Saturday, November 26th

“Above all, maintain constant love for another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”               1 Peter 4:8

Lord Jesus, the community of the church is such an important one and so valuable to me.  The community of the church is there to tell me about my Savior Jesus.  She is there to correct me when I sin and to comfort me when I repent.  She is there to tell me of God’s love and to guide me to live for him.  The church is there to sing with me, to cry with me, to pray with me, yes, even to pray for me.  Your church exists to encourage me and to spur me on to live for you.  Your church is a safe haven in this world that hates you and hates us.  Lord Jesus, by faith I am a member of this church.  Help me to love like you love me.  Help me to correct my brothers and sisters in faith when they stumble into sin.  Help me to comfort and assure them of your love and forgiveness when they return.  Help me to hold them up to you in prayer and to hold them up in life with the arms of love.  We’re walking in faith and life together toward heaven.  Help us to keep on loving each other as we walk together in faith and life.  Amen.

Friday, November 25th

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Galatians 3:28

Dear Jesus, You and your gospel take care of all racism, all sexism, all class separation, and all ethnic pride.  All Christians are equal in value before you.  Our humility and peace work together to make us want to celebrate our oneness when we meet other Christians.  We look at the world the same way, forgive the same way and seek to honor our Father together the same way.  All, our individuality pales in significance to our sameness.  It’s exciting to see how you have raised us up to each other’s status.  Help us all give each other the dignity of being a child of the king even when we feel our differences.  Amen.

The blood of Christ makes all Christians kinfolks.

Thursday, November 24th

Kind and compassionate Father, we must admit our hearts are not always filled with thankfulness, especially as we see so much sin in the world.  Too often they overflow with discontentment and a desire to see better days.  As broken people living in a broken world, it is so easy to focus on all that causes pain and suffering, on all that is wrong with this world and the billions who inhabit it.  Forgive us, Lord!  Forgive us our daily discontentment, worry, and complaining.  Wash it all away in the blood of our Savior! 

Send your Spirit through Word and Sacrament to open our eyes to the many blessings you shower down upon us every day.  Help us to recognize and appreciate every good and perfect gift that comes from your gracious hand.  Fix our eyes on the blood-stained cross and empty tomb of your Son from which flow our greatest blessings: pardon and peace, new life and eternal life.  Open our minds to the wonder of your generous daily care.  Fill our mouths with praise for your blessings of daily bread, the love of family and friends, the purpose and meaning of our vocations, and the pleasures of joy and laughter.  Move us to cling to your promise that in all things, even things that bring us pain and sorrow, you are graciously at work for our ultimate good.  Fill our hearts with compassion and move our hands to action so that we may be one of the reasons that our neighbors give thanks to you and praise your saving name.

For all your blessings, Father, we give you hearty thanks in the name of your dear Son, our Lord and Savior Christ.  Amen.

Wednesday, November 23rd

“The end of all things is near.”  1 Peter 4:7

O Lord, Time is so short.  I forget how fleeting time is.  I forget how fleeting my life is.  I even forget your promise that you may return at any moment.  Lord, help me to remember.  Help me to remember that you may return at any moment and help me to make the most of the time that you do give.  Help me to make the most of the moments I get with my family today.  Help me to laugh and pray, to love, to learn, to lead, to worship with them.  Help me to make the most of the passing moments I get with other people today.  Help me to love them, to serve them, and most of all to tell them about you.  Time is short.  Their time to know you for the first time or to know you better is passing.  Most of all, dear Savior Jesus, help me to make the most of the time I have.  Help me to use this time to know you better, to know how deeply you love me, to know the power of our resurrection, to know the riches of my inheritance among all the saints.  And help me, then, to use every moment that you give me for you and your glory.  Time is fleeting.  You are coming.  Help me to make the most of every moment.  Amen.

Tuesday, November 22nd

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  Matthew 7:1-2

Dear Jesus, Help me to truly believe in mercy so, even though I see the sins and faults of others, I do not think I’m better or less condemned by nature than them.  Help me to realize that if I live without patience and mercy, I will create an environment around me that treats me just the same.  If I do not remember mercy, I know you will make me pay for my sins too.  You came to earth to establish mercy as the greatest gift we all have.  Help me live by your mercy and reflect it in how I love people even when I must confront them to resolve conflict that their sins have caused.  Give me a merciful heart that loves the naughtiest of people the same way I love myself.  Make me an instrument of your grace.  Amen.

