40 Days of Prayer - Week 3

Hebrews 11:13-16 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Devotion: After listing the many ancestors of faith we have in the Old Testament Scriptures, in this New Testament passage the writer of Hebrews goes on to say how all these people died before ever seeing the promise of Christ revealed. And yet, they lived with a future-looking faith, not based on the reality of what was, but based on a trust in what they knew God was able to do.

In this life and in this world, we as people of faith have no permanent home. Like our nomadic ancestors — Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and his children — we are always looking forward to that “better country.” Yet, because of this faith, we need not remain in bondage to the regrets, disappointments, and sins of the past, but are able to move forward into the new future that God is always opening up for us.

Christ himself said: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). We follow the One who has passed through this world of death to life. As we follow in the path he has set before us, we do not rest our minds on the land we left behind, but we trust that God has prepared a better future for us. Following in the footsteps our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not ashamed to call him our God, because he has prepared a city for us.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, God of our ancestors, we thank you for speaking your promises long before they are ever revealed. We thank you, for not giving us a permanent home in this life, so that we may always be able to follow where you lead. By the power of your Holy Spirit, give us the wisdom and strength to move forward in faith, not looking back to what we have left behind, but trusting that you have a future prepared for us, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Steven King, Pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Maple Lake, Minnesota and Director of Education, WordAlone Ministries and Sola Publishing.

Matthew 14:28-31 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus: but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Devotion: A greater miracle than Jesus walking on the water is Peter walking on the water. “Come,” said Jesus and Peter was out of the boat, his eyes were on the Lord, and he was walking the waves. But on the way, the storm became a distraction. Taking his eyes off Jesus, Peter started to look around. Yet even when sinking in his faithlessness, Peter is still born above the waves by the hand of the Lord.

In the midst of the Lutheran fray in North America, our Lord comes to us walking on the water. He bids us to step out in faith where we fear failure. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus as we move out beside Peter to walk above the waves into a new expression of the church for our age. At times we may lack the faith we need, but let us reach for Jesus’ saving hand that He might lead us to safety.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, bid us to step out onto the water with you, that we might know you and be with you. Hold us fast in your word so that a faithful expression of Christian Lutheranism might continue to arise in North America. Help us to work together to bind up wounds, and venture faithfully into the mission you have set for us that we may preach, teach and confess Jesus as God’s Word alone. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Tom Walker, Vice-President, WordAlone Ministries and Life Together Churches.

Genesis 12:1-3 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your relatives, and your father’s home. Go to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. Through you every family on earth will be blessed.”

Devotion: Martin Luther liked this passage. It was “most outstanding,” in Luther’s estimation – “one of the most important in all Holy Scripture,” in fact (LW II, p.253).

Martin Luther liked this passage a lot. “Whatever will be achieved in the church until the end of the world and whatever has been achieved in the church until now,” Luther explained in his modest sort of way, “has been achieved and will be achieved by virtue of this promise.” In the first few verses of Genesis 12, you have “the history of the church from the time of Abraham until today” (LW II, p.265).

This is a passage about the very basics: maybe that’s why Luther liked it so well. At the beginning of the story and the base of biblical faith, we find an election of grace – and a call to mission. These are not two “departments” of biblical faith, as they have often become in the structures of the Christian church. In biblical faith, election and mission are woven completely together. If you have grace, you will have mission. And you cannot have Christian mission without authentic Christian grace.

So it is never entirely accurate to say: our church will “have” a mission, as it might “have” conventions or bylaws or officers. The formulation doesn’t work, in the light of Genesis 12. It is more accurate by far to say: the mission of God “has” the church. The church isn’t basic, after all; the mission is.

So let’s build on the basics, as Martin Luther did. Call. Blessing. Mission. And a view toward “every family on earth.”

Prayer: God of the ages, Lord of the church: We thank you for your gracious call to Father Abraham. You promised him the blessing of knowing you; you sent him into the world to become a blessing everywhere. Forgive us for hoarding the blessing of the Gospel for ourselves. Make us, like Abraham, participants in your mission for the sake of all the peoples of the world. In the wonderful Name of Jesus, Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Charles Lindquist, Director, World Mission Prayer League, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits…

Devotion: I have a friend who in the year 2000, after a succession of events that I cannot detail now, arrived to the US from his native country. As you can imagine, his first months in the US were not easy at all. Among other things, he was facing a different culture, an unknown city full of technology, and new people. Even the food was not the same. Besides, he was away from his loved ones and, of course, he did not have any job.

