Psalm 95.6-8
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
“Do not harden your hearts…”

Reflection: Faith Requires Humility
By John Tillman

One reason faith is so difficult for today’s culture is that we devalue humility. And faith cannot exist without humility.

Humility doesn’t make it on the airwaves. Braggarts shout down the humble in a war of saucy soundbites. Humble men get called weak. Humble women get called doormats. And God help you if you express the slightest hint of doubt, equivocation, or willingness to compromise.

Our world worships the strong. When the strong trample the weak, the world applauds the victor. Our culture embraces the evolutionary principle that the strong deserve to survive and the weak suffer due to their flaws.

Our culture demands that we be experts. The economy demands that we project our worth and defend our value. The business world invests in companies based on confidence. In fact, simple confidence is often not strong enough. The quality the world has elevated to prominence is bravado.

It is difficult not to be flavored by the stew of our culture in which we soak, and too often Christians join in this worship of strength. In fear and uncertainty, we often grasp at earthly solutions that are a splintering staff that injures our hand as it crumbles and we fall. This image is a repeated theme in the Old Testament, referring specifically to Israel longing for Egypt to be their political savior, restoring them to greatness.

Too often we mistake bravado for faith—it is anything but.

Humility is a precursor of faith because faith is confidence outside of ourselves. Faith is having confidence in what we cannot see, in part because we humbly acknowledge that what we can see (our own capability) is insufficient. Humility recognizes our lack so we can trust beyond the knowable.

Bravado is either bluster in the face of our insufficiencies or ignorance of them. Sooner or later, it will fail spectacularly, leaving those who trusted in it injured.

If we would spot the wolves among the sheep, we would do well to watch carefully for the brusque tones of bravado and bluster. It is an early sign of a heart hardened to the voice of God.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
The same stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. — Psalm 118.22

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 43 (Listen – 5:15)
Psalm 95-96 (Listen – 2:37)

Additional Reading
Read More about Crucified, By Nature
Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. — Martin Luther

Read More about Idolatry of Self-Confidence
Only when our confidence in ourselves as god is shaken do we actually reach out to discover that there is a true God in whom we can safely place all our confidence and hope.

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Psalm 94.1-7
The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?
They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

Reflection: Abandoning Human Vengeance
By John Tillman

The tactics of human vengeance are escalatory. We always hit back harder than we were struck.

This is why God specifically limited the punishment that could be legally sought for damages. “An eye for an eye” was never intended to instigate a god-ordained, eye-gouging, free-for-all. It is a limit designed for selfish, angry, vengeful people. In other words, for us.

The psalmist understands that when it comes to vengeance, our role is non-participatory. We cry for it. We give it over to God. We, as Paul writes, “leave room” for the Lord’s just vengeance.

As much as our culture shrinks from biblical descriptions of divine vengeance and wrath, we call for revenge frequently and celebrate those who carry it out. At times it seems like every area of our culture is vociferously demanding vengeance.

Politics is the area in which it is easiest to see it at the moment.

For decades (maybe centuries) political strategists have justified questionable tactics by pointing at the behavior of the other side, childishly saying, “They hit me first.” Politicians are also fond of the mantra of abusers, “look what they made me do.” And every strategic maneuver provides more fuel for hatred and sets up precedent to justify the next retaliation.

Vengeance breeds hatred, and hatred fuels vengeance. This pattern is not new, but it is accelerating.

In their book, Prius or Pickup, Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler discuss how the percentage of Democrats who hate Republicans and Republicans who hate Democrats skyrocketed over the past 18 years. It remained below 20% from 1980 through the 1990s. But in 2016 it was at 50% and trending up. As Hetherington and Weiler say, “hating the opposite political party is no longer a fringe thing.”

As Christians, we must identify ourselves as part of a new fringe that will not submit to the normalcy of hatred.

We must be a fringe that will not be intimidated by those who demand revenge. A fringe that works for justice but will not tolerate the vigilantification of retribution. A fringe that will maintain civility without allowing it to be a synonym for complicity.

Those who continue to stoop to hatred, fear, and exaggeration are worshipers of results, not the Redeemer. As Christians, we have an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from culture every time vitriol spews.

We must be the first to break the chain of retaliatory and violent rhetoric.
We must abandon human vengeance before we can see divine justice.

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Sing praise to the Lord who dwells in Zion; proclaim to the peoples the things he has done. — Psalm 9.11

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 42 (Listen – 3:12)
Psalm 94 (Listen – 2:08)

Additional Reading
Read More about Praise God for the Justice of the Gospel
They [films about vengeance] express our knowledge that our concepts, systems, and pursuit of justice are incomplete. These films express our longing for someone outside our understanding of justice and outside our system of justice to make up our shortcomings.

Read More about Praying for Divine Vengeance
So the psalm of vengeance leads to the cross of Jesus and to the love of God that forgives enemies. I cannot forgive the enemies of God by myself, only the crucified Christ can; and I can forgive through him. So the carrying out of vengeance becomes grace for all in Jesus Christ. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Psalm 92.4-7
For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;
I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
How great are your works, Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
Senseless people do not know,
fools do not understand,
that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.

From John:
There is joy and love to fill us, when we are emptied by confession. When we fall in repentance, there is strength to lift us up, carrying us to sanctification. Our arms are too short to grasp what we need. But Christ is the arm of the Lord, bared before the nations—never too short to save.

Reflection: Emptiness Filled by Love :: Worldwide Prayer
A prayer of brokenness from the USA

Gracious God,
We are sinners.

That stark declaration reverberates in the hollow and broken places of or lives. They are words we are often slow to speak because they are painful to hear. It is a description sometimes we more easily apply to others than to ourselves. Yet, when we are confronted by your awesome love and your infinite compassion the reality of our sinfulness pours from our lips and our lives.

