Words to be heard

04 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , ,

When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask. Pray like this:

Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name. Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven. Give us the bread we need for today. Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us. And don’t lead us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. ~Matt. 6:7-13 (CEB)

“The good news is that the scriptures, tradition, the experience of the saints, and our own experience tells us that it is possible to face the unknown and even to face opposition without fear and without defeat. To expect a life without struggle is unrealistic. But it is realistic to expect God’s help in living an authentic and joyful life as a Christian. To daily declare our love for God and neighbor, to give of ourselves as fully as we can to God, and to ask for God’s help in living an authentic life of faith is to be prepared to meet any and all opposition. Once and for all of life to God, we have nothing to lose. We have everything because, God has us. ~From A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader by Rueben P. Job

Heavenly Father, I thank You for the ways You have shown Your love for me in the big things and in the little things. You have met all my needs both big and small sometimes in ways that I would not have expected it. Help me to remember this day as the struggles come to remember all that You have done for me in the past. May those experiences give me the confidence to know that You will stand with me in the present and in the future. Amen.

Don’t worry

28 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ~Matt 6:25-34 (CEB)

“Money, I never think of it. It always comes. The Lord sends it.

We do his work. He provides the means.

If he does not give us the means, that shows that he does not want the work. So why worry?” ~From My Life for the Poor by Mother Teresa

May the power, peace, and presence of Jesus Christ uphold, sustain, direct and keep me always. Amen.

To go out in joy

26 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountain and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ~Isa 55:12 (NRSV)

“Our work is constant, our homes are full. The problems of the poor continue, so our work continues. Yet everyone, not just the Missionaries of Charity, can do something beautiful for God by reaching out to the poor people in their own countries. I see no lack of hesitation in helping others. I see only people filled with God’s love, wanting to do works of love. This is the future- this is God’s wish for us- to serve through love in action, and to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to act when called.” ~Mother Teresa in Mother Teresa: A Simple Path comp. Lucinda Vardey

O God our Father, renew my spirit and draw my heart to Yourself, that my work may not be to me a burden but a delight; and give me such love to sweeten by obedience. Help me that I may serve You with the cheerfulness and gladness of Your child, delighting myself in You and rejoicing in all that is to the honor of Your name; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Signs and wonders

24 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. ~Isa. 25:1

“To think that God could put an idea into someone’s mind and that person could comprehend that idea and immediately act upon it with unquestioning determination is the most remarkable wonder of all!

A second wonder is that God has given all of this capacity. God communicates with all of us! We get little nudges- feelings that this or that should be done or not done; we get hunches and leadings, signs. And signals, and sometimes direct messages.” ~From Yearnings to Know God’s Will by Danny E. Morris

Heavenly Father, help me claim the power, peace, and presence of Jesus Christ so that I may be upheld, sustained, directed throughout this day. Amen.

To grow young

19 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?”

He answered, “Whoever has two shirts must share with the one who has none, and whoever has food must do the same.”

Even tax collectors came to be baptized. They said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

He replied, “Collect no more than you are authorized to collect.”

Soldiers asked, “What about us? What should we do?”

He answered, “Don’t cheat or harass anyone, and be satisfied with your pay.” ~Luke 3:10-14 (CEB)

“One of the great lies of our day is that conversion is instant, like fast food. God can zap us and we’re saved. It is all free. It costs nothing. Take it and run. This is what Bonhoeffer calls ‘cheap grace.’ Punch in at church. Grab a sacrament and run. Season your conversation with ‘praise the Lord’ and you’re among the saved.

