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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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MEDITATION:

Written by Laura Banning, a contemporary Bible Study teacher and author.

We have a guest here this week who came across country in his electric vehicle. He told us that during his journey he had experienced range anxiety which caused him to slightly modify his planned arrival and departure times. He doesn’t have a battery charger for his vehicle and he discovered that some of the locations he had planned to stop for battery recharge were not compatible with the make of his vehicle. As a result, he reworked his itinerary to include longer times for deep battery recharge at the locations he now knew would accommodate him. I had never heard the term range anxiety before and so I looked it up and, sure enough, the term has actually been around since 1997. Here’s the definition: “Range anxiety is the fear of running out of power before reaching your intended destination and being unable to recharge the battery. It stems from the fact that while a traditional vehicle can be filled up on almost any highway, charging stations aren’t yet as ubiquitous. Therefore, the possibility of running out of power and being unable to plug in is a valid concern.” And there are websites giving tips on how to avoid range anxiety. I found it most enlightening and, of course, a rich spiritual metaphor for us…In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been super busy between guest visits and travels. I was beginning to feel a bit of spiritual range anxiety myself. That is, I was missing my usual times of deep recharge and time alone with Jesus. But the truth is, there is no reason for this. Because I have Jesus with me, in me, all the time. So, if I am sensing spiritual range anxiety, it’s only because I’m not plugging in to Him. So, I want to put into practice these four tips from the ‘how to avoid range anxiety’ website. First, I want to begin every journey, every day, every moment on a full battery. I want to stay plugged in to Him. I want to review and modify my schedule, as possible, to incorporate being still in His presence. I want to slow down. And I want to pack less. I want to lay aside anything that hinders my ability to run with endurance the race set before me. I want to look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith and let Him design my route. Here’s a quote I read this morning from I. Penington: “Retire inwardly; wait to feel God’s Spirit. Discover and draw away from that which is contrary to His holy nature, and lean into that which is acceptable to Him. As the mind is joined to this, true light and life will be received.” Will you plug in to Jesus, even in the busy times? Will you intentionally retire inwardly and wait to sense His Spirit? Will you draw away from anything contrary to His holy nature? And will you lean into that which is acceptable to Him?

PRAYER:

This prayer is from the North America Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church.

Most loving Father, you will us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on the One who cares for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested unto us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Os Hillman, a contemporary speaker, author, and consultant on faith at work.

Becoming a new person in Christ is part of a life-long journey that begins at conversion. Before coming to Christ, we were living (in a metaphorical sense) in Egypt, in the land of bondage. Just as the people of Israel toiled as slaves in Egypt, we were slaves to sin and worldly ambition. Before we came to Christ, we sweated and toiled to build our career and acquire material possessions. Work was our idol. Greed was our taskmaster. We may have had all the trappings of power in the business world – a corner office, a staff of our own, a key to the executive washroom – but we were living as a slave in the land of Egypt. We didn’t run our career; our career ran us. Jesus once said, “No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13). In the original language, the word translated “money” was an Aramaic word, Mammon. This does not refer merely to money as a medium of exchange but also to a demonic spirit designed to promote a mindset of ambition for riches, power and worldly gain. The word is capitalized in the original text because the people of Jesus’ day thought of Mammon as a false god. Jesus was saying that those who spend their lives seeking worldly gain are idolaters. No one can serve two masters. No one can worship both the true God and a false god.  We cannot experience the grace that God gives to His children because we are too busy striving for riches and enslaved to Mammon. The only way we can be free is to turn away from Mammon and allow the one true God to transform us into a different person. Ask yourself today if your life is best represented as Egypt or the Promised Land.

PRAYER:

Written by Janet Breitenstein, a contemporary author.

Lord, help us to both abide in You and engage in the world, so Your Gospel is lived out among us; so it becomes public truth. Holy Spirit, we beg you for revival in our hearts and in this place. Show us our hearts. Bring down the idols among us so You are sovereign over all here. In light of the souls at stake, grant us boldness to take risks and even to fail for the sake of Your kingdom. Breathe that Kingdom to life here. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Richard J. Foster, a contemporary retired pastor, author, and head of Renovare, an organization that focuses on spiritual formation.

The post-modern person is addicted to haste, hurry, hustle. And the addiction shrivels our soul. Our desperate need today is for a time-full life. When we are fractured and fragmented with ​“muchness” and ​“manyness” we cannot experience a time-full life. When we chaff under the ​“slowness” of our microwaves and our computers it becomes nearly impossible for us to obey the divine Whisper, ​“Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). Some things simply will not yield to our perpetual hankering for the instant, the immediate, the sudden. Surely the growth of our soul before God is one of those things. Time … time and space … time and space and stillness … these are the tools God uses to build a patient endurance within us. One of the most repeated counsels given in Scripture is the simple admonition to ​“Wait upon the Lord.” But we will never even see this as a good thing until we enter a time-full life. In one memorable passage, Kelly says, ​“I find that God never leads us into an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.” May you … may I … enter that stillness of soul which alone can cultivate a time-full life.

