Are Our Prayers Preparing Us to Serve with Intelligent Influence?
Good Morning Friends,
Belated Shana Tova…Happy New Year. Yesterday at sundown the Jewish community began celebrating the joy of eating apples and honey…the sweetness of the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and mankind’s role in proclaiming God’s Kingship. We as Christians are graphed on to this experience and in the newness of it all today we explore the lessons of Jesus and the children. Today we learn that there is a big difference between being childish and childlike. We also learn that the difference hinges on how we are influenced and how we influence others. Today we explore why Jesus loves the little children in a culture that considered them chattel. Today we see a Jesus that wants to impress the importance of the relationship not the transaction of power over another. Today we meet a Jesus that demonstrates and nudges us into the will of God. On this Rosh Hashanah we begin to ponder our relationship with God and the sins we do not want to pass on to the next generation, even as we ask: Are Our Prayers Preparing Us to Serve with Intelligent Influence?
Scripture: Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:23-25 (NRSV)
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”
Mark 9:30-37 (NRSV)
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Mark 10:13-16 (NRSV)
Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the Lord’s offering by fire.
Leviticus 23:24-25 (NRSV)
Message: The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest disciple and Jesus turns the table on them saying that the greatest will be a servant of servants. In the kingdom of God it is really simple….So simple that a child can understand. You see a child sees and remembers. It may be in one ear and out the other but it is never in one eye and out the other. A child sees that prayer comes before the meal and learns the sequence of events. So today after you have read the passage, think in your mind of the pictures of Jesus and the children. Picture yourself in the art sharing in the incarnation of God’s beauty at the crossroads of the incarnation of God’s eternal human heart in the person of Jesus.
Pray we realize that we all have influence. Pray we demonstrate that influence by being sensitive to do what God calls us to do minute by minute in the moment. Pray we set aside the weightier tasks of the day to experience childlike faith and love. Pray that God’s message reaches us though the ear gate as we hear the ram’s horn and the message of scripture, as well as the eye gate as we share in blessing of what God makes new. Pray for fathers who will never be perfect but can be a blessing to their children in the little things of everyday life. Pray for the influence we bring to the day to day routines of our lives that demonstrate to children and adults alike a visual sign of God’s presence with us. Pray we align our life with God. Pray we are prepared to be involved in God’s activity. Pray God demonstrates His power through us. Pray our prayers bring us into participation with the work God has already planned. Pray we realize it is better to focus not on what we want but on what God wants. Pray that we do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, at all the times we can, to all the people we can, for as long as we can. Pray we are called to repentance. Pray we make a fresh start.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 