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MEDITATION:

Written by Cynthia Heald, a contemporary Bible study teacher and author. This is an excerpt from her devotional study “The Faithful Way.”

Often when I speak at a conference, I share about Jesus visiting the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Martha was busy in the kitchen, preparing the meal, but Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he taught. Martha, distracted by her serving, went to Jesus and complained about Mary not helping her. “But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:41-42). What amazes me about Jesus’ reply is His declaration that “there is only one thing worth being concerned about.” I like it when I’m told there is only “one” thing to do; I like the bottom line. Here we have the Lord giving us an essential element of walking with him: sitting at His feet and listening to His Word. In His response to Martha, the Lord is declaring the need for right priorities. Our highest desire should be to seek first the Kingdom of God, so that we bear Christlike character and serve at his prompting and direction. That’s what we see as well in Jesus’ description of a branch staying connected to the vine. Maintaining a secure attachment to the Lord is of utmost spiritual importance. Abiding with Jesus (staying close to Him and following His lead) equips us to bear the fruit of the Spirit, the foundation of the faithful life. That’s why our devotional life is indispensable; it is the one choice we need to make each day. If walking with Him is not our main concern, then Jesus warns us that anything we do apart from Him will result in nothing—nothing of eternal value that will bring glory to God.

PRAYER:

Written by Burt Ghezzi, a contemporary author and speaker.

Lord, I want to learn how to live the divine life you have given me. Please sent the Holy Spirit to renew me and guide me in your ways. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Donny Friederichsen, a contemporary pastor.

A young widow wrote to the great theologian Augustine to ask how to pray. Before Augustine answered this perennial question, he addressed a more fundamental one: “What manner of person should you be to pray?” This underlying question is often passed over in our rush to answer the felt need. But before we can really understand how, we need to look inwardly to our own hearts. The form of our prayers is meaningless if the form of our hearts is not shaped by Christ. So, what type of person ought we be in order to pray? Augustine argued that we ought to consider ourselves poor in this world. However prosperous we may be, we should understand that our wealth will not satisfy us. Comfort is not found in our things. We must be desirous of the life found only in God. Only then can we truly pray.

After addressing the central heart issue, Augustine then gave the young widow prayer advice that we might find odd. He simply advised her to “pray for a happy life.” By a “happy life” Augustine meant a life where one “has all that he wishes to have and wishes to have nothing which he ought not to wish.” The truly happy life is a life that desires God. The happy life is marked primarily by a desire for and love of God. And if this is the case in one’s life, then all the other desires of one’s life will also be properly ordered. Augustine illustrated this by going to the model prayer given to us by Jesus. When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” or when we pray for needful things, our desires should be ordered by the wisdom of Proverbs 30:8: “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” It is good and leads to a happy life to ask for what is needful. But it is a misunderstanding of prayer to ask for riches, wealth, or honor in order to be greater than this or that man. Again, our hearts must be reoriented toward God before we ask for what we want. Our prayers are to ask God for neither too much nor too little. Mystery will remain for us because we will never fully understand the depths of God’s will. But prayer, when rightly ordered, teaches us to submit to God. It also teaches us patience and contentment. Augustine wrote, “If you seek and relish the things that are above, you desire things everlasting and sure.

PRAYER:

Today’s prayer is from “The Valley of Vision,” a book of Puritan prayer.

I was dead in iniquities,

having no eyes to see thee,

no ears to hear thee

no taste to relish thy joys no intelligence to know thee;

But thy Spirit has quickened me, has brought me into a new world as a new creature…

thou hast drawn me with cords of love.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Karen Ehman, a contempoWritten by Dallas Willard (1935-2013), an American philosopher and writer on Christian spiritual formation. This is an excerpt from his work “The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth.”

