12th. November. 2020. Daily Devotion.

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Much of secular society is based on fear. People and organizations try to make us afraid in order to manipulate us. The biggest reasons are, first, to get us to buy something so that they will make more money and, second, to get us to vote for them so that they will have more power. Fear is the tool of the world, and the prince of the world is Satan.

One good area to examine is our fear of humiliation. People live in terrible fear of being humiliated in public although, in terms of Christian values, humility is an ideal! Imagine giving a speech to a thousand people, saying something incorrect, and having a person stand up and point out your mistake in the most sarcastic way, calling you stupid and uneducated. This cannot hurt your soul unless your pride makes you respond in a sinful manner. But very few people have faith strong enough not to agonize over being “put down” in public.

Children learn this fear early. They worry about a teacher singling them out in class and embarrassing them, or being teased for wearing ugly clothes or some perceived shortcoming: overweight, a father in prison, too tall, too short — the list of things children can make fun of is endless. But we are not children. “When I became a man, I put away childish things.”

The stronger our relationship is with Christ, the less we fear humiliation, because we know that He loves us greatly in humility. Pride sometimes gets us where we want to go in this world; but it will get us where we don’t want to go overall! When we spend our lives worrying about other people’s opinions of us, we are worried about an earthly problem, for in Christ, the meek will inherit the earth.

We cannot expect to be popular or respected if we want to find Christ. Rather, we expect the love and salvation of God, that is true and powerful and lasts forever, not the vain and short-lived adulation of other people. We will find friends in Christ, but they are going to love us in whatever humiliation we might encounter. M Barge

Lord, let me never feel pain in humility, but let my humility always be a gift to you. Amen.

Prayer for Faith

Give us, Lord, a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of you. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation, dullness in prayer. Give us fervour and delight in thinking of you and your grace, your tender compassion towards us. The things we pray for, good Lord, give us grace to labour for: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ~ Sir Thomas More, 16th century.

To Use My Gifts While I Have Them

Heavenly Father, I know that you have made my life on earth temporary. I know that my body will fail, slowly. There are things I can do today that I will not be able to do in the near future. There are gifts of my body that I will not have much longer.

Prepare me, I pray, for the inevitable loss of abilities, so that when they come, I may have comfort in my suffering, the comfort of perfect happiness soon to come. And let me live and use my abilities today, and for the short years while I have them, to live in obedience to your will and to walk in such good works as you have set out before me. In Christ’s name, I pray, Amen

God of all hope we call on you today.
We pray for those who are living in fear:
Fear of illness, fear for loved ones, fear of other’s reactions to them.
May your Spirit give us a sense of calmness and peace.

We pray for your church in this time of uncertainty.
For those people who are worried about attending worship.
For those needing to make decisions in order to care for others
For those who will feel more isolated by not being able to attend.
Grant us your wisdom.

Holy God, we remember that you have promised that
Nothing will separate us from your love – demonstrated to us in Jesus Christ.
Help us turn our eyes, hearts and minds to you. Amen