Compassionate God, we are sinners in need of forgiveness. The emptiness within us can only be filled by your love.

We are hurting people in need of healing.
We are angry people in need of your calming presence.
We are broken people in need of wholeness.

Many of us have lived so long with our sinfulness that we believe we cannot be forgiven. Forgive us, gracious God, for believing forgiveness is an illusory gift.

Help us to live in the reality of your love, O God. Your love is as certain as the Cross of Christ, as sure as the nail prints in his hands, as real as the mended places in our lives.

We confess our sins, and we confess that we believe you love us so much that you forgive us our sins and make us whole once more.

Thanks be to God for sins forgiven.

*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.

Prayer: The Morning Psalm
O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet, like a child upon its mother’s breast; my soul is quieted within me. — Psalm 131.1-3

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 41 (Listen – 4:40)
Psalm 92-93 (Listen – 2:09)

Additional Reading
Read More from Forgiveness to Soften the Hardened :: Worldwide Prayer
Forgive our closed ears—so rarely listening to your still voice and the needs of those close around us.

Read More about Liquid Wrath and Liquid Forgiveness :: Readers’ Choice
The link between multiple biblical images of God’s wrath as something poured out, and God’s salvation as Christ’s blood poured out, hit me very profoundly. — reader, Lauren Nichols

Support our Work
Each month over 22,000 Park Forum email devotionals are read around the world. Support our readers with a monthly or a one time donation.

Psalm 89.15-16
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
They rejoice in your name all day long;
they celebrate your righteousness.

From John:
There is no level of spiritual achievement or growth at which one is not susceptible to hardening of the heart and the spirit.

Christ’s call echoes again. Calling us deeper into every discipline we pursue. Whether into deeper love for others, or into deeper relationships with our community, or into deeper generosity toward all, or into deeper, more truthful and loving communication, there is always more to learn in Christ.

He accepts us just as we are. But he doesn’t settle. As C.S. Lewis says about Christ’s love for us, “It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”

Reflection: Forgiveness to Soften the Hardened :: Worldwide Prayer
A Prayer of confession from Great Britain

Dear Lord, forgive us.

Forgive our hard hearts—so rarely showing
real love to you and our neighbors.

Forgive our week heads—so rarely thinking
for you with depth, imagination, daring, and trust.

Forgive our closed ears—so rarely listening
to your still voice and the needs of those
close around us.

Forgive our clenched hands—so rarely open
to give generously to you and others
and to reach out in friendship.

Forgive our willful tongues—so rarely stopping
before uttering words to cause hurt and trouble.

Lord, help us now. We want to be better people by your Holy Spirit. Please forgive us through Jesus Christ.

*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. — 2 Corinthians 4.6

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 38 (Listen – 4:23)
Psalm 89 (Listen – 5:29)

This Weekend’s Readings
Ezekiel 39 (Listen – 4:51) Psalm 90 (Listen – 2:03)
Ezekiel 40 (Listen – 8:21) Psalm 91 (Listen – 1:39)

Additional Reading
Read More from Risks of Faith :: Advent’s Love
Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, ‘If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?’ When you have found the answer, go and do it. — C.S. Lewis

Read More about how Confession Destroys Denial
We confess we have been deaf to cries of the needy, cries for help, and cries of injustice. Give us your hearing and heart as we work in the name of Christ our king to proclaim good news to the poor and set the oppressed free.

Support our Work
Each month over 22,000 Park Forum email devotionals are read around the world. Support our readers with a monthly or a one time donation.

Psalm 88.1-2
Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

Reflection: Meditation in Spiritual Rhythm :: Throwback Thursday
By John Tillman

As Thomas Merton poetically wrote about humanity, “He is the saddest animal. He drives a big red car called anxiety.”

Meditation is a breathing apparatus to help us survive in a poisonous atmosphere polluted by anxiety and fear.

Meditation is not new age, but old. However, in the modern age, it has often been forgotten on the shelf as many Christians and Christian leaders followed our culture into frenetic clamor instead of leading our culture from a place of peace and rest.

Today we look back a few hundred years or so, to a collection of thoughts on meditation that were not considered radical or strange in their time, but simply a prudent, practical, and effective Christian discipline.

George Müller (1805-1898)
Now what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.

This exercise of the soul can be most effectively performed after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate with God’s blessing though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.

Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Nor should we imagine it will be as well to take up with prayer alone, and lay aside meditation; for they are distinct duties, and must both of them be performed. We need the one as well as the other, and therefore we shall wrong ourselves by neglecting either. Besides, the mixture of them, like music, will be more engaging; as the one serves to put life into the other. And our speaking to ourselves in meditation, should go before our speaking to God in prayer.

William Bridge (1600-1670)
Begin with reading or hearing. Go on with meditation; end in prayer…Reading without meditation is unfruitful; meditation without reading is hurtful; to meditate and to read without prayer upon both, is without blessing.

From these writings and ones like them, we draw a pattern, a spiritual rhythm, that we want to promote for all our readers: Read, reflect, pray…repeat.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– Prayer from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 37 (Listen – 5:07)
Psalm 87-88 (Listen – 2:45)

Additional Reading
Read More about A Discipline for the Anxious
A recent Harvard study found that church attendance paired with spiritual disciplines such as meditation and prayer have a beneficial effect on mental health.

Read More about The Practice of Meditation :: Running
Meditative prayer is exercise to expand your spiritual lung capacity, allowing you to breathe in God’s spirit more naturally at any time—including during a crisis.

Support our Work
Each month over 22,000 Park Forum email devotionals are read around the world. Support our readers with a monthly or a one time donation.