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Written by R. C. Gillie (1866-1941), a pastor and author.

The words often on Jesus’ lips in His last days express vividly the idea, “going to the Father.” We, too, who are Christ’s people, have vision of something beyond the difficulties and disappointments of this life. We are journeying towards fulfillment, completion, expansion of life. We, too, are “going to the Father.” Much is dim concerning our home-country, but two things are clear. It is home, “the Father’s House.” It is the nearer presence of the Lord. We are all wayfarers, but the believer knows it and accepts it. He is a traveler, not a settler.

Prayer:

Written by Tiffany Thibault, a contemporary writer.

Dear Lord, Thank you that you see my heart and that you know every plan and thought that I have. Thank you for your powerful promise: that if I seek you, I will find you. Give me a deep hunger for you. Fill me with your Spirit, that I would seek you more, that I would love you more, and that my mind would be filled with more of you. Help me as I go through this day, that I would see each challenge as an opportunity to worship and serve you. May you be glorified with how I live this day. In your name I pray, Amen.

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Written by Beth Patch, a contemporary writer.

Two decades after World War I, which officially ended November 11, 1918, the U.S. passed legislation to have a legal holiday every November 11th, honoring veterans who served in that war. As time marched on and more wars were fought, Veterans Day became a national holiday honoring American veterans of all wars. Before personally knowing someone who fought in a war, I didn’t give much thought to Veterans Day, other than the commercial aspect of a few good sales. I regret my previously flippant recognition of this important day. Before Bill went to fight in Iraq, he was an electrician with the same company for 25 years. His children were mostly out of the nest and he and his wife were looking forward to their retirement years. However, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Bill joined the Virginia Army National Guard. It seemed unlikely he’d be called to serve overseas since the reserves had not been called up for war since World War II. His family was shocked when he left for the war in Iraq and was gone for 18 months. When Bill returned in 2005, his family welcomed home a courageous and radically changed man who had lived through horrible events. His time away was spent in chaos. He told of entering a city where a beheaded man was leaned up against a post — the hand-written sign on his chest translated, “This is what will happen to anyone who speaks to the Americans.” He recounted how deeply the enemy hates and wants to destroy all Americans. He carried the bodies of young men in his unit whose lives were cut short by the dining hall suicide bomber in Mosul. The horror stories could fill a book. His heart was broken for those in his unit who suffered and died; most of them young enough to be his son. He cried for their parents; knowing how devastating it would be to lose a child. Bill was awarded the Purple Heart for his war injuries during battle. He still struggles with the memories of all the evil, death, and danger. He has severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) along with physical pain from his injuries. He’s totally disabled. Bill’s one of thousands of veterans who are celebrated on this day. They fought so we could be safe from our enemies. They demonstrated the greatest love for us. A national holiday is hardly enough to show them our gratitude and respect. We can’t undo anything they’ve been through, but we can do what the Bible tells us to do – love them and pray for them.

Prayer:

Written by Beth Patch, the author of today’s meditation.

Lord Jesus, you are not a stranger to war and know the stress our veterans have felt. Please comfort and strengthen them with your Holy Spirit. Meet each of them right where they are today and speak to their souls. You’ve brought them through many trials. Help them see your mighty hand at work in their lives and know how much you love them. Heal their hearts as well as their bodies. Help us to show our sincere thanks to them and help us all never to forget the sacrifices that they’ve made. Help us to love them just as you have loved us.

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Written by Carolyn Arends, a contemporary speaker, author, and songwriter. This is an excerpt from her book “Theology in Aisle Seven.”

We are in the thrashing time, a season characterized by our pervasive capacity to do violence to each other and ourselves. The temptation is to despair. We have to remember, though, that it won’t last forever. Jesus has already crushed the serpent’s head. Recently I heard a message from theologian Gary Deddo … [who] challenges the tendency many of us have to be dualists — imagining God and Satan as equal foes deadlocked in mortal combat. To be certain, Deddo acknowledges, there is an immeasurable amount of evil in our world. But compared with God’s love and power, all the evil in the universe doesn’t cover the head of a pin. Love wins. Satan doesn’t stand a chance. Thus, though we wrestle with the brokenness that plagues the world, and ourselves, we do so not with grim resignation but with hopeful defiance. We face both our addictions and afflictions not with a faint, white-knuckled hope that someday we will be healed, but rather with an assurance that we are living slowly but surely into the healing already obtained on the Cross. There is still a waiting. In some cases, the healing may not come in fullness until we are face-to-face with our Victor — but come it will. Guaranteed.

