On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “ Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead— by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone . And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:5-12

Dear God, the Jewish rulers, elders and scribes were the “builders,” but they used the wrong materials to build. They got the cornerstone wrong. Little did they know you were going to make Jesus the cornerstone anyway.

I just keep coming back to today’s church in America. How many pastors are using the wrong stones to build? How many are focusing on the wrong things? How many are placating their congregations or their own pride and vanity instead of submitting to you?

And now that I am throwing stones, let me aim them at myself. Where is my head right now? Am I doing what I can to point people to you through Jesus? Am I building with the wrong materials? Am I pointing to my own “wisdom” and “ability” as the cause for success instead of you.? Am I trying to solve others’ problems or my own problems with my own intellect instead of leaning on you? Are you my personal cornerstone?

Father, it seems that repentance is always the order of the day for me. I am sorry. I am sorry for so many things. Help me to see my own sin clearly, repent of it, and then take up my cross and follow you. Help me to pray for others. I have a friend right now who is particularly on my mind. I have relatives as well. There are so many who need your help. Please help. And help me to not only have you as my cornerstone, but to build the world I can influence by using you as the cornerstone in all my my work.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen