ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
God is Beautiful God is the sum of all desirable qualities. All of our good and righteous desires, all of the desires that really ought to be in us or in any other creature, find their ultimate fulfillment in God.
The beauty of our lives is so important to Christ that his purpose now is to sanctify the entire church “that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Thus, we individually and corporately reflect God’s beauty in every way in which we exhibit his character.
Praise God that He is Beautiful
Praise God for the beauty in creation, in humanity, and in relationships. Look outside at the beauty of creation, or consider the beauty of a sunrise. Thank God for that beauty. Think about a close relationship with a friend or family member. Praise God for the beauty and joy you experience in relationships. He is the source of beauty.
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 your friends and family who do not know Jesus. Ask God to draw them to Himself. Pray for opportunities to make His love known.
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 3:1-12 – New Living Translation
Controlling the Tongue
3 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.
7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
Do you believe that if you could perfect the use of your tongue, you could perfect the use of your entire body? James is speaking truly here, but he is using hyperbole, or exaggeration, as an accurate figure of speech. It is conceivable that a person could never say anything wrong. But that doesn’t mean they would always say what is perfectly right to say. This is not just about avoiding wrong words; we are also to pursue speaking the right words. To be able to speak consistently as Christ would speak if he were living our lives in our situation as it is…that is a good goal. We will not do so perfectly, but it is a very good metric to judge our speech by. The old “What would Jesus Do?” saying, that has some flaws but remains a pretty good question, could become “What would Jesus say?” Beware of becoming self-protective and risk adverse in our speech. If our goal becomes to NOT make a mistake, we are operating from a negative, not a positive stance. Our goal ought to be to speak what is good and helpful. This will involve risk, and we will make a lot of mistakes along the way, but we must walk this positive path. It will require that we fess up as we mess up. It will require that we move on from mistakes and keep seeking to speak as Jesus would have us speak.