arrow to previous dayarrow to next day
Welcome back, Friend.

Daily Devotion for July 23, 2017


<i>Garden of Eden</i> by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Breughel, ca. 1615.
Garden of Eden by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Breughel, ca. 1615. An odd but extremely successful collaboration by two great masters. (Eve adds another dimension to the saying, “you are what you eat”!)

Prayers

Scripture

177 people in our community are currently praying with you.

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.

Amen.

Our “Virtual Sunday Church” takes us to the Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Morristown, NJ, for a beautiful old hymn.




For the Spirit of Prayer

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord. Let your Holy Spirit guide me in my prayer and in thought, and grant me the grace to listen and hear your Word. Soften my heart, that I may be directed by your truth, and not the devices of my body and mind. In the name of Christ I ask this,

Amen.

Confession of Sins, with a Prayer for Contrition and Pardon

Most merciful God, whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, and who has promised forgiveness to all those who confess and forsake their sins; I come before you in a humble sense of my own unworthiness, confessing my many transgressions of your righteous laws. [* Here make a short pause, to remember and confess the sins and failings of the past week.]

But, O gracious Father, who desires not the death of a sinner, look upon me, I beseech you, in mercy, and forgive me for all my transgressions. Make me deeply sensible of the great evil of them; and work in me a hearty repentance; that I may obtain forgiveness at your hands, who is ever ready to receive humble and penitent sinners; for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, my only Saviour and Redeemer.

Amen.

Covenant Prayer

I  am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Dedication

Finally, let me go forth in thanks for the victory I have been given through our Lord Jesus Christ. May I be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and always remembering that in the Lord our labor is not in vain.

Amen.

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.



endless knot

Proverbs 12:10 (NKJV)

A righteous man regards the life of his animal,
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.



Blue Latin Cross

Genesis 1:28-31 (ESV)

Dominion and Stewardship

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.


Notes on the Scripture

A

fter God made the earth, and filled it full of plants and animals, He gave us dominion over it and all the creatures within it. He made us the kings, the rulers, and turned it over to us. (And we, no doubt, immediately began to complain about things we didn’t like.)

It is difficult to remember, even when we give thanks, all of the extraordinary things that make earth habitable. We do not even think to thank God for gravity, or for phenomena in the atmosphere that keep the sun from killing us (such as the Van Allen belt). Earth is a very well-constructed spaceship!

Like kings and queens throughout history, we have shown more talent at accepting the bounty of earth than in taking the responsibility for its care. It becomes even more difficult for us because we have to share it with over seven billion other people, every one of whom is born with the same pride and greed as we ourselves. In some ways, we are more “members of congress” than kings and queens.

But people, with rare exceptions, do have dominion over part of the world. And it is up to us, in both capacities, to be wise in our management of the earth we were given. We have power, and if we don’t like the sandspurs growing in our lawn, we have both the right and the power to pluck them out.

Note one oddity of Genesis 1: everyone was supposed to be a vegetarian. While people were given dominion over animals, they were not given authority to eat their flesh. God's explicit authority for us to eat meat does not appear until after Noah has survived the flood (Genesis 9).

Also, note the passage from Proverbs. A righteous man “regards” his animals, which in ancient Hebrew meant “treats them decently.” There is not much in the Bible about treatment of animals, but this passage equates cruelty to animals with wickedness.




Garden of Paradise, Eden, Breughel Elder
Paradise, Jan Brueghel the Elder c. 1610

Daily Inspiration

“ God Can ”

Current Memory Verse     Remember the Bible

Print Today’s Devotion





Today in Daily Prayer

Memory Verse

Acts 23:5: You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.



About Daily Prayer



Follow us on Facebook
Join the Daily Prayer Group.


If you are new to Daily Prayer, welcome. This page provides a non-denominational, Bible-based devotion every day, including prayers, Scripture, Bible study, music, and art, designed to be usable for worship and the deepening of faith by any person who confesses Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We hope you will take a look around at some of the features. Registration and membership-dependant features have been disabled, temporarily, while we add new security features. You should be able to use our Daily Bible Quiz, but Match-a-Verse , and Memorize Favorite Bible Verses won’t be back for a while.

We do not email anything, except replies to emails from readers.

“The mind of God is greater than all the minds of men, so let all men leave the gospel just as God has delivered it unto us.” ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon





Comments


Register for the Forum  Post a Comment


Our Community Around the World: Visitors July 1, 2009 - October 1, 2023


US  83,559,217
PH  6,517,455
CA  6,022,764
UK  3,900,469
AU  751,102
MY  103,677
ZA  102,555
NZ  98,931
SG  96,313
NG  81,473
IN  79,221
AE  66,880
SA  62,278
TT  59,321
KE  69,561
BB  54,010
JM  50,484
FJ  44,356
KY  41,644
CN  36,375
DE  30,516
HK  29,772
KR  26,339
GH  21,404
DM  21,025
IT  20,763
FR  20,313
TZ  16,068
BM  16,045
BS  15,664
MW  12,524
ID  12,141
LC  11,836
ZW  11,422
GU  11,319
PK  10,699
CZ  7,448
CO  7,411
UG  7,223
HN  6,991
VC  6,314
QA  6,208
MX  5,089
KW  4,226
BR  4,124
NL  3,956
TH  3,888
BZ  3,647
BW  3,456
OM  3,451
BG  3,450
BO  3,120
EG  4,782
CH  6,919
NA  2,422
ES  2,419
AW  2,335
PR  12,563
LK  3,282
IE  2,964
IL  2,551
GY  2,539
ET  2,312
TW  2,310
CM  2,242
BE  2,038
DK  6,333
LB  1,682
ZM  1,503