Daily Devotion for June 12, 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.
This peppy inspirational number from the Ball Brothers is the perfect way to get our engines revved up for the week to come. “The battle has just begun.”
Everybody fumbles the ball sometimes;
You're not the only person
Who's been let down and left behind.
So pick yourself up off the ground,
I've been there and I have found:
Refrain:
There is hope,
In the middle of the night,
Hope in the middle of the fight.
The battle ain't over
If it's only just begun.
Where there's will
You're gonna' find a way,
Tomorrow will be another day,
Keep hanging on at the end of your rope,
There is hope.
Even in the darkness,
It only takes a tiny spark to start a fire.
If you miss a target
Take another shot
And aim a little higher.
When life kicks you off Easy Street
You might not always land on your feet.
So if you believe
Just roll up your sleeves,
Doesn't have to be the end,
You are strong in love,
So this world plays tough;
You can rise above and win.
Prayer of a Nigerian Christian
God in heaven, you have helped my life to grow like a tree. Now something has happened. Satan, like a bird, has carried in one twig of his own choosing after another. Before I knew it he had built a dwelling place and was living in it. Today, My Father, I am throwing out both the bird and the nest.
Prayer for Love
My blessed Lord, I ask for Love. But how shall I show my love, since love proves itself by deeds? Well! The little child will strew flowers; she will embrace the Divine Throne with their fragrance, she will sing Love's Canticle in silvery tones.
Yes, my Beloved, it is thus my short life shall be spent in Thy sight. The only way I have of proving my love is to strew flowers before Thee — I will let no tiny sacrifice pass, no look, no word. I wish to profit by the smallest actions, and to do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love's sake, and for Love's sake even to rejoice: thus shall I strew flowers.
Not one shall I find without scattering its petals before Thee. And I will sing. I will sing always, even if my roses must be gathered from amidst thorns; and the longer and sharper the thorns, the sweeter shall be my song.
Blessing
Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity.
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
Where do we find this quote from Christ? “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.”
Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,
But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Luke 6:45 (ESV)
What We Say
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Notes on the Scripture
oth of the Bible passages today (as well as the painting of the Tower of Babel) relate to the same topic: the importance of what we say. Think for a moment how important your speech is. It is powerful. You can almost instantly change another person's emotions with just a word, and many times you can influence what they think and do. A word can even kill; and a word can save a life.
There is another importance to our speech. Whenever we speak, we influence how others perceive us. It is how other people know what we are thinking, what is in our heart. If we are to let our "light shine before others" (Matthew 5:16), we must do it with our speech.
Jesus tells us, in the Gospel of Luke, that by talking and writing we can produce good. We can make the world a better place just by speaking what is in our heart. We have the power within ourselves to actually create goodness.
But if our heart is evil, so our words will damage both others and the way others see us. This creates a difficult problem because, being human, we are filled with all kinds of sinful drives: Pride, anger, self-righteousness, envy . . . the list is long. We must speak our heart, but first, we must fill our heart with the goodness of Christ.
The Bible does not tell us to be stupid; it tells us to use our minds to distinguish good from bad, to be "as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16) Our ears are filled with all manner of evil and bad advice, and sometimes, it is hard to tell what is what; but we must try. We must try to think about things, and always, to measure each day what we see and hear against what we read in the Bible and what we discover about ourselves when we pray.
And having prepared our heart, we must then speak the good that is in it; for the goodness in our heart is a "treasure" that we should share with others. There is no limit to the goodness that God will put into our hearts, if we seek it; and "out of the abundance of [our] heart" we can speak this goodness in all that we do.
