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Meditation

Written by Dr. R.C. Sproul (1939-2017), an American theologian and pastor. He founded Ligonier Ministries and the Renewing Your Mind broadcast. This is excerpted from his devotion “Examining Calvin’s Rules of Prayer.”

For John Calvin, prayer was like a priceless treasure that God has offered to His people. Calvin’s first rule of prayer was to enter into it with a full awareness of the One to whom we are speaking. The key to prayer is a spirit of reverence and adoration. Calvin wrote of how easy it is for our minds to wander in prayer. We become inattentive, as if we were speaking to someone with whom we are easily bored. This insults the glory of God. Calvin’s second rule of prayer was that we ask only for those things that God permits. Prayer can be an exercise in blasphemy if we entreat His blessing for our sinful desires. John Calvin’s third rule of prayer was that we must always pray with genuine feeling. Prayer is a matter of passion: “Many repeat prayers in a perfunctory manner from a set form, as if they were performing a task to God . . . They perform the duty from custom, because their minds are meanwhile cold, and they ponder not what they ask.”  A fourth rule of prayer from Calvin was that it be always accompanied by repentance. A humble submission is required.

How does your personal prayer life line up with these rules? Do you pray with genuine feeling? Is your heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into conversation with God? Do you ask only for those things God permits? Do you accompany your prayers with repentance? If I can summarize Calvin’s teaching on prayer succinct, I would say this: The chief rule of prayer is to remember who God is and to remember who you are. If we remember those two things, our prayers will always and ever be marked by adoration and confession.

Prayer

From the Mozarabic Rite, a liturgical rite once used generally in what is now Spain and Portugal. Developed during Visigoth rule of the Iberian peninsula in the 500s AD.

Meditation

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

Let us then think only of the present, and not even permit our minds to wander with curiosity into the future. This future is not yet ours; perhaps it never will be. It is exposing ourselves to temptation to wish to anticipate God, and to prepare ourselves for things which He may not destine for us. If such things should come to pass, He will give us light and strength according to the need. Why should we desire to meet difficulties prematurely, when we have neither strength nor light as yet provided for them? Let us give heed to the present, whose duties are pressing; it is fidelity to the present which prepares us for fidelity in the future.

Prayer

Written by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, a contemporary speaker, author, and doctor. 

Father, You know that sometimes life and the circumstances we face are just hard. But you are our source of peace. I pray for the one reading these words right now. I pray that whatever they are facing right now, that they would take a deep breath and inhale more of you and your peace while exhaling any of the worries that weigh them down. I pray that they would be anxious for nothing, but would come to you in prayer with all their needs, thanking you even now that you know how you’re going to take care of every last detail. I thank you that you care about the things that we care about, and that you are our source of peace in the midst of the storms. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Meditation

Written by Ken Boa, a contemporary pastor and President of Reflections Ministry. This is an excerpt from his devotion “The Source of Wisdom.”

Human nature has not changed. The wide array of wisdom found in Proverbs is just as relevant now as when it was first written. Whereas other books of the Bible deepen our devotional lives, Proverbs applies to our daily habits and points us to Christ through practical righteousness. He, after all, is the source of true wisdom. As we learn to apply the proverbs, we will be more conformed to His image.

One key application from Proverbs is how we use our words. The tongue is a powerful thing. While worldly wisdom might tell us to answer harshly and gain the upper hand, divine wisdom teaches to respond gently to promote peace and unity. We do well to examine ourselves for pride that might cause us to lash out against others in anger. Wisdom invites us to enter into calm conversation that can help us realize our own flaws. Walking in the power of the Spirit and abiding in Christ, we can watch our words and build one another up.

Prayer

Written by Augustine of Hippo (354-430), an early Christian theologian and philosopher. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern day Annaba, Algeria) and is viewed as one of the most important church fathers in Western Christianity. 

Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness. Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom. All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer. We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory. Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect.

Meditation

Written by Jennifer Woodruff Tait, the managing editor of Christian History Magazine. This is an excerpt from her devotion “To Set the Mind on the Flesh is Death.”

Jesus sets us free from the sinful things we have done ourselves and are ashamed of, and from the sins that grow out of the sinful things others have done to us, and from the complex interplay of sin and death and flesh in all of our lives that enmeshes us in systems of sin. There is no catch. Paul could not be clearer: Jesus paid it all, as the old hymn says…We are not to set our mind on the things of the flesh. Only death lies that way. We are to set our mind on the things of the Spirit, and doing so will bring us life and peace beyond our wild imaginings.

