Saturday, May 30th

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.”  Acts 2:5

Lord God, Today I marvel at your wisdom and the way in which the gospel message spreads.  In great wisdom you gathered people from every tribe, nation and language in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost and then, those people went home as carriers of the gospel message.  And they were not silent.  I often forget that I am a carrier for the gospel message.  I forget that in my heart and on my lips are gospel truths that would save people from sin and death.  I am too often a silent carrier of the gospel message.  I too often keep my mouth closed when I should speak up.  Holy Spirit, I pray, remind me every day that I am a gospel carrier, a gospel witness, a gospel messenger.  As I come in to celebrate your grace this morning, so send me out today into my life with the gospel message always on the tip of my tongue.  Remind that I am a carrier of this gospel truth and then give me words to speak when I have the opportunity.  Give me words to share so that the gospel harvest may continue.  Amen.

The Christian’s hope is contagious.  As we find hope and courage in the death and resurrection of Jesus, so we pass it on to those around us by action and by word so that they may share our joy with us. 

Friday, May 29th

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.”  Colossians 1:8

Lord Jesus, Thank you.  Thank you for the family into which you placed me.  You set me in a family and gave me parents so that I might know you and believe in you.  Thank you for the neighbors whom you have placed around me.  You put people around me in that neighborhood, at my work, in all sorts of places, and you used them to tell me about Jesus.  And not just that, but you want to use me so that they will know you.  Thank you for the pastors you have sent to serve me.  They work hard to preach and teach your Word to me.  Thank you, God, for your organizing work in my life.  You have arranged all things in my life and sent people into my life so that I would hear your gospel and believe.  Thank you.  I pray, keep me in this faith and use me so that many more may know the truth of your gospel.  Amen.

God could have gotten the gospel to us in all kinds of different ways.  He is God!  But he chose to use people to tell us about Jesus.  Thank God for those people today. 

Saturday, June 6th

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  Colossians 1:15-20

Lord Jesus, I am simply in awe of you.  I came into this day worried and concerned about many things.  There are things going on in my life that are unmanageable and uncontrollable.  There are things going on in my life that seem to be falling apart.  But I know that they are not because you are not.  You are managing, ruling, and controlling all things.  You are not falling apart.  In fact, you are holding all things together with your almighty power.  It is simply astounding.  Help me today, dear Jesus, to stand back in awe of who you are and what you do.  Help me today, dear Jesus, to see your power, your might, your supremacy, your all-controlling power and might.  You are fully God, ruling over all things for me.  Set my heart at rest because of your great power and might, your deep care, love and salvation for me.  Amen.

The Jesus that we see walking around, teaching, healing, saving, rescuing, casting out demons, and raising the dead is true God. 

Thursday, May 28th

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12

Dear Heavenly Father, I know my life is finite on this earth.  Help me to live this day as the treasure it really is.  I won’t get it back and there’s no guarantee that I will have that many more.  My times are in your hands.  Give me the wisdom to speak to those I love with the words you want me to say.  Help me have the courage to leave behind more for others than I try to leave piled up for myself.  Make my life more valuable after I am gone than when I am here because I leave behind your word and good deeds that bless long beyond my days.  And after it’s all said and done, give me the faith to value your Son’s life for me more than my life for him.  Amen.

Living selflessly in honor of God is re-gifting the best he has given you. 

Wednesday, May 27th

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people-the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.  In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world-just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.  You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.”  Colossians 1:3-8

Lord God, Thank you.  My heart overflows with thanks as I think about the dear people who share my faith and who worship with me every Sunday.  You have been working and continue to work in their hearts and lives for the gospel.  My heart overflows with thanks because of their kindness, their love not just to me but to others as well.  More than that, dear Father, my heart swells as I hear reports of what your gospel is doing in places like Africa and Asia, in places where I cannot go and do not live.  Your gospel has wings and it is flying through people to those places.  Give your servants in those places strength for the work you have given them to do.  Most of all, O Spirit, I thank you for winging your Word to me.  My faith is one of the greatest miracles of all.  Thank you for planting it in me and for sustaining it in me.  Keep me in this faith all the days of my life until I reach my home in heaven.  Keep me for the treasure you have stored up for me in heaven.  Amen.

