Scripture: Revelation 10.10-11
I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Guided prayers and meditations are a common part of Christian spiritual practice. Return to this prayer through the day or over the weekend, as it will be a different experience based on your mood and surroundings. — John

Reflection: The Weight of Nations :: A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Isaiah 40 is one of the most loved and read sections of Isaiah. It starts out sweet in our mouths. As we recite some passages we hear the music of Handel thrumming beneath them.

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

Thank God for this passage which speaks from our future.

But as we read, like the scroll John eats in Revelation 10, there are passages that sound sour notes as well.

A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

Our faithfulness is often beautiful, but does not last. Reflect on a time your faithfulness waned and confess it to God.

Flowers fade and wither, yet they also bloom again. Ask the Holy Spirit to renew your faithfulness.

One way we can be unfaithful is replacing God in our hearts with other concerns.

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales…

Before him all the nations are as nothing;
they are regarded by him as worthless
and less than nothing.

Strong feelings of love and affection for our nation are not evil, but how do they compare to our feelings for God’s kingdom? Do we equate loving country with loving God? Do we confuse the one with the other?

Imagine standing with Christ at the scales mentioned in the passage. Separate your feelings of patriotism and country from your feelings toward God’s kingdom. Place them on opposing sides of the scale. What happens?

Ask the Holy Spirit for the answer.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you realize the true scale of God’s kingdom.

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers…

He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing…

“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Praise God for His incomparable kingdom and the peace and comfort we can access as its citizens and representatives on earth. Through word and deed, go out and proclaim this good news and comfort.

You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 40 (Listen – 5:09)
Revelation 10 (Listen – 1:59)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 41 (Listen – 5:00) Revelation 11 (Listen – 3:24)
Isaiah 42 (Listen – 4:11) Revelation 12 (Listen – 2:58)

Additional Reading
Read more from A Prayer for My People from China :: Worldwide Prayer
Loving God,
For my people, I cry out to you…

Read more about Praying for Political Leaders :: Readers’ Choice
When people are caught in a system dominated by hate there is an opportunity for Christians to participate in redemption.

Scripture: Isaiah 39.8
“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

Reflection: Pride and Short-sightedness :: Throwback Thursday
By John Tillman

The remarkable life of Hezekiah ends in pride and short-sightedness. Pride in showing off his kingdom’s wealth to the Babylonians—planting the seeds of Israel’s future looting and exile. Shortsightedness in his interpretation that at least his life would not be affected by his mistakes.

Richard Baxter (1615–1691) discusses how the temptation of pride is aimed at the strong:

The tempter overcomes very many, by making them presumptuously confident of their own strength: saying, “You are not so weak as not to be able to bear a greater temptation than this. Can you not gaze on beauty, or go among vain and tempting company, and yet choose whether you will sin? It is a child indeed that has no more government of themselves. Cannot your table, your cup, your house, your lands, be pleasing and delectable, without you over-loving them, and turning them to sin?”

O know your own weakness, the treacherous enemy which you still carry with you, who is ready to open the back-door to the devil! Remember that flesh is on the tempter’s side, and how much it can do with you before you are aware. Remember what an unsettled wretch you are, and how many a good purpose formerly has come to nothing, and how often you have sinned by a small temptation.

Remember that without the Spirit of Christ, you can do nothing, nor stand against any assault of Satan; and that Christ gives his Spirit and help in his own way, and not to those that tempt him to forsake them, by thrusting themselves into temptations.

Shall ever a mortal man presume upon his own strength, after the falls of an Adam, a Noah, a Lot, a David, a Solomon, a Hezekiah, a Josiah, a Peter and after such ruins of multitudes of professors, as our eyes have seen?

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” 1 Corinthians 10.11-12.*

The recent falls of many Christian leaders have been dominating news cycles. Some of the fallen had enemies who might be tempted to glee and friends tempted to excuse them. Instead of either of these, may we turn to inward examination.

As Beth Moore posted this week, “These things ought to scare us to death…Only a fool gloats when others fail.”

*Abridged and language updated from Christian Ethics: Temptations to Particular Sins

Prayer: The Morning Psalm
In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
They shall perish, but you shall endure; they all shall wear out like a garment; as clothing you will change them, and they shall be changed… — Psalm 102.25-26

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 39 (Listen – 1:35)
Revelation 9 (Listen – 3:30)

Additional Reading
Read more about Pride and Cowardice
The separation of cowardice and pride is a false one, for these two are really one and the same.

Read more about Pride, the Enemy of Pleasure
When our lives take on a posture of humility it affects not just our relationships with others, but our relationships with the objects and pleasures of this world.

Scripture: Isaiah 38.2-3
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Reflection: Prayer Beyond Petitions
By John Tillman

The adage, “Prayer doesn’t change things, it changes us,” is a cop-out.

If it is anything other than a cop-out it is at best a description of only part of what prayer is. It diminishes prayer to a self-counseling tool, a mere coping mechanism.

Todd Edmondson discusses this in his essay, Praying for a Change:

Such a perspective, however neat and tidy it might be, is profoundly unsatisfying and contradictory to what the Church has long held to be true.

When we envision prayer solely as something we do, as a work of human agency, it is almost impossible not to see it as a ritual designed for our benefit, as an incantation in which only the most superstitious or simple-minded people believe.

The healing of Hezekiah from his illness is a unique scriptural example of a prayer for change for several reasons.

• God directly tells Hezekiah that he will not survive. This is not an event where God’s will is unknown.
• There is no reason given for this illness. It is not a punitive judgement, like David’s child.
• Hezekiah’s prayer is bitter, but he makes no direct request for healing. He simply asks to be remembered, as the thief on the cross did.
• Isaiah delivers the message that God has changed his mind due to hearing Hezekiah’s prayer.

