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MEDITATION:

Written by George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.

It is possible to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our Lord never spoke hyperbolically, although, indeed, that is the supposition on which many unconsciously interpret his words, in order to be able to persuade themselves that they believe them. We may see that it is possible before we attain to it; for our perceptions of truth are always in advance of our condition. True, no man can see it perfectly until he is it; but we must see it, that we may be it. A man who knows that he does not yet love his neighbor as himself may believe in such a condition, may even see that there is no other goal of human perfection, nothing else to which the universe is speeding, propelled by the Father’s will. Let him labor on, and not faint at the thought that God’s day is a thousand years; his millennium is likewise one day—yea, this day, for we have him, the Love, in us, working even now the far end…A man must not choose his neighbor; he must take the neighbor that God sends him. In him, whoever he be, lies, hidden or revealed, a beautiful brother. The neighbor is just the person who is next to you at the moment, the person with whom any business has brought you in contact.

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the US Conference of Bishops, an assembly of bishops who exercise pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful in the United States.

Embracing Father, You grace each of us with equal measure in your love. Let us learn to love our neighbors more deeply, so that we can create peaceful and just communities. Inspire us to use our creative energies to build the structures we need to overcome the obstacles of intolerance and indifference. May Jesus provide us the example needed and send the Spirit to warm our hearts for the journey. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by C. H. Mackintosh (1820-1896), an Irish businessman and educator, active in the Irish Revival of 1859-1869.

God looks for reality. “He did not love us in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth; and He looks for a response from us—a response clear, full, and distinct; a response coming out in a life of good works, a life yielding mellow clusters of the “fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus, to the glory and praise of God.” – Ought we not diligently to seek to promote love and good works? And how can this be most effectually accomplished? Surely by walking in love ourselves, and faithfully treading the path of good works in our own private life. For ourselves, we confess we are thoroughly sick of hollow profession. High truth on the lips and low practice in daily life, is one of the crying evils of our day. We talk of grace; but fail in common righteousness—fail in the plainest moral duties in our daily private life. We boast of our “position” and our “standing;” but we are deplorably lax as to our “condition” and “state.” May the Lord, in His infinite goodness, stir up all hearts to more thorough earnestness, in the pursuit of good works, so that we may more fully adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things!

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the Mozarabic Breviary, a liturgical rite of the Latin Church used on the Iberian Peninsula and developed in the 500s AD.

Look on us and hear us,

O Lord our God,

and help us to please you

as we do the work you have given to us.

As you have given the first act of will,

so give the completion of the work.

Give us strength to finish

what you have moved us to begin;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Jacquelyn Sheppard, a contemporary educator and writer.

It’s not the beginning of the race that is difficult. The hardest part of the race is just before we cross the finish line. We start out, fresh and lively, confident as we set our pace. But, somewhere along the way, we begin to grow tired and weary. Our feet and legs seem like wood and we stumble along, grasping with our hands to keep from falling. Sometimes we are blessed with a “second wind” and we pick up the pace and run faster, gaining strides and making up for lost time. At other times, just before we hit the ground, we feel a strong arm or someone’s prayers that lifts us up until we are back in the race. Sometimes we look around to see those who took themselves out of the race and it causes us to doubt our own strength. “If they fell, how can I succeed?” we ask. Yet, it’s not how another runs the race that determines our success. No, it’s whether or not we keep our eyes on Jesus and run toward the finish line—even when we can’t see it. It’s His face that we must keep before us regardless of what the world says or does and regardless of how badly our feet are hurting. We run on—because of the cross and for the crown.

PRAYER:

Adapted from a prayer written by Mark Herringshaw, a contemporary writer, speaker, and spiritual life coach.

God, you have chosen to give me this race of life, and I run to complete the course and honor you. The way is long and sometimes treacherous. Often I grow exhausted. Sometimes I want to quit. But I have a finish line to cross; I run to get there. You have given me the gift of movement. As I fly along the ground let me soak in the richness of the world you have created. Give me patience when I can’t do all I wish to do. Give me courage to push harder and further than my first instincts want. Help me to strike the balance between rest and reach. Teach me lessons. Show me your character and perseverance by putting a new and deeper perseverance into me.  I run the race you have set for me. I will not stop short. I will complete your course, for your honor Jesus.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Raymond Banner (1937-2022), an American pastor and Right to Life activist.