In the turbulent times that face us now, this is a good reminder and an essential truth. In one of the confession prayers from my tradition, we repent of “the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.” In each of our lives, in our families and workplaces, in our public statements and private thoughts, we need to think through how we have participated in the fallen world of death and how we can seek out the redemptive world of the Spirit instead. Because, truth be told, Jesus is already seeking us. Jesus stands ready to make us more than conquerors over that fallen world if we but let him conquer the sin in and around us.

Prayer

Written by Jennifer Woodruff Tait, author of today’s devotion.

Lord Jesus, keep us in Romans, Chapter 8. Help us remember that you paid it all; there is no condemnation in you, and when we confess our sin and receive your forgiveness, we are given freedom for life in the Spirit. Help us walk in the Spirit’s life every day. Amen.

Meditation

Written by Aubry Smith, a contemporary trainer for a Christian international non-profit organization. This is an excerpt from her article “What Psalm 84 Teaches Us About Home.”

In these times of upheaval, all our typical sources of strength can easily be sapped. No longer can we rely on our experience and understanding, for this is new territory. When our resources are insufficient, it can be terrifying. These times of chaos can lead to blessing, however, as we are forced to cast ourselves on the strength of the Lord and find that he is enough for all our weakness.  The psalmist in Psalm 84 says that those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage are blessed. Our natural selves long for a home, for stability, for comfort, and for some measure of predictability. A heart set on pilgrimage recognizes that moving toward God often means leaving behind those very things. As we follow Jesus—who himself had “no place to lay his head” (MT 8:20)—we find that we become “foreigners and exiles” in this world. God becomes our place of belonging, our only true home, and this makes us foreigners in every other place in this world that we might have previously found refuge in…May we press on toward our true home, with our hearts set on pilgrimage. 

Prayer

Written by Henry Baron, contemporary author of the 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.

Meditation

Written by Michael Cromartie, Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. This is excerpted from his article “What Now? Faithful Living in Challenging Times.”

Many important commentators are saying we are living in a time of “great transition.” This “time of transition” is really the very nature of our lives in our earthly existence. We are always living in a time of transition. And so we are today. We have this tendency to see our era as the worst era in all of history. Times may be growing dark—but times have been dark since the Fall in the Garden of Eden. We are not, and will not, be the losers in history. The arc of history is long, but we know with confidence how it ends. And so there is comfort in the midst of all this transition: the central doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the providence of God over all of life, and over all of history and where it is going, should give us confidence that the principalities and powers of this age will not have the final word.

And therefore let’s continue to love our neighbors right where we are–in our work places, in our businesses, in all areas of life, and let’s ride out this cultural moment in the full confidence that God is the sovereign Lord of history and all of history is in His hands. Our task is to bless our neighbors, cultivate Shalom, and continue to remind people of the wonderful news of the gospel (especially since we will need to be poised to receive the wounded who will be the inevitable victims of our current cultural malaise and dysfunctions). Let us continue to keep doing all the good we can, in all the many ways we can, confident in our strong faith in our loving and merciful God. Knowing this will keep us from panicking; it will keep us from screaming, from freaking out, or from caving into the pressures that surround us on every side. And so we must do our various duties faithfully while living in exile, fully aware and confident that the final consummation of history and true justice will come with the restoration of the entire universe to its original, created glory. So, let’s continue to faithfully do our duties, even while in exile.

Prayer

This prayer if from the Roman Breviary, a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites published in 1482. It became known as the “Liturgy of the Hours.”

O almighty God, we seek the shelter of your protection.

Defend us from all evils, that we may serve you in peace and quietness of spirit;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Meditation

Written by Debbie Taylor Williams, a contemporary Christian author and founder of P.R.A.Y. with Passion Across the Nation.

“I need this. I need that.” Sometimes our human nature screams for what we want. We long for a magic genie to give or tell us what we want to have or hear. Sometimes we may be frustrated because we wish God would drop from heaven what we envision to be the perfect life.  What do we do when Jehovah Jireh, “The LORD will Provide,” doesn’t appear to provide what we want?  First, it is important to understand the context of God’s name, “The LORD Will Provide.”  It is when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son, as a test of his obedience. Abraham walked in faith, assuring Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice. The Hebrew words, “Jehovah Jireh,” means “the LORD will see to it.” God seeing to it that there was a substitute sacrifice for Abraham to use in place of Isaac foreshadowed Jesus “seeing to it” by providing Himself as our sacrifice. Now, what about those things on our wish list? God “sees to it.”  He has gifted us with His Holy nature to equip us to live beyond our human nature. God “sees to” our problems by instructing us in the Bible how to do life, relationships, money, parenting, envy, anger; and the list goes on. Jesus is God’s provision. The Bible is God’s provision. The Holy Spirit is God’s provision.  He is “seeing to it” above and beyond our daily and eternal needs.  Are we walking as Abraham, according to God’s Word, and therefore experiencing His provisions?