A very small percentage of those in the church stand behind a pulpit or sport certain kinds of identifiable clothing. The actual leadership roster of the church includes disciples ministering in every arena of life, in business, law, medicine, education, the arts, sciences, government, and religion. The objective of Jesus’s church-growth strategy was not to build a single, behemoth social institution with a limited set of ordained authorities. Instead, his Spirit was to be poured out on all flesh to effect a widening, deepening base of influence within every nation, worldview, and social institution. Today, we as disciples of Christ have the same opportunity and responsibility to abide in, and then manifest, shalom as a blessing for others as well as for ourselves. This is a significant aspect of what being a “light” to the world entails. In everything we do and say, in word and deed, in worship and work, in politics and play, truly in all things—not just religious things—we are blessed to be a blessing to others around us, leading them toward shalom. And until this occurs, our world surely groans as it waits for just such a reality to be revealed. It is these leaders, representing and maintaining the wonderfully rich and robust examples of integrity of character in fulfilling honorable duties, who exemplify and testify to the truth and goodness of God in a way that promotes, establishes, and maintains shalom for the benefit of all. If there is to be a next stage to the so-called spiritual formation movement, this must be it.

PRAYER:

Today’s prayer is from The Mozarabic Rite, once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania), in what is now Spain and Portugal. It was developed during Visigoth (Arian Christian) rule of the Iberian peninsula in the 500s AD.

Hear us, never-fading Light, Lord our God, our only Light, Fountain of light, Light of your angels, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, and of all intelligent beings. You created the light of your saints. May our souls be your lamps, kindled and enlightened by you. May they shine and burn with the truth, and never go out in darkness and ashes. May we be your house, shining from you, shining in you. May we shine without fail. May we ever worship you. In you may we be kindled and not be extinguished. Being filled with the splendor of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, may we shine forth inwardly. May the gloom of sins be cleared away, and the light of constant faith abide within us.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Karen Ehman, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her work “How to Hear a Heart-Drop.”

God knows what pains us and what brings us pleasure. He has access to our deepest longings for significance. He observes our desire to be noticed, accepted, validated and loved. But often God uses people to hear the cries of other people and respond with sincere love and care, to reach out and hearten another soul. If we will only learn to pay attention, to live alert. We can purpose to listen between the spoken words to understand what others are really feeling — and what they are trying to say. We reflect the love of Jesus as we seek to hear the heart-cries of another. May we become skilled at tuning our ears to the heart-drops of those around us and then responding with a thoughtful gesture. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate gift. It can be a kindly spoken word. A handwritten note. A loving text or encouraging comment left on social media. A shared heart over a cup of coffee. A brief moment where we put ourselves to the side for a moment to pause. To notice. To respond. To echo God’s heart toward them. Hearing a heart-drop is an art we must lovingly cultivate. It can lead to the most wonderful times of encouragement as we make it our habit to listen and to love.

PRAYER:

Today’s prayer is based on James 1:19 from Daily Prayer Guide.

Loving God, I ask that you help me control my thoughts. I want to be quick to hear and slow to speak. Give me the wisdom to listen and understand, not to just listen for purposes of responding. Give me the self-control to not respond in anger or get defensive, but apply the counsel of others. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Today’s reflection is from the April, 2021 edition of Tabletalk magazine.

Jesus tells us in John 8:36 that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” These words have been treasured for generations as the gospel’s proclamation of liberty not only from sin but from the unlawful demands that the consciences of other people may place on us. In first century Corinth, the believers enthusiastically embraced their freedom in Christ. However, their understanding of Christian liberty was inadequate. They flaunted their freedom in such a way that they ended up harming other believers. The solution to the Corinthians’ problem was to combine their freedom with Christian love. Nothing that believers do should be done apart from love, and as the Apostle Paul shows us, mature believers must take care in exercising their liberty so that the church as a whole is built up in faith and love.

PRAYER:

Written by Stella Dhinakaran, a contemporary author and woman of prayer.

Our loving heavenly Father, we look unto you, for you alone have the power to deliver us in the times of trouble. You are a great God who delivered your servants as you promised them. Master, I am a broken vessel, I commit my life into Your hands, mold me and strengthen me to overcome this world. In Jesus name, Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Henri M. Nouwen (1932-1996), a Dutch priest, professor, writer, and theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Lifesigns.”

