ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
MAJESTY OF GOD Sovereign power, authority, or dignity. It is also a reference to greatness or splendor of quality or character.
Psalm 8:1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens.
Praise God for His Majesty
God is the Majestic King of the Universe. As you praise him, consider changing your posture (kneel, stand in reverence, or bow). Think about the splendor of the heavens, the sun, the moon and stars. Praise God that his splendor surpasses the majestic heavens.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.
- Pray for those in our church who are sick.
- Pray for yourself as you read the scriptures.
SCRIPTURE READING:
2 Corinthians 1 Christian Standard Bible
Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother:
To the church of God at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of Comfort
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.
8 We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again 11 while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.
A Clear Conscience
12 Indeed, this is our boast: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace. 13 For we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely— 14 just as you have partially understood us—that we are your reason for pride, just as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.
A Visit Postponed
15 Because of this confidence, I planned to come to you first, so that you could have a second benefit, 16 and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again from Macedonia and be helped by you on my journey to Judea. 17 Now when I planned this, was I of two minds? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes and no.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you—Silvanus, Timothy, and I—did not become “Yes and no.” On the contrary, in him it is always “Yes.” 20 For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.
23 I call on God as a witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth. 24 I do not mean that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in your faith.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
There are so many “yes and no’s” in all of our lives. So many things are full of uncertainty. There is uncertainty politically, socially, internationally, economically and in virtually every other aspect of life on this planet. This uncertainty takes the form of being told “yes” and then “no” in regards to matters of great importance to our lives. Who do we trust? What is real? What should we do? There will be no easy answers to any of this. Life will demand that we make choices and then we often realize that those choices were not always the best ones. What are we to do? We must keep making those choices doing the best that we can. This all sounds very “squishy.” We want to just have someone tell us what to believe, value and do in all of the key issues of life. Some turn from the squishy to try and find a kind of human certainty. These people turn to various experts and allow them to dictate what they should believe in everything. They hope that these experts will remove all uncertainty and allow them to not have to do as much of the hard work of thinking deeply about their lives. While this makes their lives “simple” in a sense…that simplicity will not last because this is just not reality. No one has it all figured out. But let’s not finish the week “squishy.” The firm foundation from which you can stand and make a host of complex life decisions is the foundation of the gospel. If you will decide what your life is to be about and then from that “decided” foundation make the lesser decisions you will do quite well. It will not lead to an easy life but it will lead to a faithful and fruitful life. Living “decided” regarding your life foundation can remove much of the stress regarding the host of other decisions that are built on that foundation.