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Written by Gary Abud, Jr., a contemporary educator and teacher.  This is excerpted from his article “God Pursued Me and Transformed Every Part of My Life.”

MEDITATION:

I grew up going to church on Sundays and going through all the motions of the church tradition in which I was raised. Yet, even still, it was not a personal faith for me, and it never really changed my life. I was a cultural Christian at best, punching the clock, as it were, on Sundays, but living as if God didn’t exist Monday through Saturday. It just seemed to me like everything on Sundays was done to please God so He would accept us, and that was all that mattered—what I did, not what He had done. That made me feel like I had control over how God responded to me, because the emphasis was always placed on what we did on Sundays, while the rest of the week didn’t seem to matter.  I grew tired of just going through the motions and found the whole thing disingenuous…So, I kicked God out of the car of my life in pursuit of my new god—career—and put myself in the driver’s seat of my life. Little did I know that ambition was actually the driving force, and I was but a passenger. For quite some time that approach panned out well; it brought me great worldly success. Yet with every achievement, I continued to feel emptier inside. I sacrificed everything, including my family, on the altar of career and built my identity on my success. And it worked—until it didn’t anymore… At that time, I encountered faithful Christians from around the U.S. in an exclusive leadership development program in which I was participating…I was drawn to the teaching of Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath. I found a Jesus who was unlike any I had ever encountered before. This Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their empty religious traditions and offered a rest in Himself from our striving. This introduced me to a Christianity that was not about what you did to get God’s love, but how God’s love could get your heart—and that would transform your actions.  This concept ran so counter to my lifelong experience with faith that it profoundly affected me. I was missing the Gospel before then; I couldn’t fully grasp why the Good News was good news for me…I came to realize that there was not only a different God out there than the one I had constructed for myself, but that there was also plenty of good evidence to consider the claims of Christianity as sound… I learned that what we know about God must come from what we know about Jesus, because He is God in the flesh. And that comes from knowing what God has revealed to us in His Word, which teaches us about God so that we might know Him rightly. It was a working-from-the-finish-line-backward approach, I might say, to a right theology…It not only ignited, but fanned into flame a newfound desire for God that led me to see, love, and worship Jesus as king—to worship the God of scripture, not the god of my own making.

PRAYER:

Written by Paige Deane, a contemporary author.

Lord, you are my God. You take priority over everything in my life. I am your disciple and I will put you first. Lord, help me to leave everything behind for your sake. Help me to hold fast to your truth, your commands, and your desires for my life. You are the most important thing. There is not even a second. You are the only priority in my life. Help me to view everything else only through you as my one priority. Help me to stay grounded in what I know to be true and reject anything that is a lie. Amen.

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Written by John Henry Jowett (1863-1923), a British preacher and author.

MEDITATION:

In one of my garden books, there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, “Flowers that Grow in the Gloom.” It deals with those patches in a garden that never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers that are not afraid of these dingy corners–may rather like them and flourish in them. And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul? Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before. Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an “encircling gloom” to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate, the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance. Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please, but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. You may make their material lot a desert, but “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

PRAYER:

Written by Nathaniel Simons, a contemporary author.

Thank you for the faults and areas for growth that allow us to depend ever so increasingly on You. You’ve aligned our path, destined us toward a special purpose, and called us to seek Your face on the journey toward fulfilling that purpose. Thank You for the mentors who light the way when our paths seem most dark. Thank You for buffering our weakness and inadequacies with men and women who have been there and have the wisdom to motivate us out of there.  As we progress in our purpose, we pray that you allow us to tune our ears toward wisdom and also lead others out of darkness and into light. Amen.

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Written by Sarah E. Martin, a contemporary writer.

MEDITATION:

