14th. June. 2021. Daily Devotion.
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: you should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
Live quietly.” Paul really should not have to say this, since the enormous emphasis on humility, in the teachings of Jesus Christ, should lead us to it. But it is a lesson that people do not want to hear, and one widely ignored by many Christians.
“Mind you own affairs.” No real explication of this phrase is necessary. Living it, when our natural instincts tell us to voice our opinions about all kinds of affairs not our own, is another matter.
The telling phrase is “that you may walk properly before outsiders,” for it gives us the reason that we aspire to live quietly. What is the Christian’s primary duty to the non-Christian? Our commission from Christ is to spread the Gospel. Is it so hard to see that we injure the Great Commission when we equate politics, or any other exercise of coercive worldly power, with Christianity? M Barge.
Lord, grant that I may always seek to live quietly and mind my own affairs. Amen.
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.
Prayer to Hear God’s Word
Lead me to read your Word without listening to any voice but yours. Let me hear your truth and read your Word without adding to it or subtracting from it, without twisting it to meet the demands of my own preconceptions. Let me not deny your Word because it is inconvenient for me; even if I cannot follow it today, let me know the truth. Where your teaching and my thoughts conflict, help me to change. Help me to set aside my prejudice, my illusions of knowledge, my rationalizations, so that I can learn; and even if I do not follow your Word perfectly, let me know where to ask forgiveness. This I ask in the name of my only Saviour, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Meditation
“A saint is not someone who is good, but someone who experiences the goodness of God.” ~ Thomas Merton
Pandemic Prayer
At a time like this, the prayer, “hearken to our prayer and attend to the sound of our pleading”, is most appropriate. We are praying that we be relieved of the effects
of the pandemic and the stress it has caused. We are pleading for Your healing presence in the lives of all of us especially those who have sacrificed
so much by their service to the suffering. Amen.