Prayer:

Written by David Platt, a contemporary pastor and author.

Oh, God. Lord Jesus, we trust in you. We trust that you are working all things. Even the things we don’t understand going on in the world around, even the things we don’t understand in our lives. God we praise you for the confidence that when we lift up our eyes from what we see right around us and we look ahead, we know the day is coming when the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever.

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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.

Jesus never seemed to be at a loss for words. Whether being asked an honest question, being challenged, or responding to a need, He spoke words of grace and truth. Every response flowed from an awareness of what God was doing and how He could best represent the Father in the moment. What about you? What opportunities will you have to represent the Father today? How can you prepare to represent Him well with your words?

Prayer:

This prayer is written by the authors of today’s meditation.

 Father, let me dwell in You and in Your Word so that I hear and speak the words You give. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), a British writer and theologian.  This is an excerpt from his book “Reflections on the Psalms.”

I have often, on my knees, been shocked to find what sort of thoughts I have for a moment, been addressing to God; what infantile placations I was really offering, what claims I have really made, even what absurd adjustments or compromises I was, half-consciously, proposing. There is a Pagan, savage heart in me somewhere. For unfortunately the folly and idiot- cunning of Paganism seem to have far more power of surviving than its innocent or even beautiful elements. It is easy, once you have power, to silence the pipes, still the dances, disfigure the statues, and forget the stories; but not easy to kill the savage, the greedy, frightened creature now cringing, now blustering, in one’s soul— the creature to whom God may well say, “thou thoughtest I am even such a one as thyself” (Psalm 50.21).

Prayer:

This prayer is from Psalm 19:13-14. It is David’s prayer in response to God’s self-revelation.

Keep back your servant also from willful sins.

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I will be upright.

I will be blameless and innocent

of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and

the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in your sight,

Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.

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Written by Max Lucado, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker. This is an excerpt from his work “Glory Days.”

Have you heard voices of failure? When you lost your job, flunked the exam, dropped out of school. When your marriage went south. When your business went broke. When you failed. The voices began to howl. And you joined them! Failure finds us all. Failure is so universal we have to wonder why more self-help gurus don’t address it. Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed. But you’ll look a long time before you find a section called “How to Succeed at Failing.” Maybe no one knows what to say. But God does. His book is written for failures. It is full of folks who were foul-ups and flops. David was a moral failure, yet God used him. Elijah was an emotional train wreck after Mount Carmel, but God blessed him. Jonah was in the belly of a fish when he prayed his most honest prayer, and God heard it. Perfect people? No. Perfect messes? You bet. Yet God used them. A surprising and welcome discovery of the Bible is this: God uses failures.

Prayer:

Written by Rick Warren, a contemporary pastor, author, and speaker.

Lord, help me let go of my fear of failure. I know Satan wants to use my fears to hold me back from living boldly for You. Forgive me for not living in faith, and help me from this moment on to live with bold confidence in You. Lord, help me not compare myself to others around me. I pray instead that I can keep my eye on You and live a life that proclaims Your excellence. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

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Written by Chris Webb, a contemporary Benedictine Anglican priest, author, speaker, and teacher. This is an excerpt from his work “To Bear the Character of God.”

The opening chapter of the Bible tells us that we are made ​“in the image of God” (Gen 1:27). Scholars and theologians have reflected for over two millennia about exactly what that might mean, but the apostle John, in his first letter, gives us an important insight into at least one significant implication. ​“God is love,” he writes, ​“and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 Jn 4:16). To bear the character of God is to have love hardwired into our essential nature. The more we are conformed to the character of God, the more perfectly loving we will become. We are created to love.

