A Prayer about Freeing Our Hearts

by | Feb 26, 2021 | 40-Day Prayer, Daily Prayer, Suffering

A Prayer about Freeing Our Hearts

Lord Jesus, 

May we stop our scrolling for one minute to consider your merciful mission: 

When a bully taunts our child; 

when our child turns his heart away from you,

Our hearts break.

When trusted allies become enemies, 

when we act like enemies toward trusted allies,

Our hearts break.

[Add your own sentence or two about what breaks your heart.]

God sent you to bind up our broken hearts. Thank you.

When work consumes us; 

when we consume substances to numb us;

Our hearts are bound.

When pursuit of people’s approval drains us; 

when we cling too tightly to people to give us security,

Our hearts are bound.

[Name some ways your heart can be bound.]

God sent you to “proclaim liberty to the captives,” 

to open the prison “to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1). 

Lord, thank you for your mercy and grace. 

We are so glad you completed your mission.

Draw us to seek you with our whole hearts.

In your healing name. Amen. 

Read Isaiah 61:1-4.

Love and Sacrifice in Our Many-Splendored Kingdom

by | Feb 23, 2021 | Devotional, Gospel living, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Love and Sacrifice in Our Many-Splendored Kingdom

….and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10

Dr. Irwyn Ince, in his beautiful book, The Beautiful Community: Unity and Diversity and the Church at Its Best, recalls the day he first learned that his skin color differentiated him. The ten-year-old New Yorker had traveled with his family to Disney World for the first time. He was playing in a hotel pool with another young boy. The boy asked Ince to use his float, and Ince readily agreed. But when Ince asked his new friend if he could borrow his float, the boy said flatly, “No. You’re colored.” Ince, who grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood and had not known his color could be a hindrance, told his Indian-American teacher about the incident. She replied simply, “Well he doesn’t know that he’s colored too. White is also a color.” (The Beautiful Community, 13).

The story demonstrates an essential truth sometimes forgotten by the white Euro-Christian culture: the many-splendored kingdom of God will be  multiethnic, multiracial, and multi-variegated. There is, in fact, no dominant culture status in our heavenly kingdom. In order to begin growing more fully into our identity as priests of this kingdom, many of us need to do two things: first, search our hearts in prayer to see if there be any “grievous way” in us (Psalm 139:23-24), and second, spend more time imagining this many-splendored kingdom.

Some of us may need to hear and heed Frederick Douglass’ piercing observation: “Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.”.⁠1  For example, as a white American Christian, I need to ask, “Do I prefer my dominant culture status?” Probably. Do I prefer the comfort and familiarity of “my way”  of doing church? Probably. Am I willing to experience discomfort for the sake of the current minority, so that our community reflects the beautiful community in which we will one day dwell forever? I hope so. As I humble myself in confession, the Holy Spirit reshapes me, making me more suited to dwell in the many-splendored kingdom of priests.

In addition to praying and searching our hearts, we also need to immerse our imaginations in this kingdom of priests composed of colorful characters from every tribe, language, people, and nation. As we read Revelation 5:9-10 and Revelation 19:6-9, we imagine the multicolored priests of the kingdom heading to a kingdom feast. A coffee-colored New Delhi woman robed in a turquoise and silver sari strolls arm in arm with a pale Okinawan woman robed in a scarlet and gold kimono. A midnight-black Nigerian woman decked out in a tangerine-colored tie-dyed wrapper is escorted by a sun-browned Mexican vaquero sporting his best black cowboy boots. The kingdom feast features a lavish spread of the most delectable foods in the world—Turkish delight and fried turkey, seaweed salad and Salade Niçoise, peanut curry and collard greens, snowflake cake and apple strudel.

Dear friends, extraordinary wonders await us in the many-splendored kingdom. Let’s remember that we’ve already been recreated by Christ to be priests in this kingdom. And as we await the day when God’s kingdom will be fully consummated, let’s prepare for eternal life there by building beautiful communities made up of wildly diverse people with wildly diverse tastes. By God’s grace, may we taste of this kingdom delight today.

Prayer

Father, forgive us for the ways we seek comfort in our smaller stories of church and community. Open our eyes to see the beauty of your kingdom and prepare our hearts to worship in this many-splendored kingdom you are creating. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Further Encouragement

Read Revelation 5:8-10, 7:9, 11:9, 14:6; Ephesians 1:10.

Listen to “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.”

 For Reflection

In what ways does your church and community reflect the many-splendored kingdom of God? In what ways could it grow in becoming more like this many-splendored kingdom?

The Beautiful Community is an affiliate link. That means I make a few cents if you purchase it after clicking on that link.

