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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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Written by Arthur J. Schoonveld, a retired minister.

MEDITATION:

On the first day of a new year many of us wish each other a “Happy New Year!” But as we begin a new year, we need more than a hopeful greeting from the people around us. We need to listen to what God told Joshua about 3,400 years ago. As Joshua was about to lead God’s people into the promised land, he had reason to be afraid. He had an enormous task ahead of him, and he was well aware of the dangers that he and the people would soon be facing. He needed God’s encouragement. A new year brings lots of questions: Will our health hold? Will our marriage last? Will I be able to hang on to my job? Will I get into the right school? Will I live to see the end of this year? Will the economy improve? Will there be a terrorist attack or some natural disaster that takes me or my loved ones? The Creator of the universe comes to us and says, “Don’t be afraid; don’t be discouraged.” What happens in this coming year is not left to chance. God is in charge, and he promises to stay close: “The LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Many years later, the Lord Jesus made the same promise when he said, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). That’s the reason we can wish each other a “Happy New Year!”

PRAYER

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

Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of a new year and for your promise to stay with us. We ask for your guidance and wisdom each day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Today’s meditation is from the Senior Living Ministries website.

MEDITATION:

Each year at this time, thousands of people stand in the cold in Times Square, New York. No big event beckons them. No ballgame is being played. No rock concert is getting underway. It’s simply a huge, lighted ball that drops from a tall building. And within a few seconds, hardly worth fighting traffic and crowd pushing for, it descends marking a new year. Why has this nonevent turned into a huge, money-making holiday? Most other holidays celebrate a reputable person, famous birthdays, document signings, or a noted event. But New Year’s Eve only celebrates the passage of time—something that most of us would rather not recognize. We make a huge deal out of it because it signals the end of an old era and the start of a new one.

The old year’s problems, heartaches, and struggles seem to vanish and become a faded memory when we think of getting the chance of a new year and a new start. It must have been the same way for the Israelites when they stood with Joshua looking forward to a new era ahead of them. They had wandered for 40 years in the desert, and finally they could see land flowing with milk and honey ahead. Better yet, they had God’s promise that He would never leave or forsake them. As you stand with your back to the old year and look forward to the new one, you can have hope in the promises of God. You will certainly face both trying and joyful times ahead, but you can rest assured that He “will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). That promise is enough to celebrate the new year ahead!

PRAYER

Today’s prayer is from the Mozarabic Breviary, a liturgical rite of the Latin Church once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania), in what is now Spain and Portugal.  Developed during Visigoth (Arian Christian) rule of the Iberian peninsula  in the 500s AD.

O God, your days are without beginning and without end. We dedicate this coming year to you. Give us such prosperity as you know is good for us, and make us abound in doing whatever is pleasing to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Written by Costa Stathakis, a contemporary Australian minister and author. This is from his work  “God’s Purpose for Our lives,” which was published in “The Upper Room Disciplines in 1999.”

MEDITATION:

We live in an age of instant answers; we want the Lord to reveal God’s plan for us immediately in response to our prayers. The psalmist suggests just the opposite. The psalmist speaks of waiting on God: “I waited patiently for the LORD.” The psalmist, like many of us, was probably not very good at waiting. The psalm;s last words indicate a desire for immediate relief: “O my God, do not delay” (Psalm 40:17). God’s purpose for our lives unfolds gradually as a tree grows into fullness. It cannot be forced or achieved overnight. Jesus himself pointed out that the beauty of lilies does ont result from their own efforts,  for “they neither toil nor spin.” Their growth comes about by their yielding to the friendship of the sun and the rain in purposeful waiting.

PRAYER

Written by Kimberly Matthews, a certified lay minister and author.

Creator God, who stretches a hand across the heavens and spreads the stars in the sky, meet us in our waiting.

Loving Son, who came and comes and will come, come today and meet us in our waiting.

Abiding Spirit, who waits with us, speak to us in our waiting.

Loving God, grant us the courage to wait for you and the grace to realize you wait for us.

Amen. 

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Written by author Norman Shawchuck (1035-2011), Methodist bishop Rueben Job (1928-2015), and contemporary author Robert Doherty. This is an excerpt from their book “How to Conduct a Spiritual Life Retreat.”

