The author wrote the following devotionals for the Home Altar in 1982.
Waiting For The Morning
SUNDAY, September 6
Psalm 130
Even small children learn to know the painful experience of crying out from the depths. Any dreadful reality such as losing something important, being ill, or losing control of things can make it happen. We cannot kid ourselves then. We have to face reality. Yet, as we begin to face and accept our situation, we learn to wait for God’s intervention.
I can remember many times in my life when I lay awake all night waiting and longing for morning to come. When it finally came, I always felt better—even though nothing had changed in what I feared. The only thing different was that light had come, making it possible for me to see things in a new way. Only then could I understand what the psalmist meant when he cried, “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem” (v. 7).
Often the solution to our problems is not in what can be changed but in some light that makes us see it differently.
Prayer
O Lord, may my eyes always be open to see your light so that I may see the world and my life from your perspective. Amen.
Do Not Quench The Holy Spirit
Monday, September 7
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
Do not restrain the Holy Spirit. Paul sees a negative and a positive side
to that. Do not despise inspired messages. Put all things to the test: keep what is good and avoid every kind of evil. If you welcome evil or do not test everything, then you quench the Holy Spirit. However, Paul tells us that joy, prayer, and thanksgiving are signs of the Spirit and means of keeping in step with God.
Being joyful does not necessarily mean we are always happy but that we have God’s presence—even in the worst disasters. Praying at all times does not mean we are always talking with God but that we live constantly in his presence. And being thankful in all circumstances does not mean we should be thankful for all circumstances. Thanksgiving is not a result of having what we want but of God loving us and being with us.
Prayer
Lord, keep us all in your grace. Amen.
A Prayer From Down In The Dumps
Tuesday, September 8
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Jeremiah had been put in the stocks for saying what he felt God wanted him to say. If you have ever been in trouble without having done anything wrong, then maybe you know what Jeremiah was feeling. He blamed God for his trouble. He had to do what God wanted but hated doing it and wished he could stop, for people laughed and did violent things to him. He felt everyone was against him, even his friends.
It is helpful to realize that the prophets in the Bible felt like we do. They got mad at God, were confused and depressed, and didn’t always have things together. I hope you noticed that it is God to whom Jeremiah was telling it like it is. I used to think that God would only hear nice, respectful words. I now know better.
Prayer
Thank you, God, that you neither destroy nor always punish me when I get angry. Amen.
A Promise To Come Home
Wednesday, September 9
Jeremiah 29: 10-14
Jeremiah is speaking not to an individual but to the group—the community. He sees the hand of God in the disaster that overtook the people of Judah. He also claims that God’s final purpose is to restore them, to bring them home—not only to the land, but to God!
God often uses history to get his bidding done. He allowed the Babylonians to conquer Judah. Jeremiah called that God’s judgment. I don’t think I would say it was God’s will, his intention, that his people should be conquered. It happened because of the evil and foolishness of the nation. Yet it certainly served God’s will, which was to chasten his people.
God always intends that which is good. Sometimes we wonder if he is to blame for the bad things that happen in our lives. I think the bad things are allowed because God gives freedom. However, he always intends that out of those things we should come home to ourselves and to him.
Prayer
Thank you, God, that your will is always good. Amen.
Fulfilling The Law
Thursday, September 10
Romans 8:8-10
Flesh, for Paul, doesn’t mean “skin.” It means all of life organized around selfishness, organized against God and his order and design of life. Spirit, for Paul, is life organized to seek and do God’s will. We do not do God’s will just by obeying rules. That could all be done for selfish reasons. We fulfill the law by being in the Spirit.
We do not always know what God’s will is, but we do know whether or not we are seeking that will or just seeking to do our own thing.
The Spirit of Christ, who comes in our submission to God’s will, is the one who brings life. Seeking our own will cuts us off from God and leads us toward death. The God who came in Jesus Christ fills us with life only as we submit to him.
We fulfill the law’s purpose by living with the awareness that each moment we are in God’s presence and living for him. Only then are we in right relationship to God, others, and ourselves—and that was what the law was pointing toward.
Prayer
Lord, let me live with the constant awareness that you are near. Amen.
Come, Join The Shouting
Friday, September 11
Matthew 21:1-11
“Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass” (v. 5). God does not come in a very impressive manner. One would think such an event should be a four-star spectacular. But, like his birth, it had limited visibility.
How different it is now when the president of the United States comes to town. Yet when God comes in Christ, it is hardly something one would write home about.
We tend to feel that success in life, even for ourselves, should be a great show. But maybe Jesus is pointing to something extremely important. Real life is inside for us. Fullness of life is available to the poor and the humble; it is not to be found in outside events, other people, or possessions. Fullness of life comes in being right with God within. All the rest flows from that.
Prayer
Lord, may I always have my head on straight, knowing that life is available wherever I am because you are there. Amen.
Go, Tell It Abroad
Saturday, September 12
Isaiah 62:10-12
When God comes he always tells us to go. We are sent on a mission, which is not to change people or try to make them change but to clear the highway of stones and to proclaim the good news that the Lord has not forsaken us.
We can only witness to what we have seen and what we believe.
I have long felt that most stones get removed from the highways inside people when others listen to them. People can then pick up their own stones and get them out of God’s way. One of our great temptations is to try and straighten other people out by telling them what they ought to be, to pick up their stones for them. What we should rather proclaim by word and life is that our Lord and Savior has not abandoned them. Hopefully they will feel that, if Christ really lives in us.
Prayer
Lord, Jesus is the Messiah, I am not. Help me remember that and live as your servant. Amen.
