Listening to Creation(1)
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image: Sunset West Macdonnell Range, NT, Wayne McDonald)
Prayer: Familiar things
Sing from the mountain tops and shout to the skies!
Let the whole of our continent praise our God:
mountain and desert, river, waterfall and farmland.
Let all the animals praise our God:
koala and kangaroo, Tasmanian devil, possum and wombat.
Let the vegetation praise our God:
gumtree and wattle, grasstree, boronia and lotus lily.
Let the birds of plain and forest praise our God:
galah and emu, blue wren, honeyeater and jabiru.
Let everything living under the sun,
everything that is or ever will be,
sing praise to our God! Hallelujah!
(Sourced from Australian Psalms, Bruce Prewer, revised 2000)
Read:
Psalm 19:1-4
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Thought for the Day:
Psalm 19 is one of many psalms that give creation a “voice”. Creation’s voice is one of praise. In a future devotion we will be listening to creation’s pain. Today, we focus on the way in which creation declares the glory of God. Take some time this day to look at the sky, or at a flower, or a leaf. Look carefully, noticing detail that you would normally miss. How glorious is our creator God!
Hard Prayers
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
PRAYER from Uniting Aboriginal and Islander CONGRESS
The scriptures speak to us from Isaiah 52:7;
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God Reigns”.
Our Creator God,
you have reminded us through the words of Isaiah,
That you are the God of all creation
And in that you show forth you love,
your peace and your goodness in abundance.
Right now though, our Creator God,
we as a collective nation are crying, hurting, grieving and struggling with fear
and anxiety from the Coronavirus and are desperately in need of the healing and the loving touch that can only come from your hand.
As the First Peoples, we recognised and lived in your abundant love and grace for millennia,
And our relationship with you was imbedded in the love and respect that we shared.
Therefore, we as First People of this Country,
to whom you gave this Country too before time immemorial,
now cry out to you on behalf of this Nation, to once again shine the light of your love, healing, blessing, care and peace
upon us all, as we face the challenge of the Coronavirus.
Our Creator God, you are the Great Physician, you are the Great Healer, you are the Great Comforter, cover this nation with your goodness, and bring about complete restoration, so that with our united voices and hearts we might once again declare, “Our God Reigns”.
Pastor Mark Kickett of National UAICC
Read:
Romans 9:1-5. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
(Romans 9:1-5. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Paul is a great believer that God responds to prayer. He has just rejoiced in that fact in the previous chapter where he reflects that the Holy Spirit herself intercedes with us when we don’t know how to pray. But that does not mean that Paul believes that prayer is a quick fix for every problem. Here he agonises over the fact that not many of his fellow Jews were responding favourably to the good news of Jesus their Messiah. In his heart he knew that the answer to his prayers were generations away and that caused him deep grief.
Sometimes prayer is a time when we sit with God in the dust and mourn for the way things are while nevertheless believing God is faithful and moving still. Not all time in prayer is peace and stillness, sometimes it is tears and sorrow and that’s ok.
A Big Prayer
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Your Son’s outstretched arms on the cross remind us of your reconciling embrace.
May we embrace our near and distant neighbours with open arms so they too know your love.
We long for the restoration of all things, the return of the Messiah and your ultimate embrace; on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen
(From TEAR Australia, Richard Ford.)
Read:
Ephesians 3:14-21. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every familya] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
(Ephesians 3:14-21. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
What is the biggest boldest prayer you could pray for those you hold dear? For Paul, this was it. Yet even with an ambitious prayer of this size Paul can still say in verse 20 that God is able to do even more than that. He freely admits that he can’t imagine more than that but he knows that God can.
Why does he expect God to be so surprising (as opposed to a god that has to be nagged to do even the smallest thing)? Because in Jesus he surprised us all and did something that no-one had imagined or prayed for. Born in a manger, he touched lepers and ate and befriended irreligious outcasts, taught that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, washed feet, and willingly embraced an unjust death; God dying for the ungodly.
So often our prayers are ‘Lord, make my life (or the life of my loved one) better. Paul encourages you to pray for the unexpected to a God of great surprises.
Now, what could you pray for? Pray …
Listening to Others
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer:
Lord, today brings
Paths to discover
Possibilities to choose
People to encounter
Peace to possess
Promises to fulfil
Perplexities to ponder
Power to strengthen
Pointers to guide
Pardon to accept
Praises to sing
and a Presence to proclaim.
(Sourced from Tides and Seasons, David Adam, 1994)
Read:
Luke 24:13-21
Ask for God’s guidance, then read this slowly, imagining the scene described. If you are able, walk while you read. Read a second time, imagining yourself either as one of the disciples, or as Jesus.
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Thought for the Day:
Jesus is a good listener. He joins these two grieving disciples and walks with them. He asks them a leading question, and then helps them to be more specific by asking “What things?” The two disciples explain to Jesus, whom they do not recognise, about why they are so sad. Jesus listens without interrupting and lets them recount in their own words the events which Jesus himself has just experienced.
How well do you listen? Be mindful today of listening without interrupting, trying to understand what life is like through the eyes of someone else.
Reread the prayer, asking God to guide you to “people to encounter”.
Listening to Ourselves
(Devotion by Ros McDonald; Image Wayne McDonald, Bibbulmun Track, WA)
Prayer:
God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution. Amen.