Prayer

Written by Debbie Taylor Williams, author of today’s devotional.

Heavenly Father, we praise You, Jehovah Jireh. You are the LORD WHO PROVIDES for not only our eternity but our every day. Help us not foolishly ignore Your daily presence and Word but rather see both as bountiful gifts that from heaven to see to our daily needs.Amen.

Meditation

Excerpted from an interview with N.T. Wright on his book “God and the Pandemic.”

Western churches for the last few generations have been failing in living and announcing God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven. The churches of late western modernity—including ‘conservative’ late western modernity—have been captive to a Platonic gospel of ‘going to heaven when you die’ which the younger generation has seen right through as the escapist nonsense it is. Fortunately the Bible offers something far more robust…Some younger people are drawn back to more traditional types of ‘institutional Christianity’—like meditative liturgical music, or Cathedral-style worship—because it gives the worshipers space to ponder and grow, without thrusting obvious and one-dimensional teachings at them all the time. My anxiety is that there may be a time-lag before our churches wake up to the truly biblical message, which is not that God wants us to go and live with him but that he wants to come and live with us, transforming, healing, and renewing the whole creation—and that he has decisively begun that in Jesus and is implementing it by his Spirit until Jesus comes again to complete the work. In that time-lag a generation may be lost. In particular, the western churches have cheerfully colluded with multiple divisions, so that Paul’s constant insistence on church unity is not even noticed, let alone preached on, let alone acted upon. If our churches even tried to be a bit more multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-generational, multi-colored, then more young people might just glimpse that this was always God’s intention for the church—to be a small working model of what God wants to do for the whole creation. This is simply an exposition of Ephesians 1-3.

Prayer

Written by Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), an English sea captain and the second sailor to circumnavigate the globe.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wilder seas where storms will show Your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push back the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Meditation

Written by Ken Blanchard, a contemporary Christian writer who focuses on servant leadership.  This was excerpted from his article “6 Practices That Will Make You a Better Listener.”

As we begin to come out of the coronavirus pandemic and run smack into the turmoil around continuing racism in our country, I think it’s a good time to review an essential leadership skill: listening. So often the key to overcoming a difficulty—whether it’s in the workplace or at home—is to stop talking and start listening. I often like to joke that if God had wanted us to talk more than listen, he would have given us two mouths. Yet few people have mastered the art of listening. Why is this seemingly simple skill so difficult? Research published by Wendell Johnson in the Harvard Business Review examined one way the listening process goes wrong. Johnson found that because of how our brains work, we think much faster than people talk. As we listen to someone talk, we have time to think of things other than what the person is saying. As a result, we end up listening to a few thoughts of our own in addition to the words we’re hearing spoken. Usually we can get back to what the person is saying, but sometimes we listen to our own thoughts too long and miss part of the other person’s message. To sharpen your listening skills, learn to apply the following six practices: Resist the temptation to jump in, pay attention to body language, ask questions, reflect feelings, paraphrase and summarize. These practices are not easy—they require time and effort to master. But once you do master them, you’ll build more satisfying relationships. You’ll also avoid a lot of the errors, frustrations, and inefficiencies that come from unclear communication. Think of how our homes, workplaces, nation, and world could change for the better if we all learned to listen to one another.

Prayer

Dear God, as I strive to walk more closely with you, I pray that I will be able to reach out and show more love to all my neighbors in this world. Enlarge my circle of those I interact with.  Through your grace and mercy, teach me to truly listen to others and better understand others views and experiences. Teach me to take the time to just listen, not rush to judgement or quickly provide solutions. Allow me to empathize with their concerns and show compassion and love. Help me to become involved in ways that show much I deeply care. Allow me to represent you by loving and caring for all those I encounter. Be with me Holy Spirit, as I continue to grow in my walk with Jesus. Amen

El Olam, the everlasting God, the God of eternity, the God of the universe, the God of ancient days.  Our everlasting God is free from all constraints of time. He is the alpha and omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.  He is the God for whom one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. Our God contains within Himself the very nature of time itself.

God’s everlasting love is promised throughout eternity. Because God is everlasting, God’s plans stand firm forever and are constant from generation to generation. While our lives may be short, El Olam has put a sense of eternity in our minds. We can fully trust in His promises and rely on His everlasting love because the plans of El Olam hold firm forever.

Our Scripture reflection is from Isaiah 40:27-31:

Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God” Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength They will soar on wings like eagles they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.