The joy that Jesus offers his disciples is his own joy, which flows from his intimate communion with the One who sent him. It is a joy that does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure, experiences of honor from experiences of dishonor, passion from resurrection. This joy is a divine gift that does not leave us during times of illness, poverty, oppression, or persecution. It is present even when the world laughs or tortures, robs or maims, fights or kills. It is truly ecstatic, always moving us away from the house of fear into the house of love, and always proclaiming that death no longer has the final say, though its noise remains loud and its devastation visible. The joy of Jesus lifts up life to be celebrated.

PRAYER:

Written by Stephen and Brooksyne Weber, contemporary hosts of the Daily Encouragement Net teaching ministry.

Father, there are many troubling situations that weigh our heart down when that is our primary focus. But You want us to bring these troubles to You in prayer, entrust them to Your care, and be joyful on our journey. Nehemiah reminds us, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” So help us not to live in a state of alarm, but to have a joyful disposition so that we can bring cheer to those around us. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Richard M. Gula, a contemporary Sulpician priest, lecturer, and author. This is an excerpt from his book “To Walk Together Again.”

When we begin to confine God to specifically religious areas of life, we are forced to turn away from the ordinary experiences of life in order to be touched by the gracious reality of God. Yet this is not the way it was for Jesus. The fundamental message of Jesus about God is that human life is the home of God. Do not look anywhere else. All the parables of Jesus are stories about experiencing God. These stories are filled with very human characters and very human experiences. Yet none of them ever mention “God” directly. What the theologians seem to be saying today, and what so many people searching for God force us to admit, is that if it makes sense to speak of God at all, then we must be able to experience God in the center of our lives where we spend most of our time and expend most of our energy. To realize that God is there in the center of our lives at the deepest dimension of every human moment means that God is never far from us. To experience God in the depths is to be aware that we are related to a larger mystery within which we live…Our relationship to God and response to God cannot be relegated to special activities or special moments. Our relationship and response to God are going on all the time, whether we want them to or not.

PRAYER:

Written by Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975), a Roman Catholic priest who founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness by God.

My Lord and my God: into your hands I abandon the past and the present and the future, what is small and what is great, what amounts to a little and what amounts to a lot, things temporal and things eternal. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Craig Denison, a contemporary author of the daily devotional First15.

Every Christian I know wants to live an effective life for Jesus. The key to succeeding in this is abiding in him. Abiding in Christ is foundational to centering your whole life around God. Tapping into Christ’s presence and power is what will allow you to bear good fruit in this life. So often out of the right desire to do good and God-honoring works we try to force fruit out of ourselves without taking the time to rest and receive the nutrients we can only get from abiding in our heavenly Father. A branch disconnected from an apple tree can no more produce good fruit than you and I can do good works apart from continual abiding in love, grace, and presence of God…God’s heart is for us to abide in him all day, every day. How incredible is that! You and I can graft ourselves every day into the perfect, good, and powerful vine of our heavenly Father. We can wake up every day, open our hearts to God, and live out of the union afforded us by the powerful sacrifice of Jesus. Rather than striving to do good works from the moment our feet hit the ground, we must take time to be loved by our heavenly Father. Rather than making our own opportunities to serve God, we must allow him to guide us to the works he’s set out for us. Rather than trying to lead others to Jesus by our own efforts, we must simply live openly and honestly with others, thereby revealing God’s heart to meet with those who are broken and in need of him. And rather than living as if God has left us to our devices, we must acknowledge our union with the Holy Spirit in every moment, thereby allowing his loving presence to permeate everything we do.

PRAYER:

Written by Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), a Dominican friar and influential philosopher and theologian in the church.

O God, who in this wondrous sacrament has left us a memorial of your passion; grant us so to venerate the sacred mysteries of your body and blood, that we may ever continue to feel within ourselves the blessed fruit of your redemption. Who livest and reignest God, for ever and ever.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Christine Caine, a contemporary Australian activist, evangelist, author, and speaker.

