ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS MERCY, GRACE, AND PATIENCE
God’s mercy, patience, and grace may be seen as three separate attributes, or as specific aspects of God’s goodness. These three characteristics of God’s nature are often mentioned together, especially in the Old Testament. When God declared his name to Moses, he proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). David says in Psalm 103:8, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Praise the God who is Merciful, Gracious and Patient
Think for just a moment about mercy. God has not given you what you deserve. Consider saving grace for a moment. God has given you what you could never earn; salvation and freedom from sin. Think now about God’s patience. He waited for you to repent. He is patient now in leading you to become like His Son. Praise Him and thank Him for His mercy, grace, and patience towards you.
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 those in Turkey and Syria displaced by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Ask God to comfort those who are suffering. Pray for those working for Send Relief who are responding to this crisis. If you would like to pray or support in other ways – go to this site: https://www.sendrelief.org/ .
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 4:11-17 – New Living Translation
Warning against Judging Others
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters.[a] If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
Warning about Self-Confidence
13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
The problem with the businessperson in James 4 is not in their planning, or their profit, or even their optimism. The problem is their presumption. They presumed on the future. The future belongs to God, not to us. Again, we are wise to plan but we are fools to presume. This presumption, like the judgmental words, is “playing God.” We have to learn to keep our hands and hearts off what rightfully belongs to God. “Judgment is mine” said the Lord, the future is his as well. Now please don’t turn this passage into a sort of magic incantation. Just adding the words, “Lord willing” on the end of a sentence does not ensure you are getting this right. In fact, you could say “Lord willing” but in your heart be committed to your own will. If you like to say the words, “Lord willing” there is nothing wrong with it, but it is absolutely necessary that your heart is saying, “Your will be done” in all things.