To have mercy is greater than any striving for self-perpetuated goodness.

Monday, November 21st

“Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.”  Romans 12:13

Dear Lord, You want us to be there for your people.  Help me to own the people in my church in my heart and treat them as one of my own dear family members.  You have brought them into your family by grace just as you did me.  Make me resilient to love them even if they let me down.  Make them patient and loving toward me even when I am not at my best.  Give me the time and foresight to invite them into my home and do life together with them.  Help me give rides and share vehicles the way my parents modeled for me with our church friends when I was growing up.  Make our church like one big family and start with me.  Amen.

Loving your Christian friends through thick and thin is loving God who gave them to you.

Saturday, November 19th

“For this reason, the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God’s standards.”  1 Peter 4:6

O Holy Spirit, Your gospel is so important to me and to all the world.  It changes everything.  It saves us from the sin that would leave us condemned under God’s righteous law.  Your gospel saves us from death and hell.  More than that, O Spirit, your gospel is the message that breathes life into my spirit so that I live by faith.  By your gospel, I now live for you, for my Savior and my God.  By your gospel, I have a brand-new life to live.  O Spirit, I have heard this gospel about Jesus, this gospel that saves.  I have heard it and I believe it.  I live because of it.  I pray, O Spirit, breathe life into me today that I might preach your gospel and give wings to your work.  I pray, O Spirit, give me words and opportunities so share your message of salvation with all whom I meet and see today.  Make me one who speaks and shares this saving message with all people everywhere so that they might live with you, yes, so that they might live for you.  Create in me and in all who hear this message a new heart, O Spirit.  Give us a steadfast spirit to sustain us.  Then we will teach people your ways and sinners will turn back to you.  Amen.

Friday, November 18th

“Be joyful in hope!”  Romans 12:12

Dear Jesus, What a pitchy and powerful command!  Hope is the calm assurance that everything will get better, even when I cannot see how.  It brings a joy all its own that hides deep in the heart even when our situation is rapidly disintegrating.  You have given me that hope.  You had it while you suffered and died.  It can accompany me there in my suffering and death too.  Help me to own the fact that I help propagate my own sadness by living as a functional atheist at times.  You are alive and you are my Savior.  I can be joyful in hope.  I don’t have to be stuck in sadness.  Give this faith-based gift to me today, Jesus.  Amen.

Joy is the offspring of hope.

Thursday, November 17th

“They will have to give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.”  1 Peter 4:5

Lord God, Nobody likes for someone to come and take a close and examining look at their life. There is always something to find.  As clean and as pure as we try to live there is always some part of our life that isn’t up to the holy standards you have set for our lives.  If you come and inspect us, examining us and our lives, you will find us wanting.  My life doesn’t match your Word.  My heart and motives don’t match your heart and desires.  My life doesn’t measure up.  My life doesn’t measure up, but there is One whose life did and does.  His name is Jesus, your Son.  He came and lived the life I couldn’t.  For his sake, Lord God, save me.  For his sake, Lord God, clear my record and give me his righteousness.  He alone is my hope and righteousness.  Because of his life alone, dear Father, am I confident that I will be found clear and clean on the last day.  Because of his life alone will I escape the judgement of hell and receive the reward of heaven.  Oh God, thank you for your Son who is my righteousness and my eternal life.  Amen.

Wednesday, November 16th

“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”  Romans 12:4-5

Dear Jesus, Thank you that you have made me part of a whole.  Help me fight the temptation to act as if I am a long integer.  Give me a love for family and the church that drives me toward them to live in community instead of orbiting outside the group like a lone satellite.  Thank you for the friends who have pulled me back over and over to keep me close to you and them.  Their words echo in my mind and I hear your voice in their tones.  I don’t always do the good things for the rest of my brothers and sisters in the faith for which you have made me.  But I want to be the blessing you intended.  So, crush my pride and stubborn lonely streak and make me use my gifts to be their relief and support.  Amen.

If we lose ourselves in serving others, we will never be bored. 