Disappointment is a sad and terribly lonely place. We all land there at some point in life. Our children move away and never call. Colleagues betray us. The company to which we’ve devoted our years “downsizes,” and we’re on the layoff list right along with the newcomer and the slacker. The man we love doesn’t love us back. The perfect child we dream about and tend in pregnancy is born with defects that will make the rest of our lives, and all our family members’ lives, nothing less than challenging. We get a disease or suffer an injury for which there is no relief or cure. Our investments dwindle. Friends disappear. The one we’ve prayed to find Jesus never does. Our dreams shatter, and our best-laid plans go astray. Other Christians fail us. People disappoint us. We even disappoint ourselves. The long series of disappointments we accumulate in a lifetime can stop us from moving forward into all the goodness God has planned for us—and that means they’ll be stopping not only us but also those God has destined us to reach along our life’s journey. After all, how can anyone stuck in their own disappointment help others out of theirs? How can we convince others of the wonder of God’s promises if we doubt them ourselves? How can we share how God has saved us when we don’t feel saved at all?

Why is it that we can know in our heads that God has our good in mind and that he can redeem any and every circumstance, and yet we can still feel hugely disappointed and deeply despondent? Our heads tell us God is trustworthy—but in a moment of aching disappointment, our hearts tell us he’s not even there. In these places of deep disappointment, we must remind ourselves of those things about God that we know to be true, though they might not feel true at the moment. We must conclude for ourselves that the valley of death we are walking through isn’t, to borrow an image from Pilgrim’s Progress, a Slough of Despond from which we would never emerge, but simply a shadow, and that shadow does not define our lives. Christ does. There is so much we don’t know. But we do know this: If we are to accept the disappointments that we cannot escape in life, we must turn to God’s Word for hope and encouragement.

PRAYER:

Written by Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), a French archbishop, theologian, poet and writer.

Lord, I do not know what I ought to be asking of you. You are the only One who knows what I need…All I can do is present myself to you. Lord, I open my heart to you…I no longer have any desire other than to accomplish your will. Teach me to pray. Amen.

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MEDITATION:

Written by Billy Graham (1918-2018), an American evangelist and minister.

July 4th commemorates the day in 1776 that our nation declared itself to be an independent nation, and no longer a colony of England. On that date, a number of our leading citizens signed what is known as the Declaration of Independence, stating our determination to become a free country. Our independence did not come easily; only after several difficult years of war would it finally be won. Nor were our first years as a nation free from problems and controversies (as is still true). But our forefathers were determined to establish a free and democratic system of government, and the Declaration of Independence (together with our Constitution and the Bill of Rights) became the foundation for this. They have stood the test of time, and on July 4th we give thanks for the wisdom and faith and courage of those leaders.

Although it is not a religious holiday like Christmas or Easter, for many Americans July 4th is a time to reflect on God’s goodness to us as a nation. Molded into the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (which proclaimed our independence) are these words from the Bible: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10). Our legal system reflects our Judeo-Christian roots. While we look with gratitude to the past on this July 4th, may we also look in faith to the future, and commit it and our lives to God and His will. The ancient words of the Psalmist are still true: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

PRAYER:

Written by Rebecca Barlow Jordan, a contemporary author and speaker.

As a nation, God, help us to desire righteousness more than rights, and to mirror sacrifice more than selfishness. You know us well, and You understand our flaws. Turn those weaknesses into strengths; bathe us with Your grace and mercy, though none of us deserve it. Fill us with the boldness to choose the kind of freedom that will benefit all, rather than a few. Open our eyes to see others as You do—with godly potential and value. But help us, too, to recognize our own pride in trying to elevate ourselves and others above You and Your purpose for our lives. We need, You, God. Oh, how we need You! You have exercised nothing but faithfulness and fairness in Your treatment of our country, even when we’ve turned our back on You and forgotten Your goodness to us. Your discipline at times is hard, but You are just. Your purpose is always to draw us close to You, to bless us, and to make us a great nation who honors You. You are a good, good, Father—and Your love for us has a proven track record. Amen.

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