A few days later, my friend got a job in a restaurant (as a busboy) and he says will never forget it! He used to work 14 hours every day, most of the time without having lunch or dinner, and working only for the tips.

One of the objects my friend was given when he began doing that job was an old beige apron with three big pockets on it. He was supposed to wear it to serve and clean the tables, and soon it became the symbol of his new job. In spite of the circumstances, it was so funny for him to stand in front of the mirror and view himself wearing that kind of thing.

Many things have happened since then. Two months later, my friend found a better job in a medical office, later in a hospital and later God allowed him to continue the Ministry he began in his native country when he got Ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. It is really different now. However, my friend says that the old beige apron continues being a symbol to him. In my friend’s mind it even speaks to him every single time he sees it. My friend says that the old beige apron reminds him who he was. It keeps him humble. It reminds him that he is where he is today not by self capacity, but by the Grace and Mercy of God upon him.

My friend does not know if the word “sacred” is appropriate to name it. The old beige apron is not his relic either. It is instead a symbol. He keeps it in his briefcase and he carries it with him wherever he goes… so that he remembers…

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for all the blessings we have received. Thanks for being our God, and thanks for the opportunity you have given us of being an active part in the reconfiguration of Lutheranism in North America. We pray that in the Name of Jesus we may never forget that all that we are, and all that we do, is the result of your work in us. Let us day by day repeat with the Psalmist: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits…Psalm 103:2. To God be all the Glory now and forever, Amen!

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Eddy Perez, Pastor of Iglesia Luterana San Pedro, Miami, Florida.

1 Corinthians 11:18-19 …when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.

Devotion: Those of us who take seriously our Lord's command to unity and the commands to love one another (including in 1 Corinthians 11) are distressed by the disunity and divisions in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Yet as the Apostle notes, sometimes divisions are necessary in order for truth to come to the surface.

At Corinth the issues were somewhat different from ours, but at their root pretty much the same. Will God's call and purpose determine our life together, or our egos and desires? Will the Christian community live out of God's agenda or will we let the culture and the world determine our actions and priorities? Yes, even the sexual confusion of our age is nothing new. Sexual morality was also an issue at Corinth.

Our prayer needs to be first of all that the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Scriptures and through "the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren," (Luther, Smalcald Articles) will lead us from error into that which is genuine. We must resist our sinful tendency to identify ourselves with all that is right, condemning others as children of darkness. Our prayers for Lutheran CORE must always begin and end with repentance, which Luther said should mark the entire life of the Christian (95 Theses, Thesis One).

But we also need to realize that in a fallen world, there will be divisions, and sometimes they are necessary for the genuine Word to shine forth.

Prayer: Almighty God, forgive us for the sin which leads to divisions among us. Join us to our Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit that we might stand in humility and love for your gracious will and purpose. Guide those who gather in Ohio this month that their decisions and deliberations may fulfill your purpose, that congregations may be built up, and that your Word will go forth calling many to faith and discipleship. We ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Lord of the Church. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. W. Stevens Shipman, Pastor of United Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania; Member, Society of the Holy Trinity and Steering Committee Member (Secretary), Lutheran CORE.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Devotion: In Voyageur National Park in northern Minnesota, there are many hiking trails that lead through the deep pine forests. In places, the trails are hard to follow because there is so much exposed rock. When the trail crosses these smooth granite slabs, all evidence of the path vanishes. There is no trampled grass or hardened soil to reveal the right way to go. When one crosses these spots, diligent searching is needed to discover where the trail begins again. This is the case in broad daylight. Imagine the problem facing the hiker at night.

One summer, our church youth group went on a houseboat trip just north of the park. Only a few of us had thought to bring flashlights along. One evening, just before sunset, some of us traveled from our campsite on a small island to the other side. After having a campfire, we headed back to camp in the dark. On the way, several of us without lights groped around in the darkness until we finally lost the trail. Fortunately, one from our group who had a flashlight caught up with us. Yet, with the rocks and the darkness it was still difficult, even with a light, to discern our way. However, with the aid of the flashlight and many eyes searching the pathway, we eventually found our way back to the campsite.

