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MEDITATION:

Written by Meg Bucher, a contemporary writer.

The pit in my stomach starts to swirl when the Lord is convicting me to be cautious or alerting me to take action. The decisions we make in our everyday lives can either lead to pure and blameless lives or heaped in the consequences of incorrect choices. Paul’s adamant to get his message across. Every decision matters. We cannot walk through life without pausing to perceive what is happening around us. To know what really matters takes mature discernment. Discernment is the acuteness of judgment and understanding. To discernis to “perceive by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect.”  Our decisions affect the people God has purposefully placed in our lives to love. When we consider the effect our decision will have upon others, we are more cautious than if we were just thinking about ourselves. When my daughters were young, I read a devotional book with them every night. I cherished the conversations we would have and loved hearing their little voices pray to their big God. Over time, though, I knew they needed to grow beyond just a devotional at bedtime. The next step for them became the kids’ program at our local church. They looked forward to going every Sunday and eventually jumped into volunteering and serving as they got older. Now they are teens, and they are active in their local youth group. I miss bedtime devotions with their tiny voices praying to their great big God. But I love watching them grow into their faith on their own accord. In our everyday lives, God is faithful to meet us where we are at. He wants us to understand what really matters.

PRAYER:

Written by Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), an English cleric and author.

Father God, You desire peace and unity and encouragement for our body of believers. Help us, Lord, to pursue what makes for peace and for building one another up. To pursue the things You will lead to peace and unity. Give us discerning hearts to know Your will and give us the courage to be obedient. Lord, we know that without You and Your Holy Spirit indwelling each of us, we cannot do any of these things. But, with You and for Your glory, grant our body peace and unity. Amen.