Tuesday, November 15th

“They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living-and they slander you.”  1 Peter 4:4

Lord Jesus, There is a lot of pressure from this world to do the wrong thing.  There is a lot of pressure to go along with sin and wickedness.  I’m tempted to drink too much because everyone else is and they might make fun of me if I don’t.  They’ve done it before.  I’m tempted to make unethical decisions and to do things that are sinful.  Sometimes desperation drives me to it.  Sometimes pressure from my boss, from my friends, pushes on me to do the wrong thing.  And they’re surprised.  They’re surprised that I don’t want to go along with sin.  Lord God, keep me from giving into their pressure.  Keep from giving into the pressure of my own flesh.  Give me strength to live for you.  I’ve given in to sin enough already.  I’ve spent enough time in my past sinning and pleasing my sinful flesh.  Forgive me for it and give me strength to live for you.  Give me strength and power by your Spirit to do what pleases you.  Give me strength to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness.  Let them be surprised that I don’t give in.  Let them say what they want about me.  I am yours!  You redeemed me by your blood.  Help me to live my life for you and for you alone.  Amen.

Monday, November 14th

“Arm yourselves also with the same understanding...in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.”  1 Peter 4:1-2

O Holy Spirit, When I was washed in baptism, you gave me a new name.  Then and there you adopted me into God’s family and made me your own.  Then and there your claim gave me your name as my own name.  Now my whole life has a brand-new purpose and destiny.  By my baptism, heaven is my destiny and my purpose is to live for you-all my life, all my words, all my thoughts, all my actions for you and for your glory.  More and more, Lord Jesus, let me live and all I do glorify and honor you.  More and more, Lord Jesus, help me to live my remaining days in this earth not for my desires, but for yours.  Teach me to do not what I want, but what you want.  Help me to do this, dear Savior.  Amen.

Saturday, November 12th

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding-because the one who suffers in his flesh is finished with sin.”  1 Peter 4:1

Lord Jesus, The life you call me to live as I follow you is hardly easy.  You call me to take up my cross to follow you.  You tell me to deny myself as I come after you.  You tell me to daily put to death everything in me that wages war against the good you want me to do.  You call me to come and die.  You call me to come and die to the sinful desire that live inside me.  You give me power to kill those sinful desires in the waters of my baptism.  Yes, you give me the powerful waters of my baptism where I drown all those desires.  You call me to come and die to putting myself first.  You call me to come and die so that you are first and everyone else is second in my life.  Lord Jesus, give me the same attitude that you had when you came to this earth-you came to die.  Lord Jesus, you call me to the same as I follow you.  Grant me power by my baptism so that I might die to sin and so live for you.  Amen.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Friday, November 11th

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  John 15:13

Dear Jesus, I know there are droves of men and women who join the armed services as mercenaries who live to fight.  But as many more joined up out of the same motives you had when you came to earth and spoke these words the night before you laid it all on the battlefield for us.  They served in the military of the United States of America to protect their family, friends and fellow Americans from tyrants and the enemies of justice and freedom.  On this special day I thank you for creating and sustaining people like this who have secured for my family and me a peaceful and tranquil life where I can worship freely, preach energetically, travel without interruption and pursue opportunities not known in most of your world.  These folks are a gift from you.  Today help veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much for so many, to feel their worth and comprehend the gratitude that the rest of us have for them.  Give them the honor they are due that will combat their feelings of chaos and worthlessness that war can ravage on a soul.  Make them understand that their sacrifices are not spent in vain on us who respect their heartfelt gift.  Protect their hearts from foolish despair.  Amen.

If your biggest earthly concerns today are your job, family, education and faith, you have a veteran to thank for the freedom and safety that allows for it. 

Thursday, November 10th

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”  Matthew 7:28-29

Dear Jesus, They could tell you were different.  I can too.  When I read your words, they are like nothing else I’ve ever read.  They drip with love for God, people and the truth.  They cut through the fog of pithy human wisdom and wishful thinking.  They give real hope that transcends political platitudes.  They help me see how I can please the Father by living out my faith.  They soften my heart that’s so prone to ossify.  They speak forgiveness and redemption that sweep away my despair.  Thank you for coming to earth to teach us the way to live and the way to heaven.  We would be totally lost without you.  By your Holy Spirit keep me reminded of your words throughout the day today and the weekend.  Amen.

Truth has a way of shoving its way to the front of our minds. 

