for us and hard for the Church. Since forgiving an adulteress or an ex-priest irks the sensibilities of the “body religious” it is easier to put that body’s interest before the plain word of God. To avoid causing scandal, to set a good example, it is wiser not to accept the scandal of the cross which in any case offends our sense of justice! To defend morals it is more sensible to excommunicate someone, to deprive someone of the Eucharist. By so doing, we avoid offending a community that wants to see justice done, that feels the need to see a sinner punished. We have not succeeded in grasping that we have been bought at the price of blood and that, as Jesus said, “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And God himself has given us the example.

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the Mozarabic Rite, a liturgical rite of the Latin Church, once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula in what is now Spain and Portugal. Developed during Visigoth rule of the Iberian peninsula in the 500s A.D.

We cry to Thee, O Lord, do Thou have mercy upon us and grant forgiveness. O King of heaven, and everlasting Lord, receive the prayers which we pour forth: And grant forgiveness. Visit the sick—bring forth captives, help the widow and the orphan: And grant forgiveness. We have sinned and have departed from Thee, do Thou, who art the Redeemer of all, save us: And grant forgiveness. Have mercy on the penitent, and wash away the stains of sin: And grant forgiveness. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Arthur Schoonveld, a retired minister.

Some years ago, I became acquainted with a man having a garage sale, and he told me his life’s story. Since his divorce some 30 years earlier, he had become a hermit. No family member, no friend, no church in a city with hundreds of churches had bothered to contact him during that entire time. In his own words, he said what the man at the pool said to Jesus: “I have no one …Through that unplanned conversation, he became a family friend. He joined us for our Christmas dinner, and he even asked if he could go to church with us.

The Lord Jesus cares about people who have no one in their lives. He cares about those who live in nursing homes. He cares about the person living by herself. He cares about that challenged person who is looking for a friend. There may be someone in your neighborhood who needs you for a friend. Maybe someone you work with needs a place to celebrate Christmas dinner. Perhaps you need to take someone out for coffee or for lunch this season. Don’t put it off. Look around today. Take time to leave your comfortable surroundings and find someone who has no one.

PRAYER:

Written by Arthur Schoonveld, author of today’s meditation.

Lord God, help us to look around to find someone who is without family or friends. Teach us how to care and share in your name. For Jesus’s sake, Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Tish Harrison Warren, a contemporary Anglican priest and author. This is an excerpt from her book “liturgy of the ordinary.”

This morning I wake (slowly) on an ordinary day, a cool morning. I do not know what lies ahead, but I wake in a bed I know, a house I live in, a routine, a particular life. The psalmist declares, “This is the day the Lord has made.” This one. We wake not to a vague or general mercy from a far-off God. God, in delight and wisdom, has made, named, and blessed this average day. What I in my weakness see as another monotonous day in a string of days, God has given as a singular gift.  When Jesus died for his people, he knew me by name in the particularity of this day. Christ didn’t redeem my life theoretically or abstractly—the life I dreamed of living or the life I think I ideally should be living. He knew I’d be in today as it is, in my home where it stands, in my relationships with their specific beauty and brokenness, in my particular sins and struggles…We tend to want a Christian life with the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God? What if days passed in ways that feel small and insignificant to us are weighty with meaning and part of the abundant life that God has for us?

PRAYER:

Written by Emilie Griffin, a contemporary American author who writes about religious experience and spiritual life.

Dear Lord, make yourself known to me, as you did to your followers, in the middle of ordinary life. I want to believe I can be changed through closeness to you, and to the community surrounding me. Protect me from sin and evil by the power of your grace. Amen.

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