I was again hearing the words spoken to me my whole life. From flannel graphs in Sunday school to today’s sermon preached from Genesis 3. I had heard this story before. I was a guest in my friend’s church which met in an old chapel with all the traditional trimmings—pews, hymnals, and the smell of old wood. The pastor preached on the Fall, the fateful turn of humanity’s tale when man’s faith in God shattered, and so did everything else. Sin entered the world, and what was formerly home and belonging became unreachable and lost. God’s voice was no longer the only one we listened to. As the pastor told this story, he delivered a powerful presentation of the gospel. He made connections within Scripture that drew out a certain angle of the light of the good news that my heart just happened to need to hear that week. You would think that after all these years, I would cease to be amazed by the Bible’s message and all the ways we can see it from Genesis to Revelation. You’d think that eventually, I would graduate and perfectly embody all of its truth in each corner of my life and wouldn’t need it poured into my ears over and over again. But, reader, I do. And so do you.  Though the stories never change, the essential message that we are broken, and Christ is the answer remains the same, and God continually delivers it anew to us as we walk along the way. He’s made us to need his Word like we need food, to come to life as his Spirit helps us hear what we couldn’t before. Every verse of the Bible tells us that to be alive, to be sustained, to remain vital, with fresh life pouring and flowing through us, we need words. Though I had heard it countless times, I have a tendency, symptomatic of being human, to let even the most sacred truths sit filed away, archived like a thing I’ve collected rather than the living, breathing thing it is, “dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12). If this happens to the gospel in your life, you will quickly begin to work and strive for what Jesus has already done for you, placing a yoke that isn’t his, and therefore isn’t freedom, back on your sore shoulders. But hearing the pastor deliver God’s Word afresh both humbled me and lifted me in the way that only Jesus can do. The truth is that mankind failed, and we continue to fail. But God sent his son, Jesus, to become like us and to do the unthinkable by taking on our curse so we might be free … This is the good news we need to hear and receive every day—that we’re sinners, and Christ is our savior. Whether it’s from a pastor, a minister, a family member, or a friend, hearing the gospel spoken out loud, taking shape in another person’s words is life-giving to our faith. When was the last time someone spoke these words out loud to you? When was the last time you spoke them out loud to someone else? Or even to yourself? It is easy to forget the power of words. In the daily onslaught of messaging and information, words can gradually become common, misused, and drained of their worth. But Christians can’t forget our need for the words that come from the mouth of God. In the beginning, God spoke, and a cosmos of life and light and earth and stars erupted out of nothing, spread across all existing space, and continues to expand to this day. The words of God began life in the most literal as well as spiritual sense. It shouldn’t surprise us then that it is the Word of God that sustains the life in us. When we believe in Christ, God puts a new spirit in us that is living, active, and sustained by God himself. His words and our abiding in them is what feeds that life.

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the First Presbyterian Church, Grand Junction, Colorado.

Living God, through Jesus Christ

you emptied the power of death

and gave us the gift of life in fullness.

Now dry our tears and send us out

to tell the good news of the gospel: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Amen.

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Written by Neal Carlson, a contemporary retired pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “Words for Courageous Living.”

MEDITATION:

I originally wrote these words at 4:30 in the morning. The room was quiet. The air outside was still and clear. And, except for the occasional noise that would come from the walls, the only sound was coming from my pen. I have since learned a lot about being still…What I have learned is there is so much good from being still. Let me be the first to say that it is hard to just be still. But, my friend, it is in the quietness of life that strength is had. In the noise and confusion of our living we are easily made victims of discouragement and defeat. In the quietness is your strength. You can overcome. This is not to say that all will be changed…immediately. But it is to say that one’s attitude and being weighed down by the confusion and problems will be lessened.

PRAYER:

Written by Neal Carlson, the author of today’s meditation.

Lord, give the peace and power of deliverance and confidence—all gained from being still for a few minutes. Amen.

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Written by Emma Danzey, a contemporary author.

MEDITATION:

There is no true power in anything that we say or do if Jesus is not in it … People can have many different opinions, but ultimately, we too should be seeking what God says through His Word. If what we want to share is not in agreement with what the Lord already has said, then it is not from Him. We cannot claim that we are carrying a message from God if it does not align with the Bible. Humanly speaking, we cannot accomplish perfect unity of mind and thought…When we as the church body all have the Holy Spirit, we have access to the mind of Christ. We can think and live like Jesus, not our sinful flesh, through the power of His Spirit in us. This means that barriers that would naturally stand in our way no longer matter. We can come together in perfect unity of the gospel. We can stand arm and arm next to people who are different from us but who place their faith in Christ, believe His Word, and have His Holy Spirit. There is nothing we can do to force unity; all we can do is surrender to the work of the Spirit and live our lives in a way that models it and welcomes oneness to other believers. By the power of the Living God, we can be one church with one mission serving under our one Savior.

PRAYER:

Written by Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), an Indian scholar, teacher, and musician.

Send thy peace O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting,
that our souls may radiate peace. Send thy peace O Lord, that we may think, act, and speak harmoniously. Send thy peace O Lord, that we may be contented and thankful for Thy bountiful gifts. Send thy peace O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife, we may enjoy Thy bliss. Send thy peace O Lord, that we may endure all, tolerate all, in the thought of thy grace and mercy. Send thy peace O Lord, that our lives may become a divine vision, and in thy light, all darkness may vanish. Send thy peace O Lord, our father and mother, that we thy children on Earth may unite in one family.