Wednesday, November 9th

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”  Matthew 7:24-27

Dear Jesus, You have put your finger on the big missing link in all of our lives.  We think that hearing is as good as trusting enough to do what is heard.  Your picture of life is so accurate.  It’s like there are rainstorms rumbling out of control crashing into our lives and washing the dirt right out from under our souls.  Problems in this world are destined to come our way.  No one is immune.  No amount of money or human planning can stop them from invading and robbing us of our temporal dreams.  If we don’t build our lives on your words, (both the principles and the promises,) our lives will crumble when difficulties come.  We will make bad choices, have bad reactions and do things to make matters worse.  So, please, please, please help us build our lives on your pure words about love, faith, hope and life.  We want to be standing tall with you when the winds of trouble blast against our hearts.  Amen.

Jesus and his words are the best storm shelter we could ever possibly find. 

Tuesday, November 8th

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’”  Matthew 7:21-23

Dear Jesus, Your words strike fear in my heart.  I suspect you intended that too.  They deal with my sinful, selfish nature that always wants to be king.  They make me scan my life and look for what I need to apologize to you for.  They make me repent of willful neglect of my duty with family and friends.  They remind me that a relationship with you is not just words but heartfelt belief and actions that grow out of that faith.  I’m not a Christian because I do works alongside my sins.  I’m a Christian because I repent of my sin and cling to you for mercy.  My works are irrelevant when it comes to you and me.  It’s all based on faith.  I do trust you.  And I want you to be able to trust me too.  Help me be your true follower, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus sees the heart.  So, worship him there. 

Monday, November 7th

“Baptism...now saves you...through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.”  1 Peter 3:21-22

Lord Jesus, I quickly forget how much victory and power I have in my baptism.  I act and live like a submissive kitten, when in reality your death and resurrection won a victory for me that makes me a lion.  Lord Jesus, you conquered all things and put them under your feet.  You destroyed death.  You paid for all sin.  You crushed the devil.  All of it must bow to you and your will.  You give me this victory at my baptism.  Your victory, Lord Jesus, is mine.  The devil can’t hold any sin against me.  He can’t hold hell over my head as a threat.  Death can’t scare me because you have taken death’s sting.  Lord Jesus, help me to live with eternal confidence and resurrection swagger.  I am not defeated; I am more than a conqueror through you, Lord Jesus.  And nothing can condemn me now.  Nothing can own me now.  Nothing can defeat me now.  I am yours.  Your victory is mine.  Amen.

“So, when the devil throws your sins in your face and tells you that you deserve death and hell, tell him this; “I admit that I deserve death and hell.  What of it?  For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction for all my sins.  His name is Jesus Christ and where he is there I shall also be.”  Martin Luther

Saturday, November 5th

“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.)  1 Peter 3:21

Lord Jesus, There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t recall and remember the sins of my past.  There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t regret something I’ve done.  On top of all this, Lord Jesus, as I look further back into my life, I remember things from long ago.  My conscience keeps me awake at night because of what I’ve done.  I wonder how my sin has crushed other people.  I wonder how my sin has hurt them.  I regret and repent again of those sins, dear Jesus, and it crushes me again.  My conscience has good memory of all the things that I’ve done against you and other people.  But Lord Jesus, you don’t!  You don’t have a record of any of my sins because my baptism washed my conscience clean of all the things that I’ve done against you and others.  This is your promise and pledge to me at my baptism.  There and then you promised me that my conscience was clean.  Lord God, shut my conscience up with my baptism.  Help me to hold on to the promise you made to me at my baptism that no sin now condemns me.  Amen.

My baptism is a pledge and a promise from God that my conscience is clean.  There is nothing that Satan can hold against me.  There is nothing that anyone can bring against me.  My conscience is clear and clean.  God says so. 

Friday, November 4th

“Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.  Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”  Matthew 7:15-20

Dear Jesus, You never exaggerated a point or said anything false.  And you are serious about protecting us from false teachers.  With the click of my cell phone I can hear any kind of teacher or prophet I would ever want.  Some are amazingly gifted teachers.  Please give me discernment to be able to tell if any of them are teaching different than your pure word of truth.  Help me be able to know if they are actually in it to win it for themselves or for you and your beautiful gospel.  Make me aware of the fruit of their lives, so I can see when they are truly not one of your humble servants.  And in the meantime, I pray that you fill the world with true and humble teachers of your word that are well versed in the Scriptures and who share it with power and clarity.  Amen.

Just because a teacher is good doesn’t mean he is right.  Be careful how you listen.