Our Christian journey is often through darkness and over rocks. Knowing where to go or what to do next is not always easy. In fact, it is impossible without the help of the Scriptures and the confessions of the church through the ages. Much of North American Lutheranism is lost because they are travelling on without the light or the help of their companions. They wander from the truth because the culture has convinced them that they know the right path better than God’s Word does. They stumble in the darkness because they believe that human reason, unaided, can know the deep truths of God. Our responsibility is to dust off the lanterns of Scripture and our Lutheran confessions and hold them out ahead of us to guide our way.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for so many faithful pastors and congregations who have not strayed from truth despite the temptations. Thank you for the confessions of generations past that help clarify the meaning of Scripture. Renew our commitment to your Word. Give us courage to walk the road you call us to travel. Help us to renew our culture through your truths instead of being conformed to it. And renew Lutheranism in North America so that she advances your kingdom in profound ways in the years ahead. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Kent Groethe, Interim Pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church (LCMC), Dodge City, Kansas; Editor, Connections (a magazine for evangelical Lutheran Christians) and Director, Bible Alive Ministries.

2 Corinthians 5:14a The love of Christ controls us.

Devotion: Youth Encounter sponsors young adult ministry teams called “Captive Free.” At the beginning of each year, I hear team members try to explain “Captive Free” in terms of opposites: “Once I was captive, now I am free in Christ!”

This is how our culture thinks: Captivity, or any form of constraint, is perceived in opposition to freedom. We vie against all restraints that might curtail our personal freedom. We strive to be free, free from any burdens or responsibilities that might weigh upon us, or any boundaries or injunctions that might restrict our choices.

Sexual boundaries are conditioned to my desires. If my desires conflict with the boundaries that are meant to protect me from others, and others from me, I casually transgress these boundaries, even at the risk of infection, pregnancy, and broken hearts. I nonchalantly pursue the satisfaction of my desires even when I know I am using someone else.

Marriage is conditioned by my personal happiness. Instead of hallowing a public, sacred vow “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part,” I privately presume that I will only stay in the marriage “for as long as it suits me.”

Family good is conditioned to my personal freedom. Instead of sacrificing for my family, I live for myself. I am so intent on having as many material things as I can that I spend my time at work rather than with my spouse and children. Rather than saving for the future, I live for today, running up debts, financial, social, physical, emotional, and spiritual debts that will not only depreciate my life, but the lives of my children and my children’s children.

The social good is conditioned to my interests. I feel perfectly comfortable living off of society. I feel entitled to a good life. I no longer recognize the validity of claims that require me to be responsible, to share burdens, or to sacrifice for others.

Certainly the epitome of my sense of entitlement, of my self-centered desire to be free of all constraints, is that I (male or female) will terminate the life of another human being for my own convenience. This is what we have come to call “choice,” the freedom to choose another’s death, if that is what I feel is necessary to preserve my life as I wish to live it.

The truth about unfettered freedom is that it always depreciates, devalues, and dehumanizes the other in favor of my wants. In turn, my own life is depreciated, devalued, and dehumanized. Upon reflection, unfettered freedom does not have the capacity to sustain human good, including the freedoms we treasure. In fact, unfettered freedom squanders the common good and impoverishes everyone, even myself. Lives lived without restraint reveal unfettered freedom to be a tyrant. I become captive to my own desires, enslaved by my own autonomy, tyrannized by the unfettered freedom of others impinging upon me. Captive to myself, the freedoms I most need, the freedom to trust and to be trusted, the freedom to love and be loved, the freedom to give and to receive, the freedom to be at peace and be joyful, all these precious freedoms, and many more like them, are lost.

Our Lord put it this way: “Whoever would save his life will lose it.” (Matthew 16:25a)

If we think that the choice is between “captivity” and “freedom,” we misunderstand our choice. We will be captive to some “force.” The choice is to which “power” we will choose to be captive.

If we think that freedom can be achieved by means of escaping some form of commitment, constraint, or control, we misunderstand reality. Every freedom I might pursue can only be achieved on the basis of some form of captivity.

But what kind of constraint could possibly be considered “freedom?” How can we possibly find freedom in some form of captivity?

Our Lord told us “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25b) The Apostle Paul wrote “The love of Christ controls us” and went on to say that “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:14a, 17a)

Control. What an ugly word! No one likes to be controlled! How constraining! How limiting! How restrictive! How demeaning! How depreciating! How counter to my freedom!