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Written by Shirley Hobson Duncanson, a contemporary pastor.

MEDITATION:

Wise men, astrologers, magi – all names for those men who went searching for a king with only a star to guide them and a prophesy to direct their way. It seems a strange quest, this following a star, this search for a newborn king. Yet, follow they do. These magi search where the star will lead. The journey will cover a thousand miles with an uncertain destination. Yet they set out in a search not only for a king, a promised messiah, but a search for meaning and purpose. They will be surprised as they discover their destination is not a palace, but a humble home in Bethlehem. Arriving in Bethlehem, they lay their treasures down. Being warned in a dream – they return home in another way. There is a sense that all of us, having gone to Bethlehem and arrived at Christmas, dare not return by the route we have taken. Christmas ought to change us, ought to cause us to be like those who are wise and be different from whom we were before we met the Christ. It ought to bring us to a place of changed lives. Christmas, encountered in all of its fullness, does change us. It causes us to take stock of our lives. It asks us to look at the values we are living by and rid ourselves of those that have neither merit nor value. Christmas ought to cause us to return home a little kinder, more generous . . . less fearful and more faithful. For if it doesn’t, we haven’t truly encountered the Christ The star continues to lead seekers to God’s truth, to kneel at Bethlehem’s child and leave as new people . . . People who have been set free from yesterday’s sins, failures, fears and doubts. Set free to live and love more graciously with a generosity of spirit and with hope in their hearts.  Brian Wren’s Christmas Hymn shares the message of a changed life.

“There’s a spirit in the air,
telling Christians everywhere:
‘Praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working, in our world!’

 When believers break the bread,
when a hungry child is fed,
praise the love that Christ revealed,
living, working, in our world.

 Still, the Spirit gives us light,
seeing wrong and setting right:
God in Christ has come to stay.
Live tomorrow’s life today!”

PRAYER:

Written Shirley Hobson Duncanson, the author of today’s meditation.

God of the Christmas Star, guide each of us as we follow the stars you set in our skies. Lead us again to the Christ, give us dreams to follow and the courage to follow them. Lift our spirits and our eyes to see more clearly your vision for us.  Help us to  trust you to take us where you want us  to be.  May our lives be a blessing.  In the name of the Christ Child we pray. Amen.

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Written by F. B. Meyer (1847-1929), an English pastor and evangelist involved in ministry and inner-city mission work in both England and the U.S.  This is an excerpt from his book “Elijah.”

MEDITATION:

God’s servants must be taught the value of the hidden life. The man who is to take a high place before his fellows must take a low place before his God. We must not be surprised if sometimes our Father says: “There, child, thou hast had enough of this hurry, and publicity, and excitement; get thee hence, and hide thyself by the brook–hide thyself in the Cherith of the sick chamber, or in the Cherith of bereavement, or in some solitude from which the crowds have ebbed away.” Happy is he who can reply, “This Thy will is also mine; I flee unto Thee to hide me. Hide me in the secret of Thy tabernacle, and beneath the covert of Thy wings!” Every saintly soul that would wield great power with men must win it in some hidden Cherith. The acquisition of spiritual power is impossible unless we can hide ourselves from men and from ourselves in some deep gorge where we may absorb the power of the eternal God; as vegetation through long ages absorbed these qualities of sunshine, which it now gives back through burning coal.  Bishop Andrews had his Cherith, in which he spent five hours every day in prayer and devotion. John Welsh had it–who thought the day ill spent which did not witness eight or ten hours of closet communion. David Brainerd had it in the woods of North America. Christmas Evans had it in his long and lonely journeys amid the hills of Wales. Or, passing back to the blessed age from which we date the centuries: Patmos, the seclusion of the Roman prisons, the Arabian desert, the hills and vales of Palestine, are forever memorable as the Cheriths of those who have made our modern world. Our Lord found His Cherith at Nazareth, and in the wilderness of Judea; amid the olives of Bethany, and the solitude of Gadara. None of us, therefore, can dispense with some Cherith where the sounds of human voices are exchanged for the waters of quietness which are fed from the throne; and where we may taste the sweets and imbibe the power of a life hidden with Christ.

PRAYER:

Written by Laura Georgakakos, a contemporary editor and writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Grace Notes.”

Sovereign Lord, I get busy and harried and pretend not to hear it, but please keep knocking at the door of my heart. Insist on our time together. Alone with You is where I am supposed to be and I know it. That is the place of greatest blessing and peace; only there will I get the proper perspective on all that is demanding my attention. Thank you for all You are waiting to bestow. My heart says of you, “Seek His face!”  Your face, Lord, I will seek. Amen.

