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Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

Compassionate Lord, Your mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day. Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge; ripen for spiritual harvest. Let me this day know You as You are, love You supremely, serve You completely, admire You fully.

Through grace let my will respond to You, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that Your free love alone enables me to serve You. Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with Your choice gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase away its mists of ignorance.

from a Puritan prayer, 18th century New England.

To Withstand the World

O  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, do not permit vanity, self-love, sensuality, carelessness, nor anger to rule over me and steal me from your love, O my Lord and Creator, all my hope! Do not leave me without a portion of the blessed eternity. Grant also that I may follow your Holy example, that I may submit to the authorities placed over me. Grant me the clean soul, the simplicity of heart that makes us worthy of your love.

Prayer of Praise (from Isaiah 45)

You are the Lord, and there is no other; apart from You there is no God. From the rising to the setting of the sun, I know there is none besides You. You formed the earth; You made the earth to be inhabited, and you created me in your image to dwell upon it. All praise to the great Creator: You are the Lord, and there is no other.

(Isaiah 45:5-6) Mason Barge 5/9/2014

Benediction

If you are with me, O God, who can be against me? For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

The Sum of a Christian

Matthew 5:5 (ESV)

lessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Notes on the Scripture

The Beatitudes [3]

All of the beatitudes have more than one level of meaning. But always, the most important meaning is also the most obvious one; for Jesus did not make Christianity difficult. The Beatitudes, and the entire Sermon on the Mount, could be summed up in a single short sentence: Jesus said, “Be like me.”

To say that the meaning is obvious and clear is not to say that it is ordinary, or simple to implement. The idea here is astonishing. The received wisdom of modern life is that self-assertiveness is the key to success. Dozens of experts will be glad to sell you a book explaining how to become self-activated, aggressive, ambitious; how to make others look up to you, how to rise to the top of the heap, how to run first in the rat race. For women, there is a special, gender-specific body of self-help work, that begins by teaching them shame at “being a doormat.” Meekness is failure. Attend a Leadership Conference!

Once again, Jesus turns our knowledge topsy-turvy. He tells us that the kitchen maid will some day own the manor house. Preposterous. Yet, his credibility is bolstered by his rare ability to say, “Do as I do, not just as I say,” for Christ was the ultimate servant. And as such, he scored the greatest victory in history: triumph over death.

Merriam-Webster tells us that meek means, not simply gentle and submissive, but specifically “enduring injury with patience and without resentment.” Christ is called the “Lamb of God” for a number of reason, and here is yet another; for a lamb is the meekest of God’s creatures.

Judaism adds a level of understanding to inheritance. The passage can be translated, “they shall inherit the land.” To a Jew, the land is Israel. And up until now, one could hardly call the Hebrew method of acquiring the land “meek”. The covenant of Moses was a covenant of violence against the heathen tribes of Canaan. So in essence, Jesus is repudiating a central tenet of the Old Testament. Jewish listeners would have been astounded, hearing this for the first time.

But unlike the Jews who first heard this, we already follow Christ. We trust his word implicitly; thus, meekness is our goal. And you know what? It works out rather well in terms of living our lives on earth. When we manage to control our anger and self-righteousness, we profit by it. Feeling entitled breeds resentment, from which proceeds all kinds of unhappiness.

But being meek is not easy! Nor can we expect perfection. But by prayer and meditation, and using the power of the Spirit, we can wrestle our pride into a small corner; and our lives will know a peace that we might not have thought possible.

Daily Inspiration

“God Changes Hearts”

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