We commonly understand control in this way as a tyrannical control, a power that takes over our lives, a force that is intimidating and manipulative, that coerces us to do that which we know is harmful, a control that makes us fearful, deceptive, and conflicted, an oppression that dehumanizes us, a constraint that robs us of the freedoms essential to a life of joy, peace, and trust. This is precisely the control unfettered freedom exercises upon us. Captive to our own selves, and to our own desires, we are tyrannized by our desires, and become fearful, deceptive, and conflicted.

Yet here is Paul writing about being “controlled” as if it were the means of experiencing an altogether new life. “The love of Christ controls us,” he writes, “because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Just how is it that being controlled by the love of Christ can make us a new creation? It is in this reality: we were created to live for God, not for ourselves, and not for some other power. When we live for ourselves, we live counter to who God created us to be. When the love of Christ controls, and we live for Him, we live in harmony with who God created us to be.

The “love of Christ” is a different kind of “control,” not the tyrannizing control that intimidates, manipulates, and coerces us, but a responsive control, the kind of control that Christ’s love exercises in our lives, drawing us out of ourselves to make a free and joyous response to the One who died and was raised for our sake. He came as a baby to draw us to Himself. He lived humbly with integrity to draw us to Himself. He died sacrificially to draw us to Himself. He rose from the dead with power to draw us to Himself. As we are drawn to Christ, we are drawn out of ourselves into His love, to be controlled by His love.

Indeed, God has designed our humanity to draw us out of ourselves to make a free and joyous response to one another.

God has designed us male and female, drawing us out of ourselves by means of our sexual desire for another who is our complement. Controlled by the love of Christ, sexual boundaries are now valued because the love of Christ is a love by which I joyously respect and honor another person, a love by which I find delight in another and in myself as persons of integrity. I am no longer tyrannized by my own selfish desires. I no longer manipulate others. I no longer use others. And no longer do I, or those with whom I relate, suffer the consequences of violating the persons God made us to be. I am free to live honorably. I become the person God created me to be.

Controlled by the love of Christ, marital love is a love that constrains me to live for a new reality, the reality of our marriage, a reality that involves not only myself but another, my spouse. I now put the good of our marriage, and the good of my spouse, before my own selfish desires. In doing this, I do not depreciate myself, nor do I allow my spouse to use me. Rather, in doing this, I gain the trust of another, and the freedom such trust gives to experience intimacy, openness, and vulnerability without fear. Instead of insecurity, I experience security. Where personal autonomy frustrated my attempts at such freedom, I now find that in giving myself to a reality that is larger than myself, our marriage, I gain such freedom. True, I am controlled by my love for another, and thus constrained from pursuing any personal desire that might trespass upon the integrity of this other, or upon the marriage that is ours. Yet in this constraint, I experience freedoms of invaluable worth, freedoms I could not experience without such constraint. I become myself, truly myself, and I realize the best of what I can become. I become the person God created me to be.

God has designed us to have children, drawing us out of ourselves by means of our love for our children, our own flesh and blood. Controlled by the love of Christ, family love compels my heart to live for my children. I make marriage the center of the home for their sake as well as for the sake of my marriage, my spouse, and myself. I prioritize my life so that I may effectively provide, protect, lead, teach, and nurture them, spend time with them, pay attention to them, and delight in them. I give up whatever gets in the way of this love. Together, my family realizes God’s design for our lives. In this family, constrained by that which works for the good of the family, I experience such joyful freedoms, the freedoms of intimacy, trust, and faithfulness.

God has designed us to need one another. We cannot live well without an interdependence on others. The needs I experience, the needs that can only be provided by others, draw me out of myself to my fellow human beings. Controlled by the love of Christ, neighborly love creates a humane society in which people prosper. In this humane society, constrained by that which works for the common good, I experience joyful freedoms, the freedoms of security, safety, and conversation without fear.

But to experience these freedoms, I must first become “captive,” captive to the One who was born, who died, and who was raised from the dead for me. Freedom is not achieved in opposition to captivity, but in the embrace of captivity to the love of Christ. We are “Captive Free!”

Prayer: Make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword; and I shall conqueror be. I sink in life’s alarms when by myself I stand; Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor until it master find; It has so spring of action sure, it varies with the wind.

It cannot freely more till Thou has wrought its chain; Enslave it with Thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve; It lacks the needed fire to glow, it lacks the breeze to nerve.

It cannot drive the world until itself be driven; Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven.

My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine; If it would reach a monarch’s throne, it must its crown resign.

It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife, When on Thy bosom it has leant, and found in Thee its life. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by Dr. Larry Johnson, President and CEO, Youth Encounter.