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Written by John Wesley (1703-1791), an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader in the revival movement known as Methodism.  This is an excerpt from his book “Christian Perfection.”

MEDITATION:

I caution you to beware of antinomianism, which is the belief that there is no need for laws in the life of the believer. That great truth that ​“Christ is the end of the law” may betray us into this belief if we do not consider that Christ himself adopted every point of the moral law! Beware of thinking, ​“Because I have the love of God I do not need holiness,” or ​“Since I pray all the time I have no need for set times of private prayer,” or ​“Because I am spiritual I have no need for self-examination.”  Instead, let this be our thought: ​“I prize thy commandments above gold or precious stones. O, what love I have found in your laws! All the day long I will study in it.” We must beware of self-indulgence, or of mocking self-denial, fasting, or abstinence. We cannot cry out, ​“Only believe, believe!” and call others ​“legalists” who are trying to live as Scripture teaches. We must remember that ​“by works our faith is made perfect.” 

Written by Anna E. Rossi, a contemporary Episcopal priest, liturgist and interfaith advocate.

God of Justice,

as a city, and nation, and world,

we live outside your law:

the law that precludes double standards

and prospers second chances,

the law that shelters the homeless poor

and maintains inalienable rights for the stranger.

Show us power, and wonder, and signs.

Not you, breaking the laws of nature,

but us, breaking open the nature of our laws,

so that the possibility of abundant life

would unseal our covenant with death,

through Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen One.

Amen.

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Written by Trevor Hudson, a contemporary South African pastor, author and speaker.

MEDITATION:

We must receive God’s compassion for it to flow through us. Seeking to express the divine compassion without receiving it leads towards “compassion-fatigue.” Often, caring Christ-followers end up weary and overwhelmed because they neglect to consciously receive God’s compassion. You may be one of them. Certainly, I have been.  We need to ask for the grace to receive God’s compassion more deeply. We must not get too “spiritual” about this. God’s compassion surrounds us, embraces us, permeates us and all creation. It flows towards us each moment of our lives. Through gifts of creation like the beauty of our garden, the faithfulness of our dog, the aroma of an early morning cup of coffee.  Through gifts of people around us like the hug of a loved one, the faithfulness of a friend, the smile of a stranger.  Through gifts of creativity like music that touches our soul, art that speaks to our longings, a book that moves our heart. Through gifts of silence like meditation on Scripture, our time of prayer, the sheer stillness itself.  We need to consciously receive God’s compassion however and wherever it may come to us. This also means shaping our everyday lives to ensure that we have regular practices that dispose us to receive God’s compassion: going for a walk, spending time in the garden, dwelling in Scripture, conversation with loved ones, taking the dog for a stroll, spending time in silence, or maybe just taking the time to breathe in deeply the gift of our own being!

PRAYER

Written by Henri Jozef Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer and theologian. This prayer is from “A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee.”

Dear God, as you draw me ever deeper into your heart, I discover that my companions on the journey are women and men loved by you as fully and as intimately as I am. In your compassionate heart, there is a place for all of them. No one is excluded. Give me a share in your compassion, dear God, so that your unlimited love may become visible in the way I love my brothers and sisters. Amen.

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Written by Michael Downey, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from the book “Weavings.”

MEDITATION:

What I have come to see is that there is nothing more important to human beings than hope. Certainly, in our own day, many people live without explicit religious faith. And evidence of loveless lives is tragically abundant. But people usually do not survive long without hope. They cannot, because hope is the very heart of a human being…We live in a profoundly disruptive and disorienting age. On every street, behind every door, lives someone who is deeply disheartened, if not actually despairing. This may be brought on by the awareness of massive and meaningless death, the randomness of violence, the onset of early illness, the loss of a loved one or job or sense of meaning and value. Or by the loss of cherished and heretofore reliable ways of thinking and speaking of God. Indeed, even by the loss of faith in God. But this loss too can beckon us to deeper levels of openness to hope, the kind of hope that is absolutely and altogether gift…. Hope is not the same thing as optimism that things will go our way or turn out well. It is rather the certainty that something makes sense, is worth the cost, regardless of how it might turn out. Hope is a sense of what might yet be. It strains ahead, seeking a way behind and beyond every obstacle.

PRAYER

Today’s prayer is from the Sarem Primer, a book of prayers and Christian worship resources from the 1500s, collected at the Salisbury cathedral.

O glorious and almighty God,

all the spirits of the blessed

place their hope in you.

Grant us that, by your help,

we may always serve you with a pure mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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