Prayer is expressed through various modes. There are petitions and intercessions; sometimes agony, tears, and fasting. I am especially intrigued by the prayer that comes wafting into our mind, that tugs at our heart as an inward desire to pray a particular blessing upon some individual, whether a loved one or a stranger. Often, we have no way to trace the efficacy of such prayers. But over the years I have occasionally discovered that such “inward desire” prayers for others have been answered in a definite way. I was reminded of one such incident when coming upon the March 8, 1988, entry in my journal. I was working at the Des Moines, Iowa post office. A number of weeks prior to the journal entry I had a quiet, easy, simple inward desire to pray for a woman that I knew only slightly upon seeing her working at a distance. My prayer desire was that she would seek and find God, supposing her to be a woman of the world and without any special interest in things spiritual. Several weeks later I happened to be working near her and heard her carrying on a conversation with a Christian man. She related that she had recently come to Christ, was attending church and attempting to read and understand the Bible.

PRAYER:

Written by Leah DiPascal, a contemporary speaker and author.

Heavenly Father, thank You for answering my prayers and performing miracles in my life every day. Just the fact that I woke up this morning and can take a breath is a gift from You. Help me to never take my health and loved ones for granted. Help me to always stand in faith and keep my focus on You when unexpected circumstances arise. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Winn Collier, a contemporary pastor, columnist, and author.

Liberators found the following prayer crumpled among the remains of the Ravensbruck concentration camp where Nazis exterminated nearly 50,000 women: “O Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill but also those of ill will. But do not remember the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember the fruits we brought thanks to this suffering—our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.” I can’t imagine the fear and pain inflicted on the terrorized woman who wrote this prayer. I can’t imagine what kind of inexplicable grace these words required of her. She did the unthinkable: she sought God’s forgiveness for her oppressors. This prayer echoes Christ’s prayer. After being wrongly accused, mocked, beaten, and humiliated before the people, Jesus was “crucified…along with [two] criminals” (Luke 23:33). Hanging with mutilated body and gasping for breath, from a rough-hewn cross, I would expect Jesus to pronounce judgment on His tormentors, to seek retribution or divine justice. However, Jesus uttered a prayer contradicting every human impulse: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The forgiveness Jesus offers seems impossible, but He offers it to us. In His divine grace, impossible forgiveness spills free.

PRAYER:

Written by Cheryce Rampersad, contemporary Christian author and contributor to the ChristiansTT prayer website.

Today Lord, I forgive those who have done me wrong in the past and I forgive those who will do me wrong in the future. I release it! Every chain that binds me to negativity, hurt and pain will be broken. I curse it out and rebuke it and invite Your mercy into my heart. In Jesus’ Almighty name I pray, Amen!

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MEDITATION:

Written by Bill Crowder, a contemporary pastor and author.

What does it take to ignite a revolution? Guns? Bombs? Guerrilla warfare? In late-1980s Estonia, it took songs. After the people had lived under the burden of Soviet occupation for decades, a movement began with the singing of a series of patriotic songs. These songs birthed the “Singing Revolution,” which played a key role in restoring Estonian independence in 1991. “This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation,” says a website describing the movement. “But singing had always been a major unifying force for Estonians while they endured fifty years of Soviet rule.” Music can also play a significant part in helping us through our own hard times. I wonder if that’s why we so readily identify with the psalms. It was a dark night of the soul that the psalmist sang, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:5). It was in a season of deep disillusionment that Asaph, the worship leader, reminded himself, “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart” (Psalm 73:1). In our own challenging times, may we join the psalmists with a singing revolution for our hearts. Such a revolution overwhelms the personal tyranny of despair and confusion with faith-fueled confidence in God’s great love and faithfulness.

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the March/April/May 2020 “Our Daily Bread” devotional.

Father, I thank You that Your mercies are new every morning and Your faithfulness is great. Empower me to sing the song of your great love—even when I must sing it through my tears.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Laurie Beth Jones, a contemporary author and speaker. This is an excerpt from her book “Jesus CEO.”