The Gospel has wings!  It has winged its way to my heart and, like a trending topic, it is winging its way into all the world through God’s people.  Watch it fly! 

Tuesday, May 26th

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”                    2 Corinthians 5:17

Dear Lord Jesus, You have come to make me new.  I am not who I used to be though I certainly see dramatic glimpses of the old me.  It’s like an old habit that I can’t quite quit.  I just can’t seem to beat him.  My mind races and thinks thoughts that I know are false and untrue; I think thoughts about people and events that I should never be thinking.  Things come out of my mind that I am not only ashamed of, but I don’t know where they came from.  As much as I work on it I just can’t seem to control my tongue.  As much as I know what the wrong thing is and what the right thing is, Lord, I can’t.  And it’s so frustrating to me.  I want to follow you fully and completely.  I want my whole being to be used in service to you.  But it isn’t!  I’m sorry.  Make me new from the inside out.  Renew my mind by the teaching before my Father in heaven.  He receives me as his child because of you.  Keep making me new day by day so that I may live and walk as your child today and every day.  Amen.

The new life of a Christian is first a status before God, then it is a life lived by the constant renewing, resurrecting, and transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus on the inside. 

Monday, May 25th

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Matthew 11:15

Lord Jesus, As I begin this year help me to hear your voice as you speak to me in your Word.  You come to me through inspired words of the Scriptures to teach me, to correct and rebuke me, to encourage me and build me.  You want to show me the length and width and depth and breadth of your love for me, of your power at work in me, and of your rule over all things.  Help me to hear Paul as if you were speaking.  Help me to listen as if you were the One who sits with me today and speaks.  If you were with me across the table, I would sit with rapt and careful attention.  I would take to heart the things that you say; I would take careful note, maybe even writing down the important things that you say to me.  I would take those things with me.  Through Paul and through your called servants you do speak to me like this.  Help me to hear you through your Word and through your called servants and take to heart the things that you say.  Your words are full of the Spirit and they are my life.  Amen.

Monday, May 25th, Memorial Day

God of our fathers and Lord of the nations, A melancholy melody lingers over America these days.  It is the sound of Taps.  Each evening, to weary warriors in barracks or aboard ships is has called out, “All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.” But this weekend we hear the call sound forth in cemeteries-where warriors sleep in graves.  Flags fly over these grave sites, and tears water the grass around the headstones.  We bow our heads in memory of the lives lost to defend America.  But we lift our eyes in thanksgiving for your protecting hand over our nation.  We beseech you to remain our great Defender.  We beg you to forgive our individual sins and our national sins for Jesus’s sake.  You, Lord, are our only hope.  Your Son once rested in a grave after he had fulfilled his mission to rescue mankind from the grip of the eternal enemy.  Then he rose from that grave to reign in glory.  So may it be with our warriors who have closed their eyes with your name on their lips, and your promise in their hearts.  Raise them to serve you in the sweet and blessed country of God’s elect.

Let the final words of Taps become our own: “Thanks and praise, For our days, ‘Neath the sun, ‘Neath the stars, ‘Neath the sky, As we go, This we know, God is nigh.”   Amen.     

Saturday, May 23rd

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”  Matthew 6:25-26

Dear Jesus, You had very little in this life and no savings to speak of, yet you didn’t worry about anything, not even when you could not see where your next meal came from.  I have so much more than you allowed yourself and yet worry nips at my heals often.  I find great strength in your words here.  You point me to the birds and remind me that I’m more valuable to you than they.  When worry comes calling to meet with me today I will tell him that I’m too busy chatting with faith.  Thanks for giving me something to do about my worry.  Amen.

Worry fills the vacuum when we shove God out of our hearts. 

Friday, May 22nd

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”  Colossians 2:6-7

Dear Jesus, I praise you for all that you are and all that you have done for me.  You have come from heaven.  While you were here you emptied yourself so that you might fill me with your fullness.  Though you are truly and fully God, you became man.  Now, you fill me with your fullness.  You have taken my sins away and were condemned for them so that I would not be condemned.  You erased the debt of sin that was against me.  You have raised me to life by your Spirit just as you came up from the grave on the third day.  You have made me dead to the world so that the things of this world mean less and less to me because you, dear Jesus, mean more and more to me.  I pray, by your Holy Spirit, keep planting me more and more firmly into your Word that I may truly understand and experience the fullness of you living in me.  Remind me again and again how fully my debt has been forgiven by you, how it is erased and that I have no more debt against you.  Give me roots of faith that grow deeper and deeper into you and into your Word.  That is the one thing I ask of you, dear Jesus.  Give me roots that run deep into you.  Amen.

The more we sink our roots into Jesus-who he is and what he has done-the less we are moved by the things of this world.  He is our everything; next to him this world has nothing to offer us. 

Thursday, May 21st, Ascension Day

“After he said this, he was taken before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them, ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’”  Acts 1:9-11

Lord Jesus, As I walk through my life, I often feel very much alone.  There may be people all around me, but I feel alone and on my own against so much that challenges me and threatens me.  I feel that I must take it on and fight the battle all by myself.  I am afraid and scared.  But your ascension comforts me.  Help me to find comfort in it today.  You have not left me.  You are not gone or absent from my life.  But you are over my life and present in it like never before.  There is nothing that is happening or will happen in my life that will take you by surprise or that will overpower you.  There is nothing that could happen that you are powerless against.  You are powerful over it all.  You are ruling over it all.  You are present in my life with you power, with your grace, with your wisdom and with you love.  Comfort me, dear Jesus with this truth. 

Jesus is not gone nor is he absent from your life.  You may not see his footsteps behind you or hear his voice in your ear.  But he is still present, more than ever in your life.  He is present with his power, with his grace, with his wisdom and with his love.  You are never alone. 

Wednesday, May 20th

“He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”  Psalm 91:15

Dear God, There is trouble all around me.  There are challenges and obstacles around every corner.  The devil wants to destroy me.  He is always working in me, on me, and around me to destroy my faith, to destroy my ministry, to destroy my family, to destroy me.  He hates me and wants me dead to you.  Protect me from his evil darts.  Shield me with your angels, with your power, with your Word, so that his darts do not pierce me.  Send your angels to watch over my every footstep so that I do not fall into danger.  Yes, dear Lord, be my refuge, my strength, and my shelter from life’s storms.  I heart you here promising that my hope is not misplaced.  You promise that you will hear me and not just hear me but be with me and not just be with me in trouble but also deliver me.  You will not let me down today, tomorrow, or any day.  Stay close, dear Lord, as this year ends and a new one begins.  Guard me.  Guide me.  Protect me.  Amen.

Our trust in God is not misplaced.  He has done, is doing, and will do what he has promised that he would do. 

Tuesday, May 19th

“Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Psalms 90:12

Lord God, These days go so fast.  The fun days seems to pass the most quickly.  The difficult days seem to drag on, but they too move from day to day as fast as the sun rises and then sets again.  Decisions must happen in a split second.  Our attention and our time is divided up among many different things.  These days go so fast.  I look back at my life and wonder where it all went.  I look at my calendar and wonder how I could do it all differently.  I pray, Lord God, give me a heart of wisdom.  Give me a heart of wisdom so that I may make choices that honor and set you as the highest and only priority in my life.  Give me a heart of wisdom so that I cut the clutter from my life and live a life that shows that you are my number one.  Protect me from danger.  Shield me from harm.  And help me to live my life and make choices for my life (and for my family) that recognize life’s shortness and eternity’s closeness.  Each day is a gift from you.  Give me a heart of wisdom to honor you in it.  Amen.

Time is short.  Eternity is close.  Live a life that always keeps in mind life’s shortness and eternity’s closeness.  The Lord is near. 