Prayer:

Written by Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), an American Presbyterian minister, scholar, theologian, author and poet.  He is well know for his Bible translation “The Message.”

May this day bring rest to my heart and my home.  May God’s image in me be restored and my imagination in God be re-storied.  May the gravity of material things be lightened and the relativity of time slow down. May I know grace to embrace my own finite smallness in the arms of God’s infintite greatness. May God’s Word feed me and His Spirit lead me into the week and into the life to come. Amen.

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Written by Keith Riley, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his work “The Sacred Ordinary of Each Day.”

God, the great Creator and Sustainer of life is ever-present in your day. The demonstration of that reality is one of the great gifts that Jesus gives disciples (his first disciples, and all of his disciples since)… I can easily forget this remarkable reality in my life.  I oversleep and run late for my first meeting of the day. Now in a frantic mode, I blow past the beauty of flowers, the smell of a coffee shop, or the joy of a conversation. I’m too busy worrying about how to ​“catch up” on my schedule.  Besides being busy, the presence of certain technologies in my daily routine can be a constant distraction from the present moment and the Presence in front of me. My phone connects me to friends all over the world, but it can also disconnect me from the sacred human right in front of me.  Somewhere in the midst of my busy, distracted days is a loving God — constantly pursuing me with overtures of tenderness and soul-nurturing experiences. Did I even notice? Noticing God takes intentionality and openness on our part. It is easy to miss the good gifts that God holds out each and every day.

Prayer:

Written by Laura Talton, a contemporary writer.

 Father, thank you that you never leave us, even when life seems so ordinary and common. Thank you that you are still working in and through our lives of instant oatmeal and rent bills. Help us to see your grace in every aspect of our lives. We are so thankful for the opportunity to praise you in this very present minute. Amen.

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Written by Jenise Jones Vacarro, a consultant on business development and writer. This is an excerpt from her work “Trading Fear For Love.”

I am reminded of a quote from Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia where the lion, Aslan, says, “I am not safe, but I am good.” So it is with Christ as we follow His calling on our lives, particularly as lived out among those who reject Him. Our stand for Christ in the marketplace is definitely not “professionally safe.” He calls on His people to bear fruit, to be salt and light, to love unconditionally, to turn the other cheek…wow. Not a human recipe for success in the shark tank of business. But, we follow a good God who will, in the end, see us through potential rejection as we dispense with our fear of man and instead grow in the healthy fear of an infinitely good God. As we focus on Jesus and turn away from our fears, He changes our hearts, helping us to feel what His heart feels: compassion for the lost, and a great desire to see that every lost soul finds the Good Shepherd. So, I think of another lion in literature: the lion in The Wizard of Oz. He wanted courage. In the end, it was love in his heart that gave him what he needed. Love in our heart for Jesus and for others will be the thing that gives us the courage we lack.

Prayer:

Written by Rebecca Barlow Jordan, a contemporary author.

Feed me today with your daily bread. As the Bread of Life, your food, like manna, will sustain me throughout any trials and hungers. Help me to set my thoughts on things above and to speak only what will help and encourage others. Keep me from putting my foot in my mouth, and help me guard the affections of my heart today, Lord. Make whatever work I do be marked with excellence rather than perfectionism, as I seek not to make a name, but to make a difference. Help me to treat each person I encounter as you would, with respect and love, forgiving others and asking for forgiveness myself when needed. Amen.

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Written by Elizabeth Cheney (1957-1940), an American pioneer and writer. This is her poem “The Robin and the Sparrow.”

Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so?”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
“Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”

Prayer:

Written by Reuben Job, Norman Shawchuck, and John Mogabgab. This is a prayer based on Psalm 55 from their book “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Walk With God.”

Sometimes life seems unbearable. Our hearts and minds are weighed heavily upon, and we struggle to let go of all that burdens us for fear of losing the illusion of control we have over our lives. We call upon your name today, O God, that you may free us from worry and all that troubles our minds, bodies, and spirits. We put our trust in you, O God, this day and always. Amen.

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