Morning Prayer
And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
Inspiration
The day is coming when the Messiah will "be great to the ends of the earth. " He will reign on the earth and take all the kingdoms of this world as his own possession. He will establish justice and rule in might. Today, there is much injustice in the world, and governments are often corrupt. In that day, however, we will see the perfect righteous rule of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
O Lord, we look expectantly to the time of your Millennial and then Eternal reign. This age is passing us by, and its injustice will not long endure. We are glad to endure suffering for your glory now, but we rejoice in hope of the Kingdom of God that is yet to come. Let this future hope motivate us, we pray, to holy living in the present. Amen.
Devotion
The Problem with Guilt
Frances Taylor
Does anyone sin anymore? We have a problem with admitting the existence of sin in our world today. We feel little responsibility to ask for forgiveness or to acknowledge that our actions have consequences. And so what happens with guilt? In today's psalm, there is joy in the knowledge that God has forgiven the sins of the psalmist. He talks about how he felt carrying the guilt of his sins. They can be a heavy burden. Just because the moral code of today doesn't like to admit that sin exists, our psyches as well as our bodies bear the brunt of our feelings of guilt. Many years ago I read an interesting piece of advice. Guilt can be heaped on us by others who didn't get what they want from you and is therefore not real, and it can be because of something we actually are responsible for. The advice was to hang onto guilt for no more than 3 hours – enough to suffer for something false and enough time to ask forgiveness for anyone we might ...
Night Prayer
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Inspiration
When you enter a race, you prepare by training, eating well, and wearing the right clothes and shoes. And when the race begins, you keep your eyes on where you are going, staying on the track or course that leads to the finish line. Our spiritual race is much the same, we must be diligent in maintaining prayer, study, and fellowship. And we must direct our sight (and our feet) to the prize that God is leading us to.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I want to live faithfully for You. For You are a reward of immeasurable worth. Grow me in discipline, Lord, so that I may be fit and healthy, prepared to run the race that You’ve prepared for me. And help me to not lose sight of You, so that my feet may stay on the course You’ve set for me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Devotion
…You will keep my commandments! Doesn't that sound easy? But, like the Rich Young Man in the Gospel, and the scribe who wants to know who is his neighbor, it's just not that simple. Today's world makes it a lot more difficult to figure out what the commandments mean. On the surface, many of them sound easy to keep because we don't think we adore other gods, and we don't believe in murder, and what does covet mean anyway? When we dig a little deeper and realize that the god we worship is often ourselves, or those curse words that slip off the tongue are just part of today's speech, or who doesn't tell a little white lie occasionally, we realize that the commandments are more difficult to keep than we originally thought. Perhaps it's time to review the seven deadlies and see how they work into this equation. Do I let pride make me put God or others at the end of the line? Am I envious of the good fortune of others? Do I fuel the fires of anger instead of forgiveness? Do I allow ...