Monday, May 18th

“Look!  God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”  Revelation 21:3

O Immanuel, “God-with-us” is a name that takes on so many meanings to me.  It means that you have taken on human flesh and have joined the human race in an unimaginable way.  You took on our flesh, except for sin, and walked with us.  And that wasn’t all.  You took on our sin and made it your own and even died for it.  O Immanuel, you took up our cause and took away our death!  And that’s not all.  Here you give me a vision of day, a time, and a place where you will be with me and I will be with you.  We will talk together just like Adam and Eve walked with you in the garden.  At your ascension you went to prepare a place for me.  But never again!  You will be with me.  I, along with all who believe in you, will be with you and you will be with us.  O Immanuel!  I can’t wait for this day.  And that’s not all.  Until I reach my home with you and until you usher in your eternal and heavenly kingdom you will stay with me.  You promise to never leave nor forsake me.  You promise to give me help at the perfectly right time.  And because you took on my flesh you know what I’m facing and feeling; you can understand me and so help me in just the right way.  You aren’t a Savior who can’t relate to me.  You can fully relate to me, except for sin, and provide me the help that I need.  Stay with me today, dear Immanuel, and never leave my side.  Amen.

Immanuel is a name for Jesus that means God-with-us.  It means that he has taken on our human nature except for sin.  It means that God has come to dwell among his people.  It means that God will walk with his people.  It means that we are his people and that he is our God. 

Saturday, May 16th

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Luke 4:18-19

Dear Jesus, Your coming in the flesh has ushered in a whole new freedom, a whole new joy, a whole new seeing for me.  In you is life and light for all people.  I didn’t know how blind and dim my mind was to the ways of God until your Spirit came on me and gave me understanding.  I didn’t know how oppressed and imprisoned by sin and guilt I was until you came and washed my guilt away by your blood.  Now, dear Jesus, I long for the full, the free, and the true life that you came to bring.  Your Word helps me imagine this life of you where young men run without getting tired and where old men walk without growing weary.  Your Word helps me imagine this full and free life where there is perfect understanding and acceptance of everything that you have said.  I long for this, dear Jesus, because I know that I’m not living that life yet.  I am still carrying the baggage of my past, of sin, and of guilt on my shoulders even though I know and believe it has been forgiven.  It still weighs me down.  I am still carrying a pressure to perform and measure up even though I know and believe that in you I am completely pleasing in your sight.  Continue to come to me, dear Jesus, and send your Holy Spirit too!  Send him and open the eyes of my heart so that I may know the riches of my inheritance among the saints.  Open the eyes of my heart so that I may know the hope to which you have called me.  Open the eyes of my heart so that I may know and experience the power of your resurrection in my life.  Come, dear Jesus, and set me free so that I might live to the full for you now and for all eternity.  Amen.

We can imagine the full and free life now.  Jesus truly sets us free for it.  Later, we will fully experience and live the full and free life.  Jesus came to bring us to it. 

Friday, May 15th

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”  Colossians 1:16

Lord Jesus, You are Lord of all.  You created all things and you put them all under your feet.  It is all created through you and for you.  I forget that part sometimes.  I think that it’s for me.  I think that it’s about me.  I think that everything revolves around me.  When in fact, the world, along with both everything and everyone in it, revolves around you.  You created this world and even me to magnify your glory and to be a reflection of who you are.  O dear Jesus, forgive me for this self-centered thinking.  Forgive me.  I do praise you that even in my self-centeredness you never stop ruling over all things.  I can’t screw it up (and I shouldn’t try!)  But I praise you that I don’t and I can’t.  You will always be over all and through all and in all.  In all things you remain Lord of all.  Amen.

Thursday, May 14th

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”  Romans 12:3

Dear Jesus, Few burdens are as heavy to carry as self-awareness.  It’s painful to be honest about strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and idiosyncrasies.  So, most of us walk around with an unrealistic inflated view of ourselves.  But you see me as I really am and you want me to be real with myself.  Then I’ll be the best person for others.  Keep me honest and humble, Lord Jesus.  Don’t let me minimize or maximize my opinion, talents, strengths and weaknesses so that I make mistakes with people.  Just help me be a hardworking, loving me. 

