Devotion
A Blessing for the New Year
Francis Taylor
A new year, a new beginning, a chance to start over! Tradition says this is a time for resolutions to be made. We think about more exercise, a better diet, getting healthy, but what about spending more time on prayer, on picking up the Bible more often? We are not just physical beings, we are also spiritual beings. Just as it is important to take care of our physical health, it is important to take care of our spiritual health. When we take care of our spiritual self, we can deal more effectively with the concerns of the day. Every day brings us news of the chaos and confusion, the violence and fears our world is facing. If this is all we think about, even our health can suffer – headaches, an increase in our blood pressure, sleepless nights! When we turn our minds and hearts to God, we are reminded of the promises He has made. It's not that the world has changed, but our response to the cares of the world has changed. This prayer of blessing given to Aaron for the Israelites is our prayer as well. This is a prayer that promises peace, protection, kindness and mercy. Let this prayer be our mantra for the New Year, a reminder of God's goodness. Let's not stop there! This prayer also gives us a way for us to be a blessing during this New Year. Just as God will be kind and merciful to us, we should be kind and merciful to others. In this way, not only will the year be a blessing for us, it will also be a blessing for others.
Prayer
Dear God, let us make a new resolution for this New Year. Give us the grace to be a blessing for others as we remember the blessings you have promised to us. Amen.
Night Prayer
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Inspiration
Sin rules our lives until we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we invite Him into our lives, our old sinful heart dies, and God creates within us a new one, where sin no longer rules our life; God does! Our thoughts and actions begin to change because we no longer desire a sinful lifestyle. We joyfully devote our lives to serving Him and inviting others to understand His promise of salvation.
Prayer
Dear Lord, we are sinners born again and recreated to live according to Your will. We are grateful for Your love and the peace we experience by abolishing our old sinful self. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion
Satan Has Been Defeated
Frances Taylor
Salvation and power have come with Christ and Satan has been defeated. Sin and death have been conquered by the actions of one man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, both human and divine who came into the world to bring the Good News of salvation by living, dying and rising for us. As Christians we claim to believe this but our actions sometimes deny it. Unfortunately, people seem to resurrect Satan all the time. We allow him to lead us away from God, forgetting the way to the Father that is love, and giving in to Satan's path of hatred, anger, pride, lust, chaos and destruction.
Satan, of course, doesn't present these as bad things, he makes them seem attractive. He presents sin as goods to be desired, as things to make us happy or give us pleasure. It can be hard to stay on the path that leads to God when the world seems to be crowding us and pushing us off of it. How easy it is to forget the sacrifice that bought our freedom! Which of us ...
Morning Prayer
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Inspiration
It is right for us to defer to others and to rejoice with others when they have cause to rejoice over some blessing in their life, instead of sorrowing before them over some problem in our life. It is right also to weep with those who weep, showing compassion and feeling for them in their grief instead of "dancing joyfully before those who mourn" as if insensitive to their sorrow.
Prayer
Give me a discerning spirit, Lord, to know when to rejoice and when to weep. Let me show concern for others and their situation and life events instead of just focusing only on my own. Let me show true compassion and genuine joy in the right way and time to others. Amen.
