Hebrews 11:5-6
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. - Hebrews 11:5-6
Dear Heavenly Father,
You have shown your attributes in nature in thousands of ways. You have put your moral law in our hearts. These two are ample enough evidence to give us faith that you exist and that you can be pursued. Then you laid out in your word your miraculous plan to save and to reveal your undeserved love for all people. You have made sure that it's spoken in every language and printed in most. You have given us all we need to believe in you. Enoch had very little if none of the written word to go on. Yet, he walked with you everyday being constant in prayer and godly living. I want to walk with you every day and especially this entire day. I believe that you exist and that you show up to answer my prayers. So, I will turn all my worries into prayers before I try to turn them into schemes for me to manipulate and control results. Lord, hear my prayers and show up on my behalf. When you think it better to make me wait, give me the faith to keep walking with you even though you seem silent.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Walk with God in prayer and Bible study and you will get through the day a whole lot quicker.
Additional Reading: Psalm 25, Psalm 119, John 8
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Dear Holy Spirit,
Thank you for leading the Apostle Paul to be transparent so that he shared how he felt the sentence of death on his body. When I feel like that, I feel so alone. But here it is in Scripture. I appreciate his reminder that you will deliver us again and again before you call us to glory. It gives me hope for this life and the next. I will quit trying to predict my own destiny and learn to trust you to take care of me. You already have won for me eternal life. I look forward to the way you keep showing your compassionate deliverance until you beam me up. Help my friends and me to pull
together in prayer with expectant hearts.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
We really start to live by faith when all earthly props fail.
Additional Reading: Psalm 73, 2 Corinthians 4 and 5.
Luke 15:28-32
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” - Luke 15:28-32
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help me to forget everything I have ever done for you or anyone else. Instead, give me the eyes to stare at all the blessings you give me out of sheer mercy and grace. Free me up from myself so I join you at the party for sinners you have forgiven of grievous errors. I want to welcome home your children with you. If you have someone you want me to go find for you, give me the motivation and the wisdom to go get them for you. In days when I'm weary and selfish and unconcerned for the lost, please come out of the party and call me back in the way you had the father come out to plead with the older brother in your parable. I love being in your family and I pray more people will come to understand that I want them there too.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
There's room in God's family for people not like you.
Additional Reading: Colossians 3
Jonah 4:10-11
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” - Jonah 4:10-11
Dear Heavenly Father,
Your concern and compassion for all people and even for all the animals is the foundation of our entire existence. It's your love that made us and it's your love that forgives us when we fall. Not one of us lives outside your mercy and yet we so often want justice more than mercy. Give me your heart, that loves all people, even all creation with compassion and grace. Make me long for the restoration of all people more than I do for the satisfaction of justice. Help me find in your cross the payment for sins so I am free to love people as much as you are.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
We live inside of God's love. In here there is no room for suffocating anger and criticism.
Additional Reading: Matthew 12:1-14
Luke 15:31-32
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” - Luke 15:31-32
Dear Jesus,
Like Jonah, I have struggled with how gracious and forgiving you are with all people. I somehow think I am more deserving than others. Those thoughts are what make me undeserving of your mercy. Mercy is pure grace and never earned. Help to quit separating myself from other sinners as if my kind of sin is more pleasing in your sight than theirs. We are all recipients of your adopting grace. I love being your child. Help me love all other people as children in the making for you.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Mercy is wanting God's grace for others as much as you want it for yourself.
Additional Reading: Jonah 4, Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 16:25-26
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ - Luke 16:25-26
Dear Jesus,
You told this parable to help all of us realize how short and fleeting earthly life is. Our wealth and possessions are irrelevant to eternal life. None of our personal circumstances will last. This is both a comfort and a confrontation. It makes me wake up and listen to you and whatever you have to say about the meaning of life and the salvation you bring. What you had Abraham saying to the rich man who was in hell, echoes in my mind, "In your lifetime you had good things but now you are in agony." I don't want to get caught up living for this life and all that passes away. Help me to enjoy your blessings but to use them for the good of others and to your glory. Help me to hold them loosely in my heart so I don't get dislocated when you pull them out of my grasp. Make me a free, powerful, force for gospel goodness in this life.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
If you feel discombobulated when God wrenches a blessing from your life, it's a sure sign that it was not as good for you as you had once thought.