Self-awareness begins with honest openness towards God’s word and will for our lives. 

Wednesday, May 13th

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.  After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”  Hebrews 1:3

Dear Jesus, I forget how powerful you are.  I forget how much you truly rule all things.  I often live my life as if you were not in charge, as if it were up to me to protect, provide, and get things done.  I often think and live as if you were not in charge.  I fight for things as if they were mine to protect and keep and hold.  Dear Jesus, I often think and feel and live as if you were not in charge, as if you were not holding all things up with your mighty word.  Forgive me for this.  You are truly greater than all things.  You are truly holding all things by your mighty word.  You are truly sitting at God’s right-hand ruling over all things; all things are yours, not mine.  Forgive me for my sinful way of thinking and living.  Forgive me and keep on doing what only you can do.  Only you can hold this world up and hold this world together.  Only you can keep this world and my life from blowing up into disorder and chaos.  Only you can rule over all the events of this world and of my life.  And that’s the way it should be, dear Jesus.  You are wise.  You are good. You are gracious to me.  Even when I rebel against your rule, you do not turn from me but continue to rule by your might and mercy.  Forgive me.  And keep on ruling for my good today.  Take all the events of this day and order them by your might.  Redirect my thinking and my acting according to your will and your word.  Make this day yours because that is truly what it is.  This is your day and I get to live in it.  Establish your will and work in my life today, dear Jesus.  Amen.

We often live and act as if the world were ours to rule over and to own.  But it is not, It is His!  Jesus holds this world together with his word.  It is all his and he rules over it all from God’s right hand. 

Tuesday, May 12th

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  Isaiah 53:1

Lord Jesus, It almost seems to outlandish, too crazy.  It’s too hard to believe and too hard to grasp for many.  Your appearance as a human being on this earth is hardly what was expected or even dreamed of.  You came as a mere human being and abuse after abuse was heaped upon you.  You took on the weaknesses and infirmities of the human body.  You carried our sorrow and our pain.  You looked so weak!  Especially when you were crushed for our sins.  Especially when the punishment for our sins was laid on your shoulders.  And then you were given a grave with the wicked in your death, but were buried in a rich man’s tomb.  The story of your coming into this world and your exodus from it is outlandish.  But it is the way by which you saved the whole world.  It is the way by which you took my punishment on yourself and rescued me from that punishment.  And by your Spirit I believe it.  And so do many others.  I believe what you have done for me is my salvation.  I have seen your mighty, saving arm, Lord, and it gives me joy.  Give me courage and strength to take this message to more and more people so that they may see and know what you have done.  Amen.

The message of the cross is unbelievable, but it is the only thing to believe.  Life comes only by faith in the life and death of the Son of God.

Monday, May 11th

“You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.”  Isaiah 9:3

Lord God, Such joy is ours!  Such confidence is ours!  Such brightness comes to our hearts!  Such hope fills our hearts!    It’s like we get to stand at the edge of the harvest field and see the harvest ready to be gathered in.  It’s like the festival meal that we enjoy when the harvest has been gathered in.  It’s like when warriors gaze at the plunder and enjoy splitting it up.  Lord Jesus, you have come.  You have won the victory.  You have given me your Word.  You have given me your Spirit.  You have given me grace in place of grace already given.  When I was born into this world, you brought me into your family through baptism.  You clothed me with righteousness and gave me your name.  Still to this day you feed my soul through your word and enlighten my hope with the promises of your word.  And I know that into this day, in this week, into this month, and throughout the rest of my life you will do more than I can even begin to imagine.  I can’t wait to see what you will do.  Amen.

Our Savior Jesus will fill us with joy that we can barely begin to imagine.  We can compare it to the joy we experience at earthly things, but it doesn’t even come close to the full joy we’ll experience at his final coming.