Be Still
Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. Get comfortable. Let your body relax and your mind quiet down. Take a few deep breaths and then ask God to make his presence known to you. Be still. Take some time to sit and soak up God’s presence.
Prayer of Approach
O God, whose kingdom is truth and love, help me in this hour to see more clearly and to journey more consistently along the narrow way that leads to life eternal. Equip me for the tests and rigors of this day. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Psalm 33
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Praise the Lord with the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
From heaven the Lord looks down
and sees all mankind;
from his dwelling place he watches
all who live on earth—
he who forms the hearts of all,
who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.
Devotional Thought
All life is an exodus and I think (again, this is only my personal opinion) that this exodus does not end with a car accident or a sudden heart attack or a bullet from some nasty little thug. No way! Our exodus is much longer than the time spent under the sun here on earth—much longer. Our exodus embraces vaster universes. On earth an individual barely has time to be born, like a grass seed producing a shoot, say a centimeter long. Then comes physical death interrupting our earthly experience, while the shoot keeps growing, say to the height of a meter. Then there is the ear which to me represents the fullness of the kingdom, the harvest to be gathered into the barn, as the Gospel says. If harvest came when the seed was sprouting where should we be? Which of us would reach the maturity of Christ? To be gathered into the Father's barn do we not need the “fullness of Christ" (cf. Eph. 4:13)? To sit down at table with him, must we not have the same desires as him?
His state was divine,
yet he did not cling
to his equality with God
but emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as (we) are;
and being as (we) are,
he was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross. (Phil.2:6-8)
No, we shall not enter the kingdom until we have accepted the demands of love to the hilt, until we have desired to die for love of all our [brothers and sisters), until we have mounted the cross and ideally shed our last drop of blood!
And you want to enter the kingdom with your thoughts greedily revolving round the money left in your cashbox, on your check-book still on the table, with your clothes still smelling of tobacco, with your envelope of cocaine in your pocket?
Or, worse, with hatred for your landlord or dislike of your husband in your heart?
Before long the kingdom would grow ugly and the eternal banquet repulsive.
No, my sisters, no, brothers, believe me: the exodus begins when you receive baptism, normally baptism with water; and ends when you are baptized with your own blood-every last drop of it. As happened to Jesus.
— Carlo Carretto
Matthew 12:22-37
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Reflection
Take time to pause and reflect on your time with Jesus through the Scriptures and devotional thought. What thoughts are being drawn out of you? What emotions are being provoked? What might God be saying? Consider using a journal to write as you process, reflect, and pray.
Time for Prayer
God invites us to cast our cares on him because he cares for us. God is all-together good, already knows what we need, and is eager to give us good things. So we don’t need to pray out of anxiety or fear, but confident trust. Spend a few minutes making your requests known to God.
- For the church
- For others
- For myself
Closing Prayer
Thank you, my Lord, for this time of rest and nourishment. Now send me to my station; help me that I neither slip nor wander from the road you have marked out for me. Amen.