Reading: Genesis 17:1-8
Reflection:
Sometimes it's hard to see a future of
hope in the midst of struggles, fear and uncertainty. God called
Abraham to Canaan and blessed him and gave him a promise. Do you feel
like this relationship between God and Abraham is pertinent to you
and your life? God calls Abraham and his descendants his children.
What does that say about you? What does it mean to be the child of
someone? What kinds of things, in your best moments as a parent or
caregiver, have you done for another? How much more will God do for
you?
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer:
God, my heavenly parent and caregiver,
help me to understand who I am according to your promise, and what
you are doing with that promise. Help me hold to it when the road is
difficult, and help me to remember that you are the source of
blessing when your promises are blossoming to fruition before me. In
Jesus name. Amen.
Tuesday, February 26th
Reading: Genesis 17:1-8
Reflection: It's hard to take a leap of
faith and move forward toward a goal when you aren't sure how to get
there. Often in life, God may give you an inkling that you have a
mission, but leaves the details up to you. How annoying! Meditate on
what Abraham must have felt, being called away from his land and told
in spite of being a foreigner, in spite of his old age, in spite of
his wife's barren womb, that he would be the father of a nation. How
scary!Think about a place in your life where you are feeling led. Do
you know how to get there? Are you able to trust the one that called
you there? Sometimes trust looks less like an enthusiastic jump and
more like a tentative, terrified shuffle. But movement is
movement—can you feel God holding your hand as you learn to walk?
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer: Giver and keeper of promises,
it's so hard for me to trust that you're able to get me where you
want. I can't see the road and each step feels like balancing over a
pit! Help me to see the future, even if I can't see the ground before
me. Grant me the ability to feel your guiding presence in my life,
and know that wherever I am in my walk of life and faith, you are
with me, have always been with me, and always will be with me. In
Jesus name. Amen.
Wednesday, February 27th
Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Reflection: You have failed. No matter
who you are or how hard you try, you have failed at something. The
kind of shame that you feel because of our failures can be stinging
and deep. Maybe you feel you failed another person somehow, or didn't
make a goal you set. Maybe your failure was of nerve, or a failure to
be vulnerable. Sometimes your failures occur through inaction and
sometimes they occur through action, both accidentally and knowingly.
How have you failed? How have you not upheld what God asks of you?
Here are two truths to meditate on; say these to yourself as many
times as necessary: I am loved. I am forgiven.
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer: Lord who knows my every failure
and secret shame, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that I failed you. I'm
sorry I couldn't do better. I want to hear your voice and listen, but
I'm not capable of living rightly without your help. Help me, forgive
me, and please let me feel your love which I so desperately need. In
Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Thursday, February 28th
Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Reflection: The covenant that God made
with Abraham was one that was somewhat contingent upon his ability to
walk with God. God asked only one thing: spiritual fidelity, and
didn't get even that. You, too, are guilty of cheating on God. Even
if you're not worshipping Baal, you put yourself and what you want
before God, or you put money before God, or work. With what have you
been unfaithful to God? God knows, and because God loves you so
deeply God made a new covenant, one in which your behavior will flow
from the law of God written in your heart. That law is love, a law
which is not to convict, but to give mercy. God is teaching you that
lesson. How is the lesson of love being written in your heart?
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for
forgiving me and loving me even when I'm unfaithful. Thank you so
much for giving me the gift of your son despite my unworthiness and
inability to be true to you and only you. I love you, and I want your
love to be written in my heart so that every action I take is rooted
in love, mercy, and forgiveness. Please transform me so that I can
live this way. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Friday, March 1st
Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Reflection: Paul calls the law the
guardian or, in Greek, it roughly means a babysitter. What does it
mean that we were once babysat by the law? When you think of your
relationship to doing good works, do you do it because that's who you
are, or do you do it because you want to be good enough? Can you ever
be good enough? Sometimes in our attempts to be good Christians, it's
easy to get carried away in the doing and forget the being. Is it
hard for you to stop worrying about being good enough? Our identity
is rooted not in what we do, but in what God has done for us.
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer: Lord of life, thank you for
your gift of the law and for your love. Help me to understand that
your love for me comes first, and that my living out of the law comes
as an outpouring of my love for you. Teach me to trust in your
redemptive action rather than putting my faith in my own ability to
save myself. Thank you for what you do for me today and every day.
Saturday, March 2nd
Reading: Galatians 3:23-29
Reflection: Pain, suffering, failure,
and fear can rob us of our identity, causing us to forget that we are
children of God. Why does that identity matter? If your identity is
invested in your own abilities and successes, failure and difficulty
can leave you feeling lost. Paul declares that we have a new
identity, not one that is as basic as race or even gender, but that
our identity is as a people redeemed by the cross of Christ and his
resurrection. Children of God are loved and worthy of sacrifice.
Children of God are recipients of the promise to draw us to new life.
No longer are you adrift or reliant only on your own success, but you
are surrounded by a community of faith, and more importantly, you are
lifted up as an inheritor of the kingdom of God. Who are you?
Take time to reflect, meditate, or
pray in silence.
Prayer: God, remind me who I am to you.
Remind me that the sum of my self worth is not made up of my
accomplishments or failures, and it's not about where I'm from, who
my parents are, who I marry, or how good my children are. Teach me
that because of what your son did for me, the only identity I must
bear now is this: beloved. In the name of Christ who called me
friend. Amen.
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