MEDITATION:

The basic foundation for all spiritual growth is God’s loving gift of Jesus. Through God’s promises and initiatives, God assures us that we are already loved just as we are. We don’t have to go anywhere or do anything to gain God’s love. This love is unconditional and unmerited. To fall into the hands of God is to fall into the arms of unfailing love (Micah 7:18-19). There is a divine initiative in our every encounter with God. Even before we knew our Creator, God loved us. Even before we turned to look toward God, God was moving toward us. Our faintest yearning for God is assurance that God is already longing for us. Our first feeble step toward God is possible only because God has already been moving toward us, drawing us nearer by the divine magnet-heart of love.

PRAYER

Today’s prayer is from Irenaeus of Lyons (130-??), a Greek bishop and theologist noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France.

I appeal to you, Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob and Israel, You the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Infinitely merciful as You are, it is Your will that we should learn to know You. You made heaven and earth, You rule supreme over all that is. You are the true, the only God; there is no other god above You.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ…and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, grant that all who read what I have written here may know You, because You alone are God; let them draw strength from You; keep them from all teaching that is heretical, irreligious or godless.

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Written by Carolyn Arends, a contemporary author, recording artist, and director of education at Renovare.

MEDITATION:

A few years ago I came across a Latin phrase adapted by Martin Luther from the thinking of Augustine to describe the human condition. We are born, Luther says, incurvatus in se, curved in on ourselves. In his Lectures on Romans, Luther argues that the Bible “describes man as curved in upon himself to such an extent that he bends not only physical, but also spiritual goods toward himself, seeking himself in all things.” It’s a striking picture, every human walking the planet tragically bent, seemingly hopelessly deformed by the self-centeredness we inherited from our original parents. We were made to stand tall, eyes fixed on God, arms open to one another, but instead we are incurvatus in se. When I’m struggling to understand the travesties that checker human history (or why I was terse yesterday with someone I love), I can begin by working out the implications of our incurvation. Luther is not describing our bodily posture, of course, but my battle to stand upright seems an apt metaphor. Usually I’m not even aware I’m slouching. In a similar way we are so habituated to our spiritual deformity that we often can’t detect it. “By fault of the first sin,” Luther laments, we are “bound to darkness in all thinking and feeling.”…My best teachers in the Christian life remind me spiritual formation is the slowest of all possible human movements. Jesus will unbend us, if we’ll let Him, but it will take surrender, practice, and time to become habituated to a new way of moving through the world. But that’s not to say we can’t have breakthroughs.  Recently I worked up the courage to ask a physiotherapist for help [with my posture]. “Most people,” he said, “focus on their backs, but poor posture actually has more to do with tightness in your chest which is pulling you inward. Regularly stretch your pectoral muscles, and you should gradually notice a real difference.” So now, every morning, I stand with my arms pressed against the frame of my bathroom door, opening up my carriage in a stretch that hurts, but helps. It turns out some of my muscles must learn to let go as much as others need to strengthen. And here’s the thing. This morning, catching a glimpse of myself stretching in the mirror, I recognized with a shock that the recommended position is undeniably cruciform. It occurred to me a person stretched upon a cross can’t help but be upright and open, the opposite of incurvatus in se. Maybe this is part of the reason Jesus invites us to take up His cross. He’s unbending us, teaching us to stretch out our lives in a cruciform shape of self-giving. “Nature is not capable of this,” Luther says, and I know he’s right. I was born with rounded shoulders and a bent nature. And left to my own devices, I can’t change either. But Luther doesn’t stop there. “Nature is not capable of this, but only grace is, namely the grace that is given by faith in Christ through the Holy Spirit.” The changes are slow, and the stretching hurts. Still, day by day I am learning to co-operate with the grace that is unbending me.

PRAYER:

Today’s prayer is from the Gregorian Sacramentary, a 10^th century illuminated Latin manuscript ascribed to Gregory 1.

 Almighty God who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Written by Trevor Hudson, a contemporary South African pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “Seeking God.”

MEDITATION:

I am sure you are familiar with God’s word that comes from the prophet, Ezekiel; “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). These words remind us that our heart has many stony bits and pieces. This hardness can range from dark feelings of uncaring, or anger and arrogance towards those in need around us, to deeply ingrained prejudices towards those different in class, culture, and color.  Sometimes this hardness of heart exists even in our most intimate relationships. We simply become unresponsive and withdrawn. Looking back, I realize that my greatest failures have been failures in compassion towards those I love most deeply.  If we want God’s compassion to flow through us, we must face honestly our hard hearts. Otherwise, they will not become hearts of flesh.  We cannot change our own hard hearts. What we can do is acknowledge our stony bits and pieces, bring them to Christ, and share them with him, as honestly as we can. Wonderfully, our compassionate God meets us in our hardness, welcomes us as we are, and offers us, with crucified hands, the gifts of loving forgiveness and transformative grace. Our hard hearts become softer. How would you describe the stony bits and pieces of your own heart?

