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Today’s meditation is from The Navigators, a ministry that shares the Gospel and helps people grow in relationship with Jesus. This is an excerpt from their work “Five Traits of a Disciple maker.”

The Lord designed us to walk with Him in community with others. Disciple makers will be intentional to seek, pursue and create community among believers to spur each other toward love and good deeds. Biblical community includes family as well as extended communities of followers of Christ. Biblical community also draws those without Christ to the Lord.

 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. [Hebrews 10:24-25]

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Written by Max Lucado, a contemporary pastor and author.

His [Jesus’] call to courage is not a call to naïveté or ignorance. We aren’t to be oblivious to the overwhelming challenges that life brings. We’re to counterbalance them with long looks at God’s accomplishments… Jesus could have calmed your storm long ago. But He hasn’t. Does He want to teach you a lesson? Could that lesson read something like this: “Storms are not an option, but fear is”?… He’s the commander of every storm. Are you scared in yours? Then stare at Him.

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior [Isaiah 43:1-3]

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Written by Ray Stedman (1917-1992), an American pastor and author.

Remember what the scripture says is the condition of man without Christ? Dead! How far would you get if you took a sales course and went to graveyards to sell your product to corpses? When scripture says that men and women are dead in trespasses and sins, it isn’t just using language lightly. That is exactly the condition they are in, and every attempt to try to argue or reason a person into salvation apart from the Holy Spirit is like arguing with a corpse. A corpse has only one great need, and that is life.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins [Colossians 2:13]

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Written by the Lead Like Jesus team, an organization founded by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges that promotes a transformational leadership model based on following Jesus

Correction doesn’t always feel like a gift. Given in the wrong attitude, it can shame and dishonor people. But when correction is given with concern for others and in pursuit of mutual goals, it helps us avoid errors, correct mistakes, and improve results and relationships. To put it into perspective, how many of us have benefited personally from God’s loving correction? He is direct yet compassionate, motivated by love, and always solution-oriented.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. [Proverbs 12:1]

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From the Book of Common Prayer

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated unto you; and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. [Psalm 86:10]

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Written by Brian Morykon, a contemporary writer.

To listen is to love. To be heard and understood is to experience love. When you know you won’t be interrupted, questioned, or judged, you speak differently. When someone’s tuned in, you turn up your heart’s transmission signal. Most listeners allocate half their attention to their own thoughts and responses. When someone gives you and your words full attention—total presence—the air is charged with eternity. Surely God is in this place. Someone listens to me this way for an hour each Wednesday. Honestly, it’s hard to take. I want to turn the tables and ask questions, but that’s not what we’re there for. So I talk till the words name something in my soul that hasn’t been named before—or maybe it has, and I’ve forgotten and need to name it again. I talk and pause and talk again and notice my eyes are wet. I look up to find a face accepting me, the face of Christ in my friend. And my tears are like living water to some parched part of my heart that I’d long given up on as dead. Our session ends and it occurs to me that I’m no longer in the irritable rush I was in an hour ago. We don’t understand the power of listening or its centrality to spiritual growth. We underestimate the immense treasures we can give and receive through listening—to each other, to God, and to our own hearts. Thank God listening is learnable. There are spaces we can practice—formal spaces with others like listening groups and cohort programs (some of these are listed below) and informal spaces like a prayer chair or dinner table. I’m quite sure Jesus would be delighted to teach us how to listen if we ask.

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame  [Proverbs 18:13]

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Written by Richard Foster, a contemporary theologian and author.

 Prayer draws us into trust… The life of trust which comes through prayer frees us from our greed. Remember the words of James, ​“What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war.” That is the way of the world in which we live. That is the spirit of the flesh. James goes on to describe another way, a more excellent way, the way of the kingdom of God. ​“You do not have because you do not ask.” The way of prayer brings us into the life of trust which sets us free from our greed… Many of us, as we are moving into this life of holy obedience, have not yet had the spirit of greed removed and been able to enter into this life of trust. But as we go along, we’re set free from the need to desire things that do not please God and are not consistent with his way. As we grow and enter into holy obedience and its essential partner, trust, there are many things we simply do not need. For what we do need, we can ask, and we will receive. No longer is there the need to watch out for number one. We live in trust. Trust defeats the spirit of climb, push, and shove. In trust we are set free from the spirit of fear: fear that we won’t have enough, fear that we will be left out in the cold, fear that inflation will impoverish us, fear that the communists will overtake us, fear, fear, fear. In the ministry of prayer we are freed from fear.

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. [James 4:3]

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Written by the Lead Like Jesus team, an organization founded by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges that promotes a transformational leadership model based on following Jesus.

Paul repeatedly emphasized the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love in his writings. In his opening words to the Thessalonians, he shows us why they are so important. Faith, hope, and love are not simply abstract principles or idealized virtues. They have life-giving force. In the midst of obstacles, fatigue, and discouragement, faith, hope, and love bring energy and endurance to run the race set before us.

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Thessalonians 1:3].

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Written by Mark D. Roberts, a contemporary author.

Gracious God, thank you for being our Lord and King, our Savior and Rescuer. Thank you for all the ways in which you bless us. Thank you for the light that guides our paths. Thank you for the joy we feel in your presence. Thank you also for the righteousness we receive by your grace through Christ. Thank you for the joyful privilege of being rightly related to you, to others, and to our world.  Help me, I pray, to experience the joy that comes from knowing you. And as I rejoice in you, may I share this joy with others. Amen. 

Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! [Psalm 97:11-12]

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Written by John Michalak, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his book “365 Devotions to Embrace What Matters Most.”

The Source of all things is also the Owner of all things. There’s a pleasure in giving what you have to someone in need that is unlike the pleasure of ownership. You place your money in the Salvation Amy tin. You volunteer to serve dinner to the homeless. You see the look in a poor child’s eyes when you hand them a box covered in colorful wrapping. But your whole life is actually a gift. God gave you life and you are His. God so loved that He gave. Whether it’s your money, your talents, or your time, the more you walk in gratitude for what’s been given to you and the more you realize that what you have was never really yours in the first place, the more you’ll offer everything you have to those in need. God has provided you with the means to give. And it’s in the giving that you’ll receive.

Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. [Deuteronomy 15:10]

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