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MEDITATION:

Written by Martha Graybeal Rowlett, a contemporary pastor, and author. This is an excerpt from her book “Praying Together.”

Shared prayer adds power to the work of intercession. Christians dare to believe that God needs and wants our prayers, our compassionate intercession for one another and for the world. Through our prayers for one another, circumstances are changed, and the work of the kingdom is done. An individual may feel overwhelmed by the needs of the world, or even the needs of a single congregation, but there is strength in numbers. Individuals gain courage for the task of intercession when the community prays together, aware of Christ’s presence among those gathered in his name. And the person for whom prayers are offered feels the added force of multiple prayers.

PRAYER:

Written by Mother Marie de Laroche (1812-1857) a French noblewoman who became the co-foundress of the Sisters of Divine Providence. La Roche University is named in honor of her.

We pray in the strength of Your sovereign name. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by L.B. Cowman (1870-1960), an American author. This is an excerpt from her work “The Silver Lining.”

The Lord imparts unto us that primary strength of character which makes everything in life work with intensity and decision. We are “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.” And the strength is continuous; reserves of power come to us which we cannot exhaust. “As thy days, so shall thy strength be”—strength of will, strength of affection, strength of judgment, strength of ideals and achievement. “The Lord is my strength” to go on. He gives us power to tread the dead level, to walk the long lane that seems never to have a turning, to go through those long reaches of life which afford no pleasant surprise, and which depress the spirits in the sameness of a terrible drudgery. “The Lord is my strength” to go up. He is to me the power by which I can climb the Hill Difficulty and not be afraid. “The Lord is my strength” to go down. It is when we leave the bracing heights, where the wind and the sun have been about us, and when we begin to come down the hill into closer and more sultry spheres, that the heart is apt to grow faint. I heard a man say the other day concerning his growing physical frailty, “It is the coming down that tires me!” “The Lord is my strength” to sit still. And how difficult is the attainment! Do we not often say to one another, in seasons when we are compelled to be quiet, “If only I could do something!” When the child is ill, and the mother stands by in comparative impotence, how severe is the test! But to do nothing, just to sit still and wait, requires tremendous strength. “The Lord is my strength!” “Our sufficiency is of God.”

PRAYER:

Written by John Calvin (1509-1564), a French theologian, pastor, reformer of the Protestant Reformation, and principal figure in developing the theology known as Calvinism.

Almighty God and Father, grant unto us, because we have to go through much strife on this earth, the strength of thy Holy Spirit, in order that we may courageously go through the fire, and through the water, and that we may put ourselves so under thy rule that we may go to meet death in full confidence of your assistance and without fear.   Grant us also that we may bear all hatred and enmity of mankind until we have gained the last victory, and that we may at last come to that blessed rest which thy only begotten Son has acquired for us through his blood.  Amen.

MEDITATION:

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

A story is told of a western missionary group that was sitting with a foreign visitor planning strategy for an upcoming evangelistic trip to his country. One man led in prayer, asking for God’s help in planning their activities. The visitor was surprised how the meeting quickly moved to the planning phase after only a few minutes of focused prayer. He turned to the leader and said, “You have taught us the scriptures well in our country. However, I’ve noticed when it comes to prayer you spend so little time in prayer listening and much time in planning.” The western believers were convicted by his words.

Martha was Mary’s older sister. Older sisters always think they know best. They tend to mother the younger siblings. So, when Jesus came over to spend an evening at their home Martha wanted to prepare a special meal. She noticed Mary was spending all her time in the living room listening to Jesus. Martha finally felt compelled to appeal to Jesus about the situation. “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her'” (Luke 10:40-42).  Jesus reveals a danger in this story that each of us must be aware of. When our concern for serving Jesus exceeds our need to be with Jesus, we are in danger of focusing on the lesser thing. The hardest thing to do for most workplace believers is to sit and listen. It is easier to do. Today, begin to spend more time listening before you begin doing.

PRAYER:

Written by Henry Baron, a contemporary professor and founder of the Festival of Faith and Writing group. This prayer is from his book “Talking With God.”

I must follow you, Lord, on this journey. I must go where you went with eyes and ears wide open if I’m to change.… keep me listening, Lord of all let me not get lost or hide among the heedless sons and daughters of my own Jerusalem. Amen.

MEDITATION:

Written by Danny E. Morris, a contemporary retired pastor and author, and Charles M. Olsen, a contemporary author.  This is an excerpt from their book “Discerning God’s Will Together.”

The purpose and goal of spiritual discernment is knowing and doing God’s will. We can easily become enamored with discernment definitions, strategies for holding meetings, the emotional rush of doing something new, or even the self-adulation for attempting to do something spiritual. The newness of our endeavor may compromise our vision if we fail to see the urgency of knowing and doing God’s will. We must keep our eyes and hearts on our purpose and goal.

PRAYER:

Written by Renee Swope is a contemporary Christian author and speaker. This prayer is from The Manger of My Heart from Proverbs 31 Ministries.

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as he did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with him forever in the next.

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.

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.

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.

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.