ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
God is Merciful
God’s merciful compassion is infinite and inexhaustible. Through Christ, He took the judgment that was rightfully ours and placed it on His own shoulders. He waits and works now for all people to turn to Him and to live under His justification.
Joel 2:13 – “Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
Praise God that He is Merciful
Praise God that he does not give us what our sin deserves. Praise God that he freely offers mercy. Praise God that his mercy is infinite.
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 Isaac and Suzanne Micheals. Ask God to encourage them as they serves overseas.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Ephesians 4:1-16 New International Version
Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
In Ephesians, chapter 3 Paul wrote;
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
In his letters (and in Scripture at large) we find this pattern: beliefs, values, behaviors. Or put another way; 1. what we are to think, 2. who we are to love, and 3. how we are to live. Post Modernity is a description of a cultural movement that has led to a loss of confidence in the ability to know absolute truth. Of course, people don’t live or think consistently with this, because they cannot, but it has negatively influenced people’s confidence in truth. This has had devastating consequences for people’s lives. When we do not believe we can know what is ultimately real and valuable then we will “guess” and we are terrible guessers. We guess wrong and we live our lives wrong. This matters, and it matters a great deal. Consider the truth of the gospel. Christ became man to die on a cross for your sins. This is a “real” thing, it is true truth. Now it is important that you learn to wrap your heart around his great love for you and not around the many other competing “loves” that are out there. From there, you are positioned to live your life in line with what is beautiful and true.