One of the great truths of our day is that conversion is ongoing. Conversion is the process in which we are given opportunity upon opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation. Salvation is a free gift, yes, but it’s costly. It’s ‘costly grace.’ It costs us our lives lived passionately. The road to conversion is not a fast food line. When Saul was knocked down by that flash of lightning, that was not conversion. That was just God getting his attention. The conversion came as he groped his way in blindness to Ananias, able to see with interior eyes because he had no external eyes to depend on. His conversion continued day after day as he began to give meaning to his new name, Paul. He was still in the process of conversion when he was on his way to Rome in chains.” ~From A Tree Full of Angels by Macrina Wiederkehr

Lord, I don’t want cheap grace. Help me instead to live more passionately, love more deeply and cause such a great stirring that I am forever change. Guide me down the right path Jesus, seeing Your will for my life this day. Help me not to grope around in darkness but shine Your light clearly the path that I am to take. I claim all You promise me and I know that when I dwell in Your presence I am never alone. Amen.

The eyes of a child

18 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us.

Dear friends, now we are God’s children, and it hasn’t yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we’ll see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. ~1 John 3:1-3 (CEB)

“In 1966 a retrospective of Picasso’s paintings was exhibited in Cannes, France. Hundreds of his works, from the first he did as an adolescent beginner to the latest of the master, who was then eighty-five years old, graced the walls of the gallery. The old man himself roamed about, enjoying the show more than anyone. One report told of a woman who stopped him and said, ‘I don’t understand. Over there, the beginning pictures- so mature, serious and solemn- then the later ones, so different, so irrepressible. It almost seems as though the dates should be reversed. How do you explain it?’

‘Easily,’ replied Picasso, eyes sparkling. ‘It takes a long time to become young.’” ~From Alive in Christ by Maxie Dunnam

To see the world through the eyes of a child means I love more deeply, laugh more quickly and my heart grow young. A child trusts more readily and believes more easily. No wonder Jesus says we need to have the faith of a child.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day and all the wonders it will hold. Help me to see the beauty of a flower, pause to watch a butterfly float by, and marvel at the song of a bird. Help me to look under the rocks for tiny wonders that I could easily walk by. Help me to see pictures in the clouds and inhale deeply the freshness of spring. When I come to the end of my day Lord, help me to sleep with the ease of one who has not acquired a world of hurts but lies safely in her Fathers embrace knowing with all assuredness that I am safe and sound. Amen

Diamonds

17 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.

We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies. We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying. So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. ~2 Cor. 4:7-12 (CEB)

“Legend tells of a little girl who had an ugly hump on her back. The girl was so deformed that she was either ridiculed or pitied by everyone. When she died, it turned out that the ugly hump concealed angel’s wings. Can it be that all the ugly things in our lives have in them angel’s wings? Can it be that even our sin, our ugly sin, can be turned to good; could it conceal angel’s wings?

This is the glorious promise of conversion: God is able to make all things work together for good. Even the sinful years, the ugly years, need not be wasted but can result in good. Is this not a most comforting assurance? For many of us our ugly years were numerous, and they cause deep remorse. The may have struck at the prime of our lives and ministries. For so long we have grieved them, feeling that many years of ministry were wasted. But the love of God dawns upon us, and with it comes a most amazing promise and a new hope: We cannot redeem, God can; and what we cannot erase, God will.” ~Norman Shawchuck

Just about the time I start mourning the “lost years” that I could have been in service to God, I remember that God knew that I would take this road. It falls into His plan and He planned to use it ALL for His glory. The knowledge that I have gained by taking God’s paths or my own God will help me to reach out to others. Nothing is lost. All is gain in God’s sight.

Heavenly Father, when Satan tries to hold my past against me, remind me that You see me as a might warrior. When Satan tries to tell me I am worthless, remind me that I have always been Your beloved child. For all the loss that Satan waves at me, remind me that You will use it for Your gain. You, O Lord, are a restorer of dreams and I am thankful. Amen

Conversion

16 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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When the crowd heard this, they were deeply troubled. They said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Peter replied, “Change your hearts and lives. Each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, your children, and for all who are far away—as many as the Lord our God invites.” With many other words he testified to them and encouraged them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized. God brought about three thousand people into the community on that day. The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. ~Acts 2:37-42 (CEB)

“Conversion is going on all the time within us and within the world. The radical change of Christian conversion is also going on within us at all times. While the change of turning toward God may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it is in reality a continual process. We may think that we have turned fully toward God; then we discover another dimension of God, and we now immediately that more conversion is possible and necessary if we are to more Godward in all of life.

