Daily Devotion for May 15, 2017
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.
From the love of my own comfort,
From the fear of having nothing,
From a life of worldly passions,
Deliver me O God.
From the need to be understood,
From the need to be accepted,
From the fear of being lonely,
Deliver me O God.
Deliver me O God.
And I shall not want, I shall not want,
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want.
From the fear of serving others,
From the fear of death or trial,
From the fear of humility,
Deliver me O God.
Deliver me O God.
And I shall not want,
I shall not want.
When I taste Your goodness
I shall not want
Music and Lyrics by Audrey Assad & Bryan Brown
Praise to God
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips praise you.
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any grievous way in me, and if there be any, return me to your path, and lead me in the way everlasting. All glory and praise be your now, and forever,
Prayer For the Damned
Dear Holy God, I remember today all those who spend their lives denouncing Christ; the sarcastic atheists who make fun of believers; the people whose careers are built on trying to discredit your Word; and all those who follow false, dead-end religions. Help me to expunge any anger I may feel when attacked by such people, or when I hear their misguided words. Let your Spirit be strong in me, to educate my tongue, if I am called upon to respond to one of them; and let me always answer in love and serenity.
Most of all, heavenly Father, forgive them; if it be Your will, bring the light of your salvation to them, heal them of their bitterness and self-absorption, that any and all of them might find the beauty of life in Christ, and be torn away from the clutches of Satan. In the name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
Benediction
Oh God who has made me, oh God who keeps me, oh God who will be my Lord through all eternity, shine down Your blessings and wisdom upon me like the sun upon a field; and may I keep You 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.
Today’s “Remember the Bible” Question
Which Bible verse asks, “Were you baptized in the name of Paul”?
Psalm 90:10, 12 (NKJV)
The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Genesis 25:19-23 (ESV)
The Story of Isaac [1] - Jacob and Esau Born
This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
The Lord said to her,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
Notes on the Scripture
f you got the sense that Abraham was not really tied closely to the Mesopotamian culture of the place where he was born, or wondered why someone from a highly civilized area would go wandering about the chaotic wilderness of Canaan, today's passage gives a big hint. Bethuel, Abraham's nephew, is called an “Aramean”.
Trying not to make this too confusing, there were three great early cultures in Mesopotamia: Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. But apparently, Abraham's family was not from one of these cultures. Instead, they were from a nation whose members did not build great cities and armies, but tended to wander around grazing their flocks wherever there was water, and getting along with the great powers wherever they went. We certainly see this in Abraham, who left the city of Ur and lived in Canaan, then in Egypt, then among Philistines near Beersheba, then among Hittites in Hebron.
But the oddest thing about this nation of nomads was that their language outlived all of the great cultures of those thousands of years before Christ. In fact, Christ himself spoke Aramaic, the language of the Arameans, for it became the common language of the entire Middle East.
Rebekah gets a prophecy about her pregnancy. She is carrying twins, and what's more, they are fighting with each other while still in the womb. This does not bode well for the relationship between the brothers.
The prophecy confirms that there is trouble to come. Both will be the patriarchs of great nations, but these nations and the brothers will be separated. Indeed, we learn that their lives will be parallel to the lives of Isaac and Ishmael, for the younger shall be the greater.
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