PRAYER:

Written by Trevor Hudson, author of today’s devotional.

  Lord Jesus Christ, give me the grace to be with you in your suffering on the cross and whatever you suffer today. Free me from my tendency towards self-absorption, self-centeredness, and self-interest, so that space can be created for your compassion to flow into me and through me. Help me to freely lay down my life, with the same Spirit in which you gave up your life for me, that I may take up whatever fuller and richer life you have prepared for me. And I confess that I do not find this easy. Please renew within my heart the assurance that your compassion is like a mother’s womb love that will never forget me, no matter what happens. Help me now, by your Spirit, to enter your sacred mystery of dying to live, that I may be the fruit of divine compassion towards each person in my life. May my heartbeat echo yours only. Amen.

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Today’s devotional is from Theodyssey, an organization for growing spiritual leaders. It is from their devotional series “Heart’s Desire.”

MEDITATION:

Poverty forced a young Nicholas Herman into joining the army for survival. A war injury and a failed attempt as a footman led him to join a monastery in Paris where, as Brother Lawrence, he could “suffer for his failures.”  Throughout his day, whether cooking, cleaning floors, or mending sandals, he simply glanced over and noticed God with the eyes of his heart. Like a parent continually aware of the whereabouts of a toddler (whether at church or in a shopping mall), Brother Lawrence became mindful of the nearness of God in all of his daily activities.   In his classic book, Practicing the Presence of God, he wrote about how to return the gaze of God and remember him in the ordinary moments of the day. He called these occasions “little interior glances.” “Little interior glances” are moments of remembering, noticing, or seeking God’s presence in the midst of whatever is. It might be a memory, the sensation of hope, awareness of an abiding Presence, or subtle joy at being alive. Like air bubbles surfacing from the bottom of a fish tank, these noticings emerge into our conscious awareness within the ordinary activities of our daily lives.  “Little interior glances” are responses to our heart’s desire, feeding and encouraging the soul, pointing us toward home. The length or form of these times is not as important as how often you can find them. How often you find them is not as important as finding them at least now and then. And even finding them now and then is not as important as wanting them. Pray for them. And, as best you can, remember how much you want them.

PRAYER:

Written by Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) an English priest and later elected as the Bishop of Chichester, but Henry III would not recognize him.

 Awaken, O Lord Jesus, our hearts and minds to your presence in the world of your love’s creating. Forbid that we should stumble through this day oblivious to the wonder in the ordinary. With your grace, startle us into faith’s perception of your continuing creation in our lives. Amen.

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Today’s devotional was written by M.S. Lowndes, a contemporary Christian songwriter, poet, and author.

MEDITATION:

The events leading up to the birth of Christ weren’t coincidental but were put in place by God, so that the prophecies of old would be fulfilled, in Isaiah 7: 13-14. Isaiah 9: 6-7, and Micah 5: 2-5. Everything that happened, from the time the census was ordered, to everyone returning to their own city to be registered, and then the birth of Jesus while Joseph & Mary were in Bethlehem, was orchestrated by God. Out of Bethlehem, a small town in the City of David, came the Messiah. This event was the beginning of something so incredible. Jesus Christ left His throne in glory and took on human form just to bring us reconciliation to our Father God. He came into the world, miraculously conceived, and then born as all humans are. He was first a baby, then became a toddler, then grew into a child and went through adolescence before becoming an adult. He experienced humanity at all levels. He truly can identify with all people at all stages of life. This very first Christmas, God gave the greatest gift ever. His Son! And His Son gave the gift of His life – which was why He came. Because of this, we can have relationship with God as His children. Through Jesus Christ, we are Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. So this Christmas, bear in mind the ‘True’ Christmas story, which led to the ‘True’ Easter story. Let us give thanks and praise to our heavenly Father for these events, which have changed our lives forever.
 No matter how ‘secular’ the world is becoming, disregarding the truth of Christmas, let us boldly proclaim the truth about the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season.

PRAYER:

Written by Emilie Griffin (1936-2022), an American author.

Lord, give me hope. Let me see your providential hand at work in every corner of society. And let me be refreshed by the innocence of children, Lord Jesus. Let me be amused by their antics, their sudden laughter, their glee. Help me to be touched by the naivete of the Christmas narrative, the angels bringing word to humanity, Mary and Joseph escaping with their child into Egypt. May the light of the Incarnation flood my heart. Help me bring your peace into the world. Amen.

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