Conversion is a lifelong process of turning more and more fully toward God in all that we are, possess, and do. There may be earth shaking moments when we are being formed in the image of Christ at incredible speed and in remarkable ways. But such moments are not the end; there is more to come as we give ourselves to the transforming power of God.

While conversion requires our decision and action, the grace and strength to be changed- to become more than we are- is the gift of God. Conversion is a partnership project. We cannot transform us against our wishes. However, once we invite God’s transforming presence into our lives, the necessary power to change comes with the transforming presence.

It is wise not to try to dictate what our conversion will be like. We cannot know what God has in store for us until we begin to live in harmony and companionship with God. As our understanding of and relationship to God grow, we may begin to see where God is leading us in our conversion. On the other hand, we may experience surprises throughout our lives as God seeks to shape us. It is also wise not to assume that our conversion will look like, feel like, or keep pace with any other person’s conversion. Since we are unique and God is infinite, our conversion experiences will be unique as well. The important thing is inviting God to what the end product will be, but we do know that it will be good when we permit God to be the potter and we agree to be the malleable clay.” A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, Rueben P. Job

O God our Father, renew my spirit and draw my heart to You, that my work may not be a burden but a delight; and give me such love to You as may sweeten all obedience. Help me that I may serve You with the cheerfulness and gladness of a child, delighting myself in You and rejoicing in all that is to the honor of Your name; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen- adapted from The Book of Worship

Christ’s compassion

08 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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He won’t break a bent stalk, and he won’t snuff out a smoldering wick, until he makes justice win. And the Gentiles will put their hope in his name. ~Matthew 12:20-21 (CEB)

Even though Jesus speaks out against all forms of hypocrisy and is not afraid to attack deception, vanity, manipulation and oppression, his heart is a gentle heart. He won’t break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick. He responds to people’s suffering, heals their wounds, and offers courage to the fainthearted. Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to prisoners (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus considered others in all he says, and thus he reveals God’s immense compassion.

As a follower of Christ I am to have his compassion for the world. Jesus charged us to go out declaring the good news to everyone. (Mark 16:15) To a world that may know more about fear, harshness and misunderstandings by my gentleness I can bring hope. Jesus came into the world to give hope to the world and as his hands and feet we are charged with continuing his work to all corners of the earth. (Luke 24:47)

In my ordinary dealings this day may I remember to show Christ’s compassion to those around me. May I consider others in all I say and do remembering that I may be the only Christ others see. My actions can bring someone to Christ or it may turn them away forever. Today I want to have Christ’s gentleness.

Father in Heaven may I learn to have Your gentle heart showing your compassion to those I meet this day. Amen.

My cross to bear

07 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

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Then Jesus said to his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? ~Matthew 16:24-26 (CEB)

“Jesus says, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him . . . take us his cross and follow me’ (Matt 16:24). He does not say, ‘Make a cross’ or ‘Look for a cross.’ Each of us has a cross to carry. There is no need to make one or look for one. The cross we have is hard enough for us! But are we willing to take it up, to accept it as our cross?

Maybe we can’t study, maybe we are handicapped, maybe we suffer from depression, maybe we experience conflict in our families, maybe we are victims of violence or abuse. We didn’t choose any of it, but these things are our crosses. We can ignore them, reject them, refuse them or hate them. But we can also take up these crosses and follow Jesus with them.” ~From Bread for the Journey by Henri J. M. Nouwen

There are many things that I have gone through that I would not have chosen if I had been given the choice. There are many things that I wish I had realized what the consequences would be by what I had chosen. But I have enough years behind me now to see how God can take all of my life and use it for His glory. Not even my tears are wasted. That is the choice I have now. The choice to embrace all if it. The good and the bad and follow Jesus with them.

Heavenly Father, give me the strength I need this day to take up my cross and follow Jesus where ever He leads me. Help me to accept the cross I bear as mine. Help me to embrace it all and be whole. Amen.

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