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Category Archives: Matthew

Matthew 5:17-20

24 Jul

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:17-20

Dear God, the “Law” in interesting. What do we mean by “Law”? Jesus uses this as a set up to start going into the higher standard you have for murder and adultery than even the Pharisees had. But when we read this today in 21st-Century American churches I would imagine a good majority of Evangelical Christians would first think of LGBTQ+ issues. They would look at verse 19 and say that some people are trying to set aside that command and water it down. But there is so much more! It’s like being worried about the emotional health of children by worrying about 2% issue of the books of questionable content in the library instead of looking at the other 98% of things that are attacking our children (and us as adults).

So, again, it is easy for me to sit and think–and judge–other Christians for how they are approaching this, and another to look inward and consider how I might be setting aside your commands.

I’m in the middle of reading an interesting book by A.J. Jacobs that I’ve mentioned in these prayers before called The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. It’s been a great look at taking every command you gave in the Old and New Testaments, whether through Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, or the Apostles, and do his best to live by each one. Some of it is extreme. Some of it is impossible. But some of it is so good and so healthy. I’m a third of the way through it right now, and I am fascinated to see how it will end. Who will this agnostic Jewish man become after spending a year within your sphere of influence.

Father, I don’t want to set aside any of your commands or the Prophets. In fact, one of Jacobs’s pastoral advisors through this process encourages him to focus on the Prophets, which I should probably do more. I also don’t want to miss what you might have for me through the teachings of Jesus because I am so myopic on being legalistic. Help me to sink into this today. Help me to consider it. Help me to stew on it a little. Help this passage to soak into my soul. And it’s not so I can be great in your kingdom after this life. It is just so I can be pleasing to you, my life will be worth something to your kingdom, and I might become the man you have for me to be. And thank you for the grace, Jesus, as I fail and struggle to know you. And thank you for the comfort, guidance, and counsel, Holy Spirit, as I move through each day.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 24, 2024 in Matthew, Sermon on the Mount

 

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Matthew 5:13-16

23 Jul

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16

Dear God, what kind of salt and light do you want me to be within my sphere of influence? I guess another question is what kind of salt and light do I allow into my life to strengthen my relationship with you and my faith? What do I listen to? What do I read? With whom do I visit? If I am the average of the five people I spend the most time with, what does that mean about them and about me?

But back to me being salt and light, I think sometimes it is easier to be salt and light in a secular environment. I know how to talk about my faith and the difference you have made in my joy and peace with people who do not have that frame of reference. For whom it is a foreign concept. The tricky part for me is how to get past the cultural acceptability of being a “Christian” in my community and drill down to the differences between being a nominal Christian and being a disciple.

I’m about to spend the morning with our staff in a staff meeting. I will have an opportunity to show your love to my coworkers and inspire them into deeper discipleship. I will have an opportunity to learn from them and grow stronger in my faith through their inspiration. Then we can take that salt and light and take it to each other, our volunteers, and our patients. When people come to us and they are hurting, scared, and desperate, we have something beyond our services to offer. Help us to remember that.

Father, help me to be salty and light-filled today. Help me to shine for you and spread your salt to others. And put your saltiness and light into me. Through your Word. Through your Holy Spirit. Through my interactions with others. Let it be all about you and bringing you into this world so that your kingdom might come and your will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 23, 2024 in Matthew, Sermon on the Mount

 

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Matthew 5:1-12

22 Jul

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:1-12

Dear God, who is “them”? “He began to teach them.” Was he teaching the crowd or his disciples? Or both? It’s interesting that he sat down. That’s one of the things that makes me wonder who he was addressing. If it was a crowd I would think that he was standing up. I would also think he would have taken a lower spot elevation wise so his voice would project into them and not over them.

For just a moment, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before and think of this as just being for a group of 75 or less. Maybe more than the 12, but less than the crowds.

With that said, these Beatitudes are interesting because he might be teaching the disciples that they should appreciate these people. “If you see someone who is poor or even poor in spirit then you better love and respect them because your father loves and cares for them.”

