Morning Prayer
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Inspiration
We cannot appreciate the magnitude of God's gift of eternal life until we first understand that the wages of sin is death. Wages are what we "earned, " what we "deserve. " "Death" is not only physical death, here, but spiritual and eternal death. Our sin was an offense to the infinitely holy God, and thus justly deserved eternal punishment. But God's grace, which was greater than all our sin, brings us eternal life instead.
Prayer
Lord, help us to see that your punishment for sin is just and to sense something of the true heinousness of sin. Help us to appreciate more fully how much we were forgiven, and having been forgiven much, to love much. Amen.
Night Prayer
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Inspiration
We despise the thought of a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. The outside is easy to clean; it's the caked-up residue on the inside that's so difficult to remove. Jesus compares the scribes and Pharisees with dishes that have been wiped clean on the outside while dirty inside. The Pharisees took exceptional care of their outward appearance and neglected their inward spirits. We are guilty of allowing our hearts to be left filthy as well. We look and act as we should while our souls are full of darkness. We must continue to converse with the Holy Spirit daily and trust His guidance to cleanse our sinful nature.
Prayer
Dear God, Please forgive our sinful nature. We yearn for cleansing from within, so we are genuine witnesses to Your name. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