There is not a formula to be applied in a prayer for change other than giving ourselves to a relationship with God. We cannot attribute success to Hezekiah’s words or the words of any recorded prayer. We must, instead, get to know Hezekiah’s God.

That our prayers to God would bring the realities of this world into contact with divine purposes, or that God would join us in our this-worldly struggles, should not strike us as odd or irrational, because it is exactly what God has been doing for thousands of years… Indeed, other methods of affecting change and other recipients of our trust—from politics to technology to military might—would seem to be far less proved than prayer, if our memories were not so short and our imaginations so easily manipulated by the kingdoms of this world.

It is more important that we know God through prayer than petition him. God answers Hezekiah’s unasked prayer through relationship. Our needs, like Hezekiah’s will be apparent to God, when we invest time in a relationship that goes beyond petition.

Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our souls in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 38 (Listen – 3:20)
Revelation 8 (Listen – 2:15)

Additional Reading
Read more about Pleading Prayer
When we run out of pretty prayers and Sunday School answers, pleading is an intimate, ugly cry that dares to cast away its pride.

Read more about Finding God :: A Guided Prayer
Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

Scripture: Revelation 7.9-10
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

Reflection: The Seductive Idolatry of Politics
By John Tillman

Politics is the idol we bring with us to church just as the Israelites worshiped Baal alongside Jehovah. Israel continued this practice until eventually, altars to Baal were set up in God’s temple supplanting true worship.

Politics is the most powerful new religion of this millennium. It continually plays on the kind of imagery we see in Revelation. But outside of Christ there will never be a day when every nation, tribe, people, and language are united. Politics promises this unity and diversity but instead gains its power from fear and division.

This religion of politics poses a greater threat to the gospel than any other religion. Politics provides everything that the darkest parts of humanity’s sinful nature want from a religion.

The State is a flawed deity that is unpredictably beneficent or wrathful. Pagan societies prefer their gods to be flawed.

Politicians and the media (which serves them) provide an ecclesiastically complex structure of priests and prophets. Schisms, conspiracies, and scandals aren’t bugs in the system; they are features.

Worshipers make ordinances of their favorite political shows, podcasts, and news sites. They attend these programs with far more regularity and commitment than they do church worship services.

They make sacrifices of time and money and perform public shows of support. They promulgate their ideology and police their relationships, disassociating with any who would blaspheme their viewpoints.

Unfriending the blasphemers is viewed as a holy, cleansing action that makes the worshiper a more pure follower and condemns the one unfriended.

The deification of country and the sanctification of political parties as a nation’s priesthood, is perhaps the most dangerous idolatry the church has ever faced. It is a serious error to conflate the identity of God’s heavenly kingdom with any earthly government. It is so easy for earnest believers to fall into this trap.

This doesn’t mean it’s un-Christian to be “political.” Quite the opposite. But we must make sure we are pursuing actions that please Christ rather than pleasing human political kingdoms.

We serve the same kingdom Christ testified to before Pilate put him to death and the kingdom Stephen saw before being stoned by the Sanhedrin.

The Lamb on the Throne is unconcerned with political expediency. When forced to choose between country, or party, and Christ, we must choose Christ.

Prayer: The Greeting
Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, God reveals himself in glory. Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; for God himself is judge. — Psalm 50.2, 6

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 37 (Listen – 6:47)
Revelation 7 (Listen – 2:56)

Additional Reading
Read more about Politically Ambiguous Religion
“Faith devoted to the way of Christ is rarely politically expedient.”

Read more about God’s Kingdom Versus God’s Reign
As Christians today, we are often tempted, as the Israelites were, to put faith in shaping society through the exertion of governmental power.

Scripture: Isaiah 36.16-17
Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Reflection: Political Promises
By John Tillman

Taken out of context, one might assume the verses above are written by Isaiah on behalf of God.

They offer the promise of peace, the promise of prosperity, and the promise of a soon-coming king who will take us to a new and better land. However these words are not from God, and not written by the prophet. They are part of a speech given to the city of Jerusalem by the commander of the besieging Assyrian army.

See how carefully Sennacherib’s commander has crafted the message?

He not only speaks their language, he speaks in the style and vocabulary of their own prophets. He claims to know God’s mind about what God would have them to do. “The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it….make peace with me and come out to me…” While at the same time, he denies God’s ability to save, comparing him to the gods of other countries he has defeated.

In the passage from Isaiah, Sennacherib’s commander assumes a binary choice—rely on Egypt or rely on Assyria.

Many leaders of political parties are attempting to force a binary choice. They offer Christians the same carefully worded speech that Sennacherib’s commander made to the besieged city of Jerusalem. All we have to do to receive peace, safety, and prosperity is to go along with a political leader who offers protection in exchange for loyalty. And servitude.

Christians who think they can trust one political party to protect them from another are making a mistake. They will find themselves leaning for support on what Sennacherib’s commander describes as a, “splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it!”

If we look into the future of the kingdom of Israel, the commander’s prediction about Egypt being of no help is the only part of his speech that was accurate.

Hezekiah and Isaiah refuse the false binary. May we do so as well.

May we resist carefully crafted political promises and refuse to exchange loyalty for power.
May we not trade our role as ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom for an inferior role as a political party’s “yes-men.”
May we speak up for the downtrodden and helpless no matter which party is against them.
May we speak the truth in love—confronting our allies as strongly as we would confront our enemies.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. — Psalm 57.7

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

Full prayer available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 36 (Listen – 4:00)
Revelation 6 (Listen – 3:12)