Dear God, I want to start again by praying for my couple friend where the wife is very sick. I spent a lot of time praying for them last night during a sweet worship service at our church. Oh, Father, please be merciful. Oh, Jesus, please be merciful. Oh, Holy Spirit, please be merciful. Show their friends and family how to love them. Heal her. Give her strength. Support him. Give him strength. Support their children. Give them strength. Father, show me what you would have me to do for them.

While I am here, I have the three women who work with me who were pregnant. Two have now had their babies and one is still due in September. Please take care of all three mothers and their babies. And prepare their siblings for their new roles and big brothers. And for my friend pregnant with triplets, please protect her babies and her. Please protect all of them.

Here are today’s passages from Sacred Invitation: Lenten Devotions Inspired by the Book of Common Prayer:

• AM Psalm: 89:1-18
• PM Psalm: 89:19-52
• Jeremiah 16:10-21
• John 6:1-15
• Romans 7:1-12

Psalm 89 – Wow, this really took a turn. It was all happy and worshipful until verse 38 when it starts talking about you forsaking David. Was this during Absalom’s uprising? I don’t know. But it’s interesting. Of course, you never broke your promise to David. It just didn’t look like it in the moment. We can almost never see what you are doing in the moment.

Jeremiah 16:10-21 – I heard Father Mike Schmitz point out one time that after the exile, the Israelites really didn’t have a problem with idol worship anymore. Yes, the Pharisees were very legalistic by the time Jesus came along, but (and this is me, not Father Schmitz, talking) this almost seems like a kickback reaction to the Israelites being unfaithful and exiled. An accepting of the words of prophets like Jeremiah by them generations later.

John 6:1-15 – I wish we knew more about Andrew. It seems like every story about him is sweet and positive. I need to spend some more time with him at some point. In this story, he is the one who found the boy with the bread and the fish. He didn’t know how it could work, but he somehow saw the potential in it when the others saw impossibility. I think back to Andrew following John the Baptist and switching to Jesus. I think about him recruiting his brother Peter. I think about how brothers can often be opposites, and these two seem like opposites. Yeah, I like Andrew a lot.

Romans 7:1-12 – I wonder what Paul coveted. Much like I know the vices of my heart, Paul knew the vices of his own heart, and here he reveals that coveting was high on his list of personal vices. I also read this and think about someone I know who walked away from you because they decided it was easier to get rid of the “rule maker” to deal with the guilt of their sin rather than address it and accept your grace for themself.

Father, as I get ready to go into this day, help me to walk with your grace. Help me to remember the suffering of those around me, pray for them, and then serve in some way. I worship you as my Lord and my God.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with the Holy Spirit,

Amen