In the Old Testament a verse reads, “A day of little things, no doubt, but who would dare despise it?”  Jesus did not despise the little things. When he set out to change the world, he chose only a dozen people to work with—not a cast of thousands. He packed value into every minute, every glance, every question, every encounter because he knew that out of little things come big ones. I see such an impatience with and disregard for little things in business that it disturbs me. Yesterday I listened to a woman lament that her bosses had taken away a key sale from an employee and “given” it to another one because it somehow made the store’s overall cost of sales lower. Were they thinking that was just a minor incident to this salesperson? By trying to inflate the bottom line, they had punctured her trust and morale. “It was just a little sale,” they assured her. Yet by depriving her of her little sale, they were losing their real customer—the employee herself. I worked once with a boss who didn’t want me to spend so much time with clients. “Go after the big clients,” he said. “Leave the peanuts to the others.” And yet, when the numbers were totaled, my combination of small sales out totaled his few “big ones.” I thought to myself (as I resigned to start my own company), “Dinosaurs become extinct…yet rabbits still abound.” Aren’t many of us hounded by a sense that only the big things count? I personally have had to battle a mindset that said whatever I did had to be the biggest and the best. I couldn’t just write a poem—it had to be “Ulysses.” … I thought surely I had to create—was about to create—a masterpiece on my first try…Yet any creative person knows not to despise the little things…the first brush stroke, the first word on paper, the first phone call to a prospective client or friend…Jesus did not spend his time creating operations manuals that could be franchised and duplicated by the millions. He hurried to see a little girl who was sick, focusing only on getting her well; he knew that one boy’s loaf of bread had all the ingredients necessary to feed thousands. He did not despise the little things.

PRAYER:

Written by Chris Witts, a contemporary Salvation Army minister.

Dear God, help us to be very attentive to the little things in life. Help us to just be careful not to despise them or to view them all as hassles. But like Jesus to be ready for those interruptions, ready for those additions, ready for those changes. Those little things that are on the way to big goals that we have. Thank you, in Jesus name. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by John Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian, pastor, and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. This is an excerpt from the book “Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms.”

The only way of serving God aright is to endeavor to do good to his holy servants. And the truth is, that God, as our good deeds cannot extend to him, substitutes the saints in his place, towards whom we are to exercise our charity. When men, therefore, mutually exert themselves in doing good to one another, this is to yield to God right and acceptable service. David intimates that he will unite himself with the devout worshippers of God and be their associate or companion; even as all the children of God ought to be joined together by the bond of fraternal unity, that they may all serve and call upon their common Father with the same affection and zeal. We thus see that David, after having confessed that he can find nothing in himself to bring to God, seeing he is indebted to him for everything which he has, sets his affection upon the saints, because it is the will of God that, in this world, he should be magnified and exalted in the assembly if the just, whom he has adopted into his family for this end, that they may live together with one accord under his authority, and under the guidance of his Holy Spirit…there is no sacrifice more acceptable to God than when we sincerely and heartily connect ourselves with the society of the righteous, and being knit together by the sacred bond of godliness, cultivate and maintain with them brotherly goodwill. In this consists the communion of saints which separates them from the degrading pollutions of the world, that they may be the holy and peculiar people of God.  The faithful bear the image of God, that, by their example, we may be stirred up to meditation upon the heavenly life. For the same reason, the Psalmist calls them excellent, or honorable, because there is nothing which ought to be more precious to us than righteousness and holiness, in which the brightness of God’s Spirit shines forth. We ought, therefore, highly to value and esteem the true and devoted servants of God, and to regard nothing as of greater importance than to connect ourselves with their society; and this we will actually do if we wisely reflect in what true excellence and dignity consist, and do not allow the vain splendor of the world and its deceitful pomps to dazzle our eyes.

PRAYER:

Written by Debbie Przybylski, founder and director of Intercessors Arise International.

Gracious Father, help us to engage your will with a reckless faith. Teach us to trust in you and help us grow in righteousness. Heavenly Lord, give us the courage to step out in faith this day. Fill our hearts with your spirit and let us speak your words with pride. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Rich Villodas, a contemporary pastor, speaker, and author. This is an excerpt from his book “The Deeply Formed Life.”

