8th. July. 2020. Daily Devotion
Jeremiah 29:10-14
10 This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.’
The book of Jeremiah is the longest in the Bible. Jeremiah was called by God but spent his life in distress. He was repeatedly plotted against, arrested, and physically attacked. Shortly before the fall of Jerusalem, he was thrown down a well with a muddy bottom to starve to death; but he was rescued by one of the invading soldiers!
He did not take his persecution with stoicism; he complained to God constantly. Lamentations is just what it sounds like: five chapters of lamenting over the fate of Jerusalem. His name even gave rise to an English word, “jeremiad”, meaning “a long mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes” OED.
Yet Jeremiah nonetheless brought an optimistic message in the well-known verse in Chapter 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
It is easy to be a complainer, reciting our woes and struggles. As Christians we are called to faith and to optimism. There is no harm in telling God our complaints, but faith leaves them with him in the knowledge he has plans to give us hope and a future.
Celtic Prayer for the Morning
I will kindle my fire this morning in the presence of the holy angels of heaven; Without malice, without jealousy, without envy, without fear; without terror of any one under the sun, but the Holy Son of God to shield me.
God, kindle thou in my heart within a flame of love to my neighbour, to my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all; To the brave, to the coward, to the man in the street, O Son of the loveliest Mary, from the lowliest thing that lives to the Name that is highest of all. In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.
Penitential Prayer
O blessed Christ, my teacher, my Saviour, my God: You have commanded me to love others as myself. Yet it is so easy to find the faults in others, for I see their outside and compare it against what is inside me. I have inflated my goodness and importance in my own mind, but have judged others for the smallest shortcoming, and I am filled by foolish pride.
I vow by this prayer that I will strive to follow your Word, to forgive all who have injured me, to turn loose the petty resentments and grudges that poison the world with hatred, and to overlook the faults of others; and I ask to be pardoned wherever I have done injury to my brothers and sisters, who are your beloved children even though they, like me, are sinners.
And I vow, when I fall short of your commandment, to seek out and confess my wrongdoing. Forgive me, Holy Christ, and help me to ever amend my life; this I pray, with faith in the grace you have promised to the penitent sinner. Amen.
Merciful God, we place into your care all the refugees and migrants, especially the Rohingya.
God who hurts with humanity, we lift our voices and pour out our hearts to you,
in sadness and grief, for those who don’t have anyone to hear their suffering and pain, for those who don’t have anyone to love and care, for those who don’t have anyone to tell their stories and especially for those who have been suffering due to this pandemic and struggling with coronavirus to see another day in their life.
We pray for their courage of heart and strength of mind and body. Keep them safe from harm.
Amen.
Immanuel Chayan Biswas, who works for Caritas Bangladesh in Cox’s Bazaar refugee camp.