1 Quoted in “The Radical Christian Faith of Frederick Douglass,” D.H. Dilbeck,

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/january-february/frederick-douglass-at-200-remembering-his-radical-christian.html

When Changing Our Minds Is a Good Thing

by | Feb 16, 2021 | Devotional, Lent, Weekly Gospel Meditation

When Changing Our Minds Is a Good Thing

Dear Friends, as Lent begins tomorrow, I wrote this meditation about repentance, a little understood and less embraced essential truth of the Christian life. Remember, if you’d like forty (free) printable Bible verses to help you in your preparation for Easter, you can get yours here.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Matthew 3:2. 

I stared glumly at the stoplight, willing it to turn. I was uneasy under the harsh glare and loud shouting of the slender young street preacher on the corner. With his Bible raised high like a bludgeon, he screamed, “Repent!!! The kingdom of heaven is near!!!!” Is it any wonder many of us cringe at the call to repent?

As kingdom servants, though, we must recapture the message of repentance as a powerful call to change that comes with the enabling power to change. First John commanded it. Then Jesus commanded it (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). We cannot ignore their call. To embrace repentance, we must understand at least five things about repentance.

First, repentance can’t be severed from the gospel, the “good news” that Jesus came to bring. After John was arrested, Jesus came, “proclaiming the good news of God,” telling people, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15). The good news—our Saving King has come, leads to the bad news—we must repent of our sins, which leads to the good news—trusting our Saving King for salvation.

Second, repentance is a complete and utter change of heart, mind, soul, body, the only logical response for a citizen of the kingdom of God. It is a radical change of mind about the king we serve and the kingdom we inhabit. Repentance turns us away from the kingdom of self we so often seek, the kingdom of security and significance, of houses and cars and kids and followers and likes. 

Third, repentance generates grief, deep sorrow for putting ourselves on the throne. That grief turns us happily toward the king who, because he loves and delights in us, died for our sin. As we return to the king, we seek first the things of the kingdom of heaven.

Fourth, repentance bears fruit as we seek the things that matter to Christ: faith and hope and love; trust and imagination and sacrifice, things that can’t be found in a condo on a beach or a grade on an exam. 

Finally, the most important thing we need to know about repentance is what the young street preacher failed to share—the power to repent comes from the Holy Spirit. While we are too blind to see our allegiance to self-rule, the Spirit graciously (and sometimes painfully) removes those blinders, opening our eyes to our sin. While we are too hardened of heart to change our ways, the Spirit softens our heart, making it pliable. To repent, we must collapse on Christ, and we must do it again and again and again. 

Dear friends, join me in repenting, in collapsing before the true King for all of the things we need for “life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). In “repentance and rest” is our salvation (Isaiah 30:15).

Holy Spirit,

Use your laser of love to heal the cataracts clouding our vision of the true kingdom. Draw our eyes to gaze on the majesty and mercy of our one true king. Compel us to collapse on Christ every day, every minute, every hour, in repentance, for his kingdom is near. 

In Jesus’ life-changing name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Matthew 3:1-12; Matthew 4:12-17; Mark 1:14-15; 2 Corinthians 7:10.

Listen to “Patient Kingdom” by Sandra McCracken.

For Reflection

Have you ever “cringed” at the call to repentance because of the way it was given? What realities of repentance give you hope to obey Jesus’ command? 

A Prayer about God’s Healing Work

by | Feb 13, 2021 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about God’s Healing Work

Great Physician,

It’s been just under a year

since America felt the first effects of the global pandemic: 

lockdowns and quarantines, masking and hand washing. 

Over 2 million people have died throughout the world 

from the dread COVID-19 virus; 

many continue to experience longterm effects. 

How grateful we are for the scientists and medical personnel 

who worked round the clock to develop vaccines 

that will ward off this grave illness.

How grateful we are for the tens of thousands

 of health care workers administering vaccines 

in all areas of the world. 

How grateful we are for the wisdom and expertise 

you have given us in this world to enjoy good health, 

to care well for the temple you created our bodies to be.

In your healing name we pray. Amen.

Read Psalm 30.

A Prayer about Longing for Love

by | Feb 12, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Valentine's Day

A Prayer about Longing for Love

Loving Father,

Why is it that Valentine’s Day, 

a day that is meant to celebrate love, 

can make many people feel deeply unloved and profoundly alone?

I remember Valentine’s Days in middle and high school, 

longing so desperately to have the “cupid” 

call my name to come forward and collect a wilted carnation. 

I imagine many others have their own past memories 

and present moments of longings for love unrequited. 

May those deep longings for love, 

whether for the love of a parent, the love of a friend, or the love of a spouse, 

be met with your tenderness and compassion. 

May we all recognize that you created us for relationship, 

and that our longings for love are good. 

Where we are lonely, draw us near to your heart, 

and declare your delight over us. 

Not only that, transform our minds 

so that we truly believe you love us, 

even if you haven’t given us the love on this earth 

that we so dearly crave. 

Hold us tightly in your steadfast love, 

reminding us that you will never leave us nor forsake us. 

In Jesus’ tender name. Amen.

Read Psalm 73:26; Psalm 136.