For centuries, people have extolled the virtue of self-examination. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Saint Augustine wrote, “O God, let me know myself; let me know you.” Ice Cube said, “You better check yo self before you wreck yo self.” Like I said: for centuries. One of the most important theological statements of self-awareness and examination comes from Reformed theologian John Calvin. He wrote, “The knowledge of God and that of ourselves are connected. Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. Without knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self.” The knowledge of self he speaks of is not identical with twenty-first century psychotherapeutic sensibilities. Calvin has in mind a knowledge of our creatureliness—of our condition of sin. When we know we are caught in sin, the knowledge of God and our need for salvation clarify the connection. I would add, however, that sin is not limited to morality and salvation s it’s typically understood. Sin is a principle of captivity to a power that permeates and contaminates our human reality. Sin is the word Christians use to name not simply our failed acts but also our inner and outer captivity. If we embrace a fuller understanding of the nature of sin, knowledge of self extends beyond our obvious acts of transgression or our insufficiency to save ourselves. It also extends to the limits and failures of living lives marked by wholeness. God in Christ takes on our sin that we may live forgiven, free, and whole. This wholeness extends to every aspect of life…If we are to be faithful to God and live deeply formed lives, the work of self-examination is imperative…David in Psalm 139, did three things effectively that we are invited to follow. He made time for interior examination, he was integrated enough to surrender his inner world to God, and he had the courage to face himself. In short, his life was deep enough to confront busyness and compartmentalization—trouble spots for most of us.

PRAYER:

From the Mozarabic Breviary, a liturgical rite of the Latin church and developed during the Visigoth rule of the Iberian peninsula in the 500s AD.

 O Lord Jesus Christ, by your almighty power you opened the eyes of the blind, and showed yourself to them. Turn our eyes away from worthless things, and lead us to love you sincerely; through your mercy,  O our God, you are blessed, and live and govern all things, now and forever. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Tommy Nelson, a contemporary pastor, speaker, and author. This is an excerpt from his book “A Life Well Lived.”

I wish I could tell you that if you would just go to church, read your Bible, or send money to my ministry, nothing evil would ever happen to you. But I can’t. As a matter of fact, the current “God wants you to be prosperous” and “Bad things can’t happen to Christians” idea is incorrect, cruel, and dangerous. God is not that easy to understand. Solomon says all men are in the hand of God. He is sovereign and doesn’t let us in on all of His plans. But we can be sure that He is a loving Father who will never forsake us. Martin Luther was a German monk who took his religious duties very seriously. He felt the weight of his sin and guilt and worked as hard as he could to earn the favor of God. As a professor at Wittenberg University, he began to read and study. One day he read the text where Jesus Christ said on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Luther could not understand it. In all of his monastic life, he had tried to earn heaven by his good deeds. Why did evil crush Jesus – someone who had done no wrong? The simple truth of salvation through the cross that you and I rejoice in, he couldn’t understand. Why did this perfect man have to die? Why? Later on, Luther came to the Book of Romans and saw that “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17). Luther finally understood that the righteousness of God comes by faith alone. He understood that men are not righteous because they earn the righteousness from God, but because the righteousness of God is given to man through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Suddenly it all fit together for Luther. Jesus was forsaken so that God in His infinite wisdom could save sinners. Christ died for our sins as a perfect man so that God’s wrath would be satisfied. Martin Luther bowed his head and trusted Christ for his salvation. He said he had such great joy that it was as if he had entered into the very gates of heaven. Have faith in your loving Father, who gave up His own Son to be reconciled to you, proving His ultimate lasting love for you regardless of what current difficulties may cause you to think. Obey what you know to obey, enjoy what you can enjoy, and, for the rest, wait on the timing and purposes of God.

PRAYER:

Written by John D. Rayner (1924-2005), a rabbi and author.

When evil darkens our world, give us light. When despair numbs our souls, give us hope. When we stumble and fall, lift us up. When doubts assail us, give us faith. When nothing seems sure, give us trust. When ideals fade, give us vision. When we lose our way, be our guide! That we may find serenity in Your presence, and purpose in doing Your will. Amen.

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