Weekly Meditations and Prayer Prompts

 Sunday, February 26, 2023

First Sunday in Lent

Matthew 4:1–11 (ESV)

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Prayer prompt: Forty days is a long time to be tested.  Have you ever taken a test that lasted that long?  The testing of Jesus seems to involve different aspects of human life and categories of experience: hunger, fear and doubt, greed and hubris.  What part of life tests you the most?  Pray today that you will find the sort of support that Jesus found in the Scriptures to withstand whatever tests may come your way today and throughout these forty days of Lent 2023.

***

Monday, February 27, 2023

Genesis 2:15–17; 3:4–7 (ESV)  

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Prayer prompt:  Knowledge cuts both ways.  It allows us to discern what is good, but also what is bad.  It allows us to form our own opinions and to act on them.  It allows us to say no and to say yes.  It allows us to judge ourselves and others harshly.  It reveals the very best to us for our pleasure and enjoyment, and it reveals the very worst in and to us.  It enriches life, but ultimately, it cannot be possessed without the death that follows in its wake.  Pray today for God’s grace to reckon with the knowledge of good and evil that we have all inherited and for the faith and hope that death has been overcome by resurrection life.

***

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Psalm 32:5-7 (ESV)

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

Prayer prompt: Sometimes the hardest thing is to admit our own sin and to expose our own wrongdoing.  The promise of Scripture is that God, whose approval and presence we seek, is merciful, kind, and quick to forgive us.  The irony, as the Psalmist points out, is that the safest place for us is to be both exposed to and hidden in God.  That is where we find our salvation and forgiveness and deliverance.  Pray today that you will have the insight to know what you need to confess to God and the courage to do it.  In your prayer, seek the hiding place that opens up for you when you open up to God in confession.

***

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Romans 5:18–20 (ESV)

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all people, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all people. For as by the one person’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one person’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer prompt:  Sometimes it is difficult to see the full consequences of our actions, as the ripple effects often extend in time and space and relationships far beyond what is observable to the first participants.  Scripture urges us to act with grace, always, that grace may be the ripple effect, resulting in joy and peace and life.  Pray today that your acts, like those of Jesus our Lord, may be full of grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  Pray that your actions may result in good for many other people, even beyond those that you can see directly impacted by your actions.

***

Thursday, March 2, 2023

John 3:3–8 (ESV)

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Prayer prompt: There is more to human life than the body.  And there is more to human life than the Spirit.  As Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  We ignore either to our detriment and to the diminishment of the abundant, eternal life that Jesus offers.  Pray today that the Spirit will guide you in its mysterious way to new depths of peace, love, and grace, around bends and into vistas that you have yet to imagine.  Pray that you may follow the wind of God as it winds its way through life to a life that is abundant and free, as one who is both flesh and spirit.

***

Friday, March 3, 2023

Genesis 12:1–4 (ESV) 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

Prayer prompt:  When was the last time you made a major transition?  Does it get harder the older you get?  Do you grow more reluctant each time a significant change is required of you?  Pray today for the grace, courage, and stamina to embrace required change, even big changes.  The promise of God is that you will be blessed, but also, perhaps more significantly, that your embrace of change will bring blessing to others.  

***

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Romans 4:13–17 (ESV)

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Prayer prompt:  God’s promises led Abraham to faith, which bore fruit.  The promise to us is that our faith will also bear fruit, that it will not be “null and void.”  In this way, Abraham models for us a life that is “standing on the promises of God.”  Pray today for the faith to stand in God’s presence and to receive “life from the dead,” so that God can call things that do not exist yet into existence in your life also.