Meditations and Prayer Prompts, January 15-22, 2023

 Sunday, January 15, 2023 Second Sunday after Epiphany

John 1:35–39 (ESV)

 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

Prayer prompt:  The thing about asking Jesus where he stays is that he doesn’t seem to stay in just one place.  In Matthew 8, Jesus says that foxes have their dens and birds their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.  Jesus mostly spent his time with the poor, the outcasts, and sinners.  Pray today for Jesus to show you where he is staying, so that you may follow him into the 10,000 places where he is needed most.  Pray that you may learn to be his hands and feet in those places, as one of his disciples, a follower of Jesus.  

Monday, January 16, 2023

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Galatians 5:1, 13-14 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. … For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Prayer prompt: On this day of remembrance and celebration, consider what price freedom demands.  According to the Gospel, freedom demands the price of love.  Love requires sacrifice and service to others.  Pray today that God will allow you to dream the way that Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed, for that bright day of justice when all God’s children can celebrate the joy of being “free at last.”  Pray for the day when justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.  Pray for the day when love and service are more than dreams.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Isaiah 49:1–7 (ESV)

 The Lord called me from the womb, 

from the body of my mother he named my name. 

…And he said to me, “You are my servant, 

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 

  But I said, “I have labored in vain; 

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; 

  yet surely my right is with the Lord, 

and my recompense with my God.”

  And now the Lord says, 

he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, 

…for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, 

and my God has become my strength— 

 …I will make you as a light for the nations, 

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 

…“Kings shall see and arise; 

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; 

  because of the Lord, who is faithful, 

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 

Prayer prompt:  Have you ever felt that your mission in the world is impossible?  That somehow the thing God has honored you to devote your life to will never come to fruition?  Have you worked hard and accomplished nothing?  Have you spent your time, talent, and money and come up empty?  The promise, given first to Israel and then fulfilled in Jesus, is that God’s purpose will not fail.  Your life and witness are key.  God has chosen you.  Pray today that God will become your light and your salvation, so that you may be a light for others.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Psalm 40:1–3 (ESV)

I waited patiently for the Lord; 

he inclined to me and heard my cry. 

  He drew me up from the pit of destruction, 

out of the miry bog, 

  and set my feet upon a rock, 

making my steps secure. 

  He put a new song in my mouth, 

a song of praise to our God. 

  Many will see and fear, 

and put their trust in the Lord. 

Prayer prompt: Have you ever lost your sense of direction and footing?  Ever thought that going on would just mean getting deeper into trouble?  How did you escape?  Have you shared that experience with anyone?  There may be someone in your life, or someone you encounter today, who needs to know that there is help.  Pray that God will put a new song in your mouth, a song of praise, for the fact that you are back on solid ground today, and headed for higher ground.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

1 Corinthians 1:1–9 (ESV)

 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Prayer prompt: What have you been given by others?  How have others enriched your conversations, your understanding of Scripture, and your witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Paul seems to think that the church (yes, even the one at Corinth) has everything we need--that we are lacking nothing--collectively (the pronouns are plural) that is required to sustain us all the way to the end.  Pray today that God will make you fully aware of the boundless spiritual resources you have in the contributions that others make to your perseverance in the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, so that you may join Paul in giving thanks, always in all ways.

Friday, January 20, 2023

Exodus 12:1-6 (ESV)

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 

Prayer prompt:  These days most of us are very far removed from the agricultural practices that would have us doing our own butchering.  For many, the thought of eating meat is now anathema.  Yet there is something for all of us in this ritual of the first month (Aviv, or Nisan) of the year, which begins in March-April (there is also a fall New Year, so it is complicated).  As we begin our new year, pray today that God will show you the interconnection we have with our neighbors, and how to share--how to “count for the lamb”--between your family and that of your neighbors.  As with the scene where Jesus feeds the 5,000, the point seems to be that there is more than plenty where people share their resources with their neighbors.  Pray that your sharing of resources--physical or spiritual--may be an acceptable offering to God through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Deuteronomy 11:9-12 (ESV)

 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.  But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. 

Prayer prompt:  God cares for the land--God’s eyes are on it--from the beginning of the year until the end.  That is the promise of Deuteronomy.  Pray that the rains, when they come, will remind you of God’s care for the land.  Since God’s care takes different forms in different situations, contexts, and circumstances, pray that you will recognize God’s care in the form that it comes to you today, in your land, in your context, in your circumstance.