Additional Reading: 1 Timothy 6, James 1:9-11
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Dear Lord,
Give me the value that comes from love. I’m so tempted to seek my worth in something else. But you make it clear that it’s love that gives me true worth. Show me my worth by leading me to love those closest to me no matter what they or I may be going through. Help them to know that they are loved by both you and me by how I treat them. Make me the image of your Son for them.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
True Christian love is unavoidably powerful for changing lives.
Additional Reading: Colossians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1, Philemon
Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you. - Psalm 119:11
Dear Heavenly Father,
You have given your word to us as medicine, food and as a weapon. Forgive me for so often thinking I had what I needed within myself to fight temptation on my own. I need you and your word to be my light in the darkness and my power to say "no" when I am tempted. Whenever I read or even commit to memorizing your words, I sense it's power over everything from worry to lust. Thank you for graciously giving us powerful words to hide in our souls to counter the myriad of evil thoughts that plague us every day. And remind me by your Holy Spirit to tap into your word when I am tempted so I don't sin against you or anyone else.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
When you pray "lead us not into temptation" do it with the word of God in your heart and be ready to wield it when prompted.
Additional Reading: Psalm 25, Psalm 119, Hebrews 4:12
Proverbs 16:4
The Lord works out everything to its proper end—
even the wicked for a day of disaster. - Proverbs 16:4
Dear Heavenly Father,
Because I know you're working out everything to its proper end, I don't need to get too caught up trying to understand the details of my life. I can spend my energy being the best me you want me to be. As you unfold each new situation, I can focus on listening to your words like a player heeds a coach in the heat of a game. Help me to hear your voice over the crowd and even over my own repeating fears and desires. I want to get it right in life, not just try to make life right for me. It's so comforting to know that when I stroll heaven with you, I will be able to comprehend the magnificent way you worked out all of our lives together. Today is awesome and holy because you have redeemed it from the whims of us mortals.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Stop trying to make life turn out right and just work on being the best you right where you are.
Additional Reading: Ephesians 4:17-32
Proverbs 29:26
Many seek an audience with a ruler,
but it is from the Lord that one gets justice. - Proverbs 29:26
Dear Lord,
I can think of many times that I needed this promise. Whenever I have had to submit my cause to someone else who is in authority and who was to make a decision that affected my life, I would get very nervous and feel so vulnerable. In those times it feels like they hold my happiness in their hands. But here you remind me that you are the one to bring justice for my life. Even if the authority rules differently than I had hoped, you will work justice for me through their decision. It might just be a longer road to justice than I had hoped. I am in your hands and not the boss, the judge or the person behind the counter. You see all and you do what is best for all. I can let go of the pressure I normally put on myself to make it turn out perfectly according to my desires. I can just present the facts and trust you are working through the fallible person who holds the decision making authority. Oh Lord, increase my faith to trust you are working in all circumstances!
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
God is not so small as to forfeit control of your whole life to the whims of a human judge in the courtroom or the street.
Additional Reading: Joseph's story in Genesis 37-50
Proverbs 23:17-18
Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.
18 There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off. - Proverbs 23:17-18
Dear Heavenly Father,
Comparing my life with others brings no peace. That horizontal pursuit leads to a dead end filled with negative emotions. Your word tells me to lead my heart to look vertically up to you and to be zealous for my child/parent relationship with you. The fear you call for is typified by love and respect. You promise me that you have my future mapped out for me. It's all about you and me and no one else. I long for the freedom you promise that comes from my refusing to compare my life with others. Help me to want what I have from you instead of pursuing what I want when I compare myself to others. That's the secret to contentment. I can only come close to it if you help me by your Holy Spirit to lead my heart instead of follow it. So, help me Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit to accept my life with you just as your Son did when he laid it all down to save me.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Contentment is wanting what you have from God instead of getting what you want after comparing your life with others.
