26th. May. 2021. Daily Devotion.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 3:6-7
The word for “rooted” in this verse is the Greek word rhizoo, and this is the root word for our English word “rhizome”— a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that sends up shoots to grow above ground. But the verb in Greek is written in a passive tense, which means that rather than putting the emphasis on the believer to be rooted, the emphasis is on how we are being rooted by Christ and in him because of his work in us. When we receive Christ, he will render us firm, fixed, and established. And he will cause us to be thoroughly grounded in him.
It changes everything to know that Christ will do this in us and for us as we trust in him. We’re invited to continue to receive him and to allow his work in us to continually build us up. This is the mutual and deeply personal communion that we enjoy with Christ: we abide in him, and he abides in us. ~ JP Vanderveen
Thank you, Lord, for giving us your love, for inviting us to dwell in you and to receive your love so that we may be rooted and built up in you, strengthened in faith and overflowing with thankfulness. Amen.
A Prayer After Reading Scripture
May the word I have read, Lord, be planted deeply in my mind and heart. Help me not to walk away and forget it, but to meditate on it and obey it and so build my life on the rock of your truth. Amen.
Morning Prayer
Let me to-day do something that shall take
A little sadness from the world’s vast store,
And may I be so favoured as to make
Of joy’s too scanty sum a little more.
Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;
Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,
Or sin by silence when I should defend.
However meagre be my worldly wealth,
Let me give something that shall aid my kind –
A word of courage, or a thought of health,
Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.
Let me to-night look back across the span
‘Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say –
Because of some good act to beast or man –
“The world is better that I lived today.” Amen. ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
We Need Your Healing Hand
Lord Jesus, in your own time and down through the centuries You became known as someone who could cure people through the power of God. We believe that you do much more than offer a physical cures. More central to Your mission on earth is the strengthening of people’s faith in every age, so that they may live as a people of hope.
In this season of health crisis, we need your presence. We need your healing hand.
And our spirits need a stronger faith, fuller confidence, more trust in you and in each other. Bless us with this gift, we pray. Amen