PRAYER:

Written by Jan Bentham, a contemporary Christian educator and author.

Lord, in quiet times, we see your face and we feel your holy presence. In busy and hectic times, we tend to run aimlessly away from your help. In our most fatigued and stressful times, we need you most. Send us your calming spirit. Lighten our hearts, Lord. Help us to work in a spirit of wisdom, overcoming the stress that can slow us down Lord. Jesus, may your life always stand before us. You call us to a ministry that is sometimes overwhelming. Slow us dow to see your face and to feel your hand upon our shoulder. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Mark Roberts, a contemporary author and principal writer of Life for Leaders.

I would confess that it’s tempting to skip over 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16: For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins; but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last.  I’m well aware that biblical passages like this one have, throughout the centuries, fueled Christian anti-Semitism. And, given the frightening rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and throughout the world, I wouldn’t want to do anything to add fuel to this distressing fire. But today’s passage from 1 Thessalonians gives us a chance to reject anti-Semitism and other forms of bias inconsistent with the call of Jesus. In writing to the Thessalonian Christians, Paul and his colleagues said, “[You] became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews” (1 Thessalonians 2:14). Those “same things” had to do with opposition to the gospel and the formation of the church. The Apostle Paul, of course, had once been a primary Jewish opponent of the church until his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Jewish opposition to Christianity came from its rejection of the basic Christian message. The news that the crucified Jesus was in fact the Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the world didn’t sit well with many Jews, who denied its truth and sensed a threat from this message to their way of life. Some Jews in Judea opposed the Christian mission, as did some Jewish people in Thessalonica, according to Acts 17. It’s important to note, however, that other Jews in Thessalonica were persuaded by what they heard Paul and his colleagues preach (see Acts 17:1-4). Nevertheless, the Thessalonian Christians experienced opposition to their newfound faith in Christ. Sometimes the opponents of the early Christians were Jewish. Sometimes they were Gentiles. Just before Paul and his fellow church planters came to Thessalonica, for example, they experienced persecution in Philippi. Their primary opponents in that city were Gentiles who had the Christian missionaries beaten and imprisoned (Acts 16:16-24). But for a variety of historical and psychological reasons, many Christians throughout the ages used the fact of Jewish opposition to the gospel as a rationale for hatred and persecution of Jews in particular. How sad and wrong for followers of Jesus to use what happened to him and his initial disciples as a reason to justify hate and mistreatment of any kind. Anti-Semitism has no rightful place among followers of Jesus. Nor does any other kind of racial, ethnic, or religious hatred. After all, Jesus commanded us to love, not only our neighbors but also our enemies. Even if we considered the Jewish people to be our enemies, which I do not, we are called by our Lord to love them, not hate or mistreat them.

Today, Christians continue to experience opposition, and in many countries throughout the world, outright persecution. Earlier this year, Christianity Today reported on the situation of believers in 50 countries “Where It’s Hardest to Follow Jesus in 2022.” The article found that 1 in 7 Christians today “live in nations with high levels of persecution or discrimination.” Over 5,000 believers were martyred for their faith last year, while millions more experienced other kinds of repression and persecution. Those of us who live in countries where we are (mostly) free to express and live our faith should be aware of what’s happening to our brothers and sisters throughout the world. We should uphold them in prayer and support the efforts of organizations that fight for religious freedom. We should not be surprised when we experience opposition to our faith, even when it doesn’t rise to the level of government-sponsored persecution. It’s not uncommon these days for Christians to be mocked and scorned, especially in the world of social media. (I know this for a fact, given some of the comments my devotions receive on social media platforms.) When this happens to us, we must remember the call of Jesus to turn the other cheek and even to love our enemies. All of our words and actions should reflect the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Because of this gospel, we oppose all forms of hatred and bias. Our Lord calls us to love our neighbors and our enemies. That’s a high calling, indeed. But it is our calling as followers of Jesus.

PRAYER:

Written by Cyprian of Carthage (?-258), a bishop of Cathage and early Christian writer of Berber descent.

We beg and beseech the God whom the enemies of the Church are forever provoking and irritating that he would tame their wild hearts. May their rage subside and calm return to their hearts; may their minds, clouded by the darkness their sins produce, repent, and see the light; may they seek the bishop’s prayers and not his blood.

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