Additional Reading: John 21, Philippians 4
Romans 2:4
God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. - Romans 2:4
Dear God,
We often think of how you send hardship to turn me around. We even call it a "wake up call." But we do not so readily think that you send grace and blessings to bring us to repentance. I remember being surprised the first time I read about Peter in Luke 5 falling to the bottom of his boat in fear and repentance when you blessed him with a boat full of fish. I would have thought he'd be celebrating. Instead he was repenting. When I think of your Son on the cross for me, it leads me to humble myself too. But it also makes me thankful that you would save a wretch like me. Your blessings, even the blessing of Jesus lead me to honesty about my unworthiness of such generosity. They lead me to love and trust you too. If you can keep blessing a sinner like me, you are the most stable person in all the universe for me. Thank you for changing my heart and life through your consistent grace based generosity toward me.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Karma is humankind's weak attempt to take credit for what God loves to give out of grace.
Additional Reading: 1 Chronicles 29
Hebrews 12:7-8
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. - Hebrews 12:7-8
Dear Father,
The phrase that sticks out to me today in your words is "and everyone undergoes discipline." Before it almost slipped by me. I have often felt that so many others were disciplined way less than me and that a few were disciplined more. How foolish for me to try to judge what you are up to with each soul and to measure (as if I could) how you discipline us! Everyone undergoes discipline. No one is immune to it and no one dares to try to escape it either. It's your way with sinners. We need hardship to keep us close. We need it for a thousand other reasons that only you fully understand. It leads us into a dependent relationship with you. It surprises us and knocks us off our self made pedestal. It makes us need and want you and the relief you bring. It makes us evaluate our lives and look for sin we have committed. It makes us real and humble. It deals with our rebellion. Not one of us people on the planet escapes it. It's only your children by faith that receive it as a part of a loving parent/child relationship with you. Help me to trust your love when I'm disciplined as much and when I seem to be not.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Good parents are expressing love when they discipline their children. Think how much more God expresses his love when he allows his own to hurt.
Additional Reading: Hebrews 12
Psalm 103:7-18
He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts. - Psalm 103:7-18
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are not some far away God who gets easily offended and loses interest in us. You are a dear Father, full of compassion and always planning how you will restore and renew our lives. You revealed your intensely personal and everlasting love to Moses when he dealt with you up close (Exodus 34). Because of what David saw there between you and Moses, he was moved to write a song about your fatherly tender heart. Both those men help me understand your grace and mercy. I praise you for being the Father who made me, and saves me. I look forward to today, tomorrow and eternity because you are my dad. Happy Father's day.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Give God a big hug on Father's day by going to church to hang out with him.
Additional Reading: Exodus 34, Romans 8
Philippians 1:5-6
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 1:5-6
This thought comforts me in all my relationships: You are in a relentless pursuit to grow us into better people for our good and your glory! I think about this in moments of failure. I think about it when others fail me too. You are always growing all of us. You won't let us go. In every circumstance, if we will look to you for the lessons you are teaching, we will find them, even if they just teach us to trust you and not ourselves so much. Always teaching us and growing us until the very end when we get carried to perfection! To think that you are growing everyone makes me patient with others too. I don't get so tied to events as I do to a program of change. Help me to retain what your word teaches here. I want to grow in the word about growth. You began the good work of faith in your grace long ago in my life. You are still actively transforming my personality today. Give me the humility and faith to let you mess with my head, my heart and my life for your glory.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
God loves us too much to leave us babies in our understanding of life.
Additional Reading: Philipians 3, Hebrews 12
Luke 10:18-20
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” - Luke 10:18-20
Dear Jesus,
It's my nature to find my greatest joy in the things you allow me to accomplish in life. But at the end of the day, everything I create is vulnerable to the whims of others and the tragedy of changing circumstances. Once I erect a trophy for my own mind, someone comes by and knocks it down, or builds a bigger, better tower. Finding my greatest joy in my work is disappointing and distorted living. Your word here points me out of that darkness. I have something much better than my own accomplishments in which to rejoice. I have my security for an eternