Daily Devotion for September 2, 2012
Prayers
Scripture
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.
Our Sunday Anthem comes from the Chapel of St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
"For Each New Morning"
For each new morning with its light,For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
I thank thee.
Prayer for Purity of Thought
Almighty God, who alone gave me the breath of life, and alone can keep alive in me the holy desires your Spirit brings; I pray to you, in the name of your infinite compassion, to sanctify my thoughts and endeavors this day; that I may not begin to act without a pure intention or continue it without your blessing. And grant that, having the eyes of my mind opened to behold things invisible and unseen, I may in heart be inspired by your wisdom, and in work be upheld by your strength, and in the end be accepted by you as your faithful servant; through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Prayer for Life
O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant me so to die daily to sin, that I may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Benediction
May the God who made me, the God who keeps me, and the God who will be my Lord through all eternity, shine down His blessings and wisdom upon me like the sun upon a field; and may I keep Him in the forefront of my every thought and deed, throughout this day, and evermore.
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.
Psalm 100
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
1 Corinthians 14:10-19 (ESV)
Tongues and Prophecy [2]
There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say "Amen" to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Notes on the Scripture
After introducing his thoughts about speaking in tongues in the previous verses, Paul gives a rational argument that can be summed up in a sentence: Speak in tongues when you pray alone, but speak in the common language in a group. He validates speaking in tongues as a form of prayer, calling it "prayer in the spirit" even though it is not prayer in the mind. But his argument against the practice in group worship is that it means nothing to the others in the group — it does not "build up the church" — and also, his own mind is not engaged.
If one will speak in tongues, Paul urges him to "translate". That is, to let his words be freely moved by the Holy Spirit, but to speak in the language of the speaker.
I'm sure many of us never speak in tongues and even shrink from the thought, but we might nevertheless learn something from it. There are things in our mind and in our spirit that can be suppressed by too much rigidity in prayer. Simply letting our mind go empty and repeating something like, "Holy Spirit be with me," until our mind gradually empties of clutter, might result in a time of prayer that will be surprising and satisfying. I do this and I feel like it deepens my prayer life a great deal. The outcome can be very unpredictable, from a conversational prayer in everyday language about things that are on my mind, to very emotional moments of closeness to God.