(Sourced from Be Our Freedom Lord, Terry Falla, revised 2015)
Read:
Mark 12:28-34.
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Thought for the Day:
Jesus said “Love your neighbour as yourself”. The more we love ourselves, the greater is our capacity to love our neighbour. Loving ourselves does not mean being vain and self-centred. We can love ourselves because we know that we are loved by God. Loving ourselves means listening to ourselves, alert to thinking and acting as a follower of Christ. When we realise the need to change, we can ask God for guidance, and as in today’s prayer, “deal with the pain of it” and “feel the joy of it”. What do you think? You may have a different way of understanding who you are. Find someone to talk over your thoughts with.
Listening to God
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer: As you read this, begin with clenched fists. Gradually open your hands as you pray.
Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
(Sourced from With Open Hands, by Henri Nouwen, 1995)
Read:
1 Samuel 3:1-9
Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, ‘Samuel!’ Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again.’ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Thought for the Day:
How interesting that God spoke to the boy, and not to the priest. Eli’s role was to interpret what was happening and to instruct Samuel on how to respond. Although Eli had been a priest for most of his life, at first he didn’t recognise the voice of God. He needed God to persist before he realised what was going on. The opening sentences tell us that encounters with God were rare, so we can understand why Eli didn’t get it at first.
Could it be that God speaks often, but that we do not realise? God “speaks” in many different ways. Are you prepared to listen?
Finish by rereading Henri Nouwen’s prayer.
Waiting
(Devotion by Ros McDonald)
Prayer/Poem: Winter
Season of slowness,
Of pausing, reflecting.
Season of contemplation,
Drawing on the sap of past gifts and graces.
Dreaming of tomorrow’s Spring,
Shrugging off learnings discarded,
Dry leaves of Autumn.
Daring to be open to light
To nurture
Yet unseen growth,
Of the most quiet kind,
The hope of the thawing, green shoots, the budding
Fresh warmings of the Spirit.
(Sourced from Whispers: Poems and Prayers for Personal Growth, by Ross Kingham, JBCE 1994)
Read:
Psalm 23.
Ask for God’s guidance, then read this slowly, pausing after words or phrases that touch you.
1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
3he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
Thought for the Day:
In this season of winter and this season of COVID, we wait. We wait for spring sunshine, and we wait for life to return to normal. We wait for a time when we can gather together to worship, when we can stand close to friends and greet them with a hug or a handshake. We wait for school to resume face-to-face. Throughout the bible we read of people who wait for a longed-for event to occur. Hannah waited for a son. Abraham waited for descendants. The prophets of old waited for their people to turn to God, longing for them to act justly and with mercy. Jesus longed for people to know a God of love and spent many hours waiting on God in prayer. At one point he stood looking over Jerusalem with longing, saying “‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem! … How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.”
God’s promise to us is not that we always receive what we long for. God’s promise is that God will lead us as a shepherd leads their flock, always present, waiting with us, always looking out for our welfare. As the psalmist writes “I fear no evil, for you are with me.”
What are you finding difficult in this time of waiting? In what ways is God present with you, waiting with you? Read Psalm 23 again, noticing those words that bring you comfort. Finish by rereading “Winter” by Ross Kingham.
Seek Me
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
outside me yet your Holy Spirit is present within me,
let me carry through this day’s life a real sense of your power and glory.
God present outside me, may I not look at your creation today and give no thought to you its creator.
May the heavens declare your glory to me and the hills your majesty. Let the beauty of the earth be a sacrament to me of the beauty of the Lord Jesus.
I thank you for my family, friends and the Living Faith Church family including our Minister, and ask your blessing on them all today.
(From Elders Prayer Diary 2, Morning of Day 2.)
Read:
Isaiah 55:6-12. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
(Isaiah 55:6-12. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
Seeking God should be a part of everyday life. Finding God is not something you achieve but something that God offers, and our passage reminds us that when God gives his word it is effective. The first time we seek and find God it gives birth to joy and overflows into song and dance and smiling.
We fickle human beings are not constant like God and our attention and service to our loving God goes up and down like a roller coaster. On the ‘downs’ our joy fades as we go our own way, but God is faithful and ready when we wise up and seek him again. “Seek God … call on him while he is near.” He is near right now.
Search Me
(Devotion by Graeme Harrison)
Prayer:
By your grace, Lord Jesus, let no thought enter my heart that might hinder my communion with you, or let any word come out of my mouth that is not pleasing to you. So shall my courage be firm and my heart be at peace. Amen
Read:
Psalm 139:19-24. Read this 3 times, each time asking God’s help and thinking about those words or phrases that leap out at you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:19-24. NIV)
Thought for the Day:
A kinder Minister would have just given you the last two verses, but I believe God gave us all six verses together for a reason. Taken as a whole, they reveal to us that the composer had a blind spot as he wished evil things on people who did evil things. He had hatred for those who hated. At least in in his anxiety v.23 he is aware that something is not quite right and with great wisdom he asks God to help reveal it to him.
If this could happen to someone so spiritual that they could pen one of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible (see the verses before these, Ps 139:1-18) it could be true of me and you too. I think that is what God is trying to convey to us in this disturbing passage.
But the question is, ‘Do you want to know what God might reveal if you prayed this prayer in verses 23-24?’ Do you want God’s honest feedback and help to deal with whatever comes next? If so, pray that prayer now.