The first two, poor in spirit and those who mourn, are changeable conditions. Love on those people. But the rest are attitudes of the heart. Meek, hunger for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers. And then we double around and come back to a possible temporary condition of life, persecuted. “If you’re doing these things and persecuted for it then you’re doing the right thing.”

Father, give me a heart to spend time with and live on those who are poor in spirit and mourn. Give me a heart that pursues you in mercy, hungering for righteousness, meek, and striving to make peace. Glorify your name through me. And if I am really living into this well and someone persecutes me for it, may my persecution be a pathway for them or someone else to follow you.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit.

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 22, 2024 in Matthew, Sermon on the Mount

 

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Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

21 Jul

Dear God, I was listening to a great interview this week with Rich Villodas about his new book The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies our Souls. It’s about the Sermon on the Mount, and I look forward to reading it soon. I’ve been asked to teach a Sunday school class for a couple of weeks in a row in a couple of weeks, so I think I want to explore if maybe this is something you’re leading me to.

For today, I thought I would just sit and write an outline of the sermon over the three chapters. I would have sat down earlier today to do it, but I knew it would take some time, and I did not want to be rushed. Okay, here we go:

  • Jesus outlines what the life you bless looks like and how you bless us — the Beattitudes
  • Our job in living for God – Salt and Light
  • The law is still in effect
    • It’s easier to break the law than you think
    • Take seriously to avoid temptation (take out your eye, cut off your hand, etc.)
    • Divorce is serious
    • Oaths are important
  • Eye for an eye was never law, but permission. Now the new standard is turn the other cheek
  • Love your enemies and pray for them
  • Give to others
  • If you seek reward for behavior now it will be denied you later
  • (Here’s the one that is hard for me, but I think I’m doing this for the right reasons–to inspire others to spend time with you) Private prayer is important. It needs to be earnest and not for show.
    • How to pray — The Lord’s Prayer
  • Forgiveness is critical for our well-being and to secure your forgiveness
  • Do not fast for acclaim, but for our own development in you
  • Do not make accumulation of wealth a priority
    • Money is dangerous and can easily be an idol
  • Worry is a lack of faith
  • Judging others is really bad. We have enough wrong with us without worrying about someone else
  • You love us enough to give us what we want in our prayers if it is good for us
  • Finding the path to a good life with you is hard, but worth it
  • Choose who you listen to or trust by their fruit
  • Following Jesus’s teaching here will lead to peace, even in the midst of storms, on the narrow path

Father, this sermon is a tall order, but it’s remarkable. I am grateful Matthew recorded it for us. One thing that Villodas said is that some people see this sermon as something we strive to achieve so that we might achieve redemption in you and reconciliation with you, but he taught that we should see this as the fruit of a life lived in worshipping you and following you. And I can say that, while I still fail throughout this sermon, I am better now than I once was. Yes, I still judge people, but I am quicker to remember to have mercy on them and consider their perspective. I am also better at stopping myself and doing some self-evaluation when I start thinking about how others are sinning. That’s just one example. I could list many more. But the truth is that I am just grateful to be here praying to, loving you, and even sitting here this afternoon and appreciating what Jesus taught almost exactly 2,000 years ago. Thank you, Father.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 21, 2024 in Matthew, Sermon on the Mount

 

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Matthew 11:28-30

18 Jul

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Dear God, I have a little confession here. I don’t think I’ve every really understood this passage. I can kind of get my head around laying down…hold it. Wait. I just realized something as I looked at these verses again. I’ve always read it that I’m supposed to lay down my burden and not carry it anymore, but carry your burden instead. But that’s not what this says! I just double checked a couple other translations as well. What it says is that I bring this burden to you, hook myself up to your yoke, and then, at least how I am reading this passage this morning, the act of bearing your yoke will help me to carry my burdens. My burdens are still there. My sorrows are still there. But now I am attached to your yoke. I’m typing on the computer, but if I were using emojis on my phone I would put the “mind blown” emoji right now. I’m a little stunned.

Oh, Father, how wrong am I every day? About my theology? About my opinions? Oh, how I was so smart and understood it all when I was younger. But the older I get the more humbled I am. I told someone yesterday that I’m convinced that the more dogmatic someone is about a certain opinion means they are actually afraid they are wrong about it. They don’t want you to challenge it because they aren’t convinced they can defend it. That might not be 100% true, but it feels generally true. As for me, I am getting more and more comfortable with the idea that I am wrong about a lot of things.

So back to this passage, if I’m reading this correctly (now), this is what reconciliation with you is all about. It’s not about me walking away from my burdens. It’s about sharing them with you. It’s about remembering to seek you in solving or resolving them. It’s about turning over the outcomes to you, trusting that you have a plan that is bigger than I can see. It’s about remembering that you are my everything.

Father, help me to hook up to your yoke today. Help me to walk in your joy. Help me to carry that yoke to others and invite them to join me in my journey. I’m grateful for this opportunity. I’m grateful to understand maybe a little better why this passage never made sense to me and now it does. It’s interesting that chapter 12 starts with the disciples and Jesus breaking some Sabbath rules, and it actually links the stories with these words from Jesus by starting chapter 12 with “at that time.” Oh, Lord, be with me today in every moment.

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

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 18, 2024 in Matthew

 

Matthew 7:7-11

12 Jul

7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

Matthew 7:7-11

Dear God, I normally look to other sources to bring verses to pray about to me such as Bible Gateway’s verse of the day or the daily readings from different denominations such as the Catholic or Presbyterian Churches. But today, I want to focus on some intercessory prayer. There are four things, in particular, that are on my heart this morning. I want to ask you for these things. I want to knock on your door. I want to be your child and pray for good gifts for your children that I know. I want your best for my friends, family, and me.

For the mother I know who is having “spontaneous” (not through artificial methods) triplets today at 32.5 weeks, I pray your protection. I pray for your mercy. I pray for your power. I pray that your angels will be standing in that room, guarding, protecting, and guiding. I pray that you will bless this mother and father. I pray that you will guide all of them closer to yourself. For the mother, I pray that you will protect not only over her body, which is a given, but her spirit, mind, and heart. Love her well. Fill her with a sense of yourself. Care for her. Help her to feel loved by you, by her husband, by her 8-year-old daughter, her parents, and her friends. This is obviously a unique experience. Be there for every bit of it. As Nancy French put it when she described her in-laws praying for their son who spent time in the NICU in her book Ghosted: An American Story, I would like to put in a personnel request to your heavens and ask that you make some special assignments to that hospital room today. Holy Spirit, there is so much to pray for for them. Please fill in my pitiful prayer with your own groanings that are too deep for words.

For the friend whose wife is going through cancer treatment, I ask for your protection over her. For her healing. For her hope. For her energy. For her strength. For her spirit. For her mind. Help her to feel you and your presence. Again, I ask for some special angel attention over her. Love her. Guide her. Support her husband and her family. Give them strength. Give them hope. Give them a sense of who you are in this. I know they can’t see what you are doing in real-time or what is going on, but I pray that they will be at peace and really know what it means to rest in you.

For the friend who had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday, I ask that you will bring back a good report. He is a cancer survivor from several years ago. I pray that you will touch his body and keep it whole. Speak to him and his wife through this process. Help them to feel your love and support. Help them to feel your Holy Spirit speaking to them. Of the people I’ve prayed for this morning, I know this man and his wife the best. I pray that you will show my wife and me how to love them. Minister to them, Holy Spirit. Cover them. Help them to find you in an even deeper way through this concern.

Finally, there is a funeral in our family this weekend. People will come together over thousands of miles. Family who haven’t seen each other in a while. Some have broken relationships. Some won’t be there because of the broken relationships. I pray that this good woman’s death will count for your and your glory. Protect over each heart there. Make us vulnerable, gentle, and humble. Help us to submit to one another. Help my wife and me to carry your with us, and let the fruits of your Spirit that grow in us abound for such a time as this. And help those there be drawn closer to you through the death of this great lover of you.

Father, I pray for my normal concerns as well. My relative who is recovering from cancer. My coworker who is pregnant. My own relationships that are sources of sorrow for me. Protection for my wife and me as we travel, love each other, and support each other. That I might be exactly who you need me to be. And if personnel can spare an angel or two our way, we won’t turn them away. 🙂 We love you. I love you.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 12, 2024 in Matthew

 

Matthew 10:5-8

10 Jul

5 Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, 6 but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. 7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!“

Matthew 10:5-8

Dear God, I wonder this is where the original 12 first misinterpreted Jesus’s instructions and thought that he was here only for the Jewish people. Later, in Acts 10 and 11, they have to go through a process for breaking this paradigm of Jewish-only evangelism.

So I guess it makes me wonder why he did give them this limitation. Why no Samaritans? Why no Gentiles? Was it a concern for their safety? Was he just trying to build up knowledge of who he was among the Israelites of the time? Was he setting up crucifixion week? I’m sure there was a reason that was beyond, “I love the Israelites more than I love the Gentiles and Samaritans.” But is that how they interpreted it?

But what is your call on me? First, how boldly am I supposed to pray? I wrote an article in a newsletter recently about praying more boldly. And I have. But has it been consistent or bold enough? No. Am I supposed to heal? Cast out demons? Raise the dead? These are obviously gifts you gave the original 12 in that moment (Matthew 10:1). I know some of that is available to us now because I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes (mainly the healing from illness, not resurrection from the dead). Am I bold enough? I’m preparing to be with a lot of my wife’s extended family this weekend for a funeral. There are relationships among us that are broken or damaged. Am I praying faithfully enough about their healing? Am I praying over my wife enough as she goes into this environment? Am I expecting enough of the Holy Spirit to do something special?

Father, I want to first pray for my wife. She has a special role to play in the funeral we are attending. I pray that you will prepare her heart for everything she will encounter as she goes through this weekend. Love her well. Help her to feel completely surrounded by you. Help her to feel safe. Give her words to say. Give her ears to hear. Give her eyes to see. Help her to bask in your presence. And help all of these, well, all of these hurt people, including me. Let forgiveness and repentance flow freely. Let your love flow into each heart. Use the pain of this loss to guide each heart on the journey you have for us. Don’t let it be wasted. And as for the demons who are messing with all of us, in the name of Jesus, I pray that they would lose their grip and be sent on their way. Cast out into the swine or whatever needs to happen. The demons of addiction. The demons of entitlement. The demons of offense. The demons of self-righteousness. The demons of lies. I pray that all of these would be bound by Jesus and seen no more.

I offer all of this to you only through Jesus and with the Holy Spirit of the Lord, God Almighty,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 10, 2024 in Matthew

 

Matthew 9:9-13

05 Jul

9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Matthew 9:9-13

Dear God, after I read this passage this morning, I remembered a conversation I had with a friend on Tuesday. I hadn’t thought about it since then, but now I remember. He asked if I would join him in prison ministry at a state prison about an hour and a half from here several times a year. My initial reaction was, No. No, I don’t want to do that. I told him I would consider it and pray about it, but then it left my mind as soon as he left and I have thought about it in three days. But here I am. I’m praying to you. I’m thinking about it. I suppose this is where I will live up to my word with him and “think and pray about it.”

Jesus certainly didn’t mind sitting with people of questionable repute. In fact, he was seemingly quite comfortable with them. He loved them. He wanted the best for them. He called on them to change and follow you, to be sure, but he didn’t insist on that before he came to them. In fact, a lot of people got help from him without ever having asked for forgiveness. I’m thinking the woman caught in adultery for one. I’m thinking about the man lowered through the roof. Jesus forgave without them ever asking him to. Very interesting.

Father, help me to really consider this invitation from my friend. Help me to completely hear from you what you want me to do. Are you calling me to this? Are you not calling me to this? I don’t know. But I know I want to really hear you on this one. There is so much need in the world. I know I don’t have to solve all of it, but I certainly want to use my life to touch those you are calling me to touch. Help me to know what that is.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 5, 2024 in Matthew

 

Matthew 16:22-26

27 Jun

22 But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Matthew 16:22-26

Dear God, I am seeing things from my point of view and not from yours (verse 23). That seems like the story of my life sometimes. I try to see them from your perspective, but my own selfish agenda gets in the way. The idea of truly giving up my own way and letting go of my life instead of hanging on is hard. To really understand that striving for worldly gain will likely…there I go again, inserting the word “likely” like it’s a probability and not a certainty like Jesus said. Let me try again. To really understand that striving for worldly gain will cost me my soul. That’s harsh.

Upton Sinclair, in his book  I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked apparently said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I was listening to an interview this morning with a sports writer in Austin named Cedric Golden talking about recruiting in college athletics. In it, he said, “I think the new way of doing business is more financial. I’d love to say that it’s all about going into moms’ and dads’ living rooms and saying, ‘We’re going to take care of your kid for the next four years. He’s going to get a degree, and blah, blah, blah.’ That game has changed. When [the University of Texas] had their first official visiting day of the football players a couple of weeks ago, they had six Lamborghinis parked at the facilities, engines revving.” I was so disgusted. Not with UT, but with the state of college athletics overall. So much for telling our children there is more to life than money. There is no measure by which they can tell that by many of our lives.

Father, that includes me. Yes, I’ve passed up more lucrative opportunities to stay in my current position, but I also make a pretty decent living and have a comfortable lifestyle. Am I someone who is willing to have my mind changed when it will materially cost me something? Am I willing to let go of my life? Am I willing to consider my life worth nothing to me (Acts 20:24)? Holy Spirit, nudge me today. Show me when I am being selfish and self-serving. Show me when I am judging someone else and not exhibiting your love. Show me the opportunities you have for me to be your hands and feet and help me to not miss them. Help me to love you with everything I have and to then follow that up with loving my neighbor as much as I love myself.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2024 in Matthew

 

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The Beatitudes – Jesus

25 Jun

3 “God blesses those who are poor in spirit and realize their need for him,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4 God blesses those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are humble,
    for they will inherit the whole earth.
6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be satisfied.
7 God blesses those who are merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
    for they will see God.
9 God blesses those who work for peace,
    for they will be called the children of God.
10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

Matthew 5:3-12

Dear God, I was listening to this week’s Voxology podcast this morning and they were talking about the new Louisiana law that will put the 10 Commandments into every classroom in Louisiana. While not advocating that any Christian religious symbol or language be mandated in a classroom, they suggested that maybe a better alternative would be the Beatitudes as taught by Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. That sounded like an intriguing idea, so I thought I would take a look at those verses from Matthew 5 this morning and think about what it might be like for children to at least passively see them regularly.

Honestly, God, it’s pretty amazing and powerful stuff! For children to see that it’s okay to be poor in spirit. To mourn. to be meek. to hunger and thirst for righteousness. To be merciful. To be pure in heart. To be a peacemaker. To even be persecuted (bullied) because of righteousness. What great character traits for everyone to have and to be reinforced.

There is a room in one of our local schools that casually puts the words love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control in big letters on the walls (note, they don’t have peace for some reason). I recognized them as the fruits of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. I’m sure the children don’t. And there is nothing offensive about them so the words are allowed to stay. I am much more interested in this sort of affirmation of your character and what it means to follow you as opposed to listing 10 Commandments from Exodus that, according the Jesus, all of us have broken each one–even if we only hated and didn’t actually kill.

I read an article the other day that talked about how abortions are actually up overall in the U.S. since the Dobbs ruling the overturned Roe v Wade. I think one of our problems is that when we (the moral majority?) feel like we are losing the influence and persuasion battle, we reach for power to enforce our will. What a foolish thing!

Father, help me to lead today with love and patience. Help me to not be afraid to encourage and persuade. Help me to remember to pray for others about whom I care. Help me to willingly take a back seat and even suffer for them. Help me to dive into service of others. That is how you would have me impact the world. Not through power, but through love. I love you, Lord. Help me pass that love of you to others.

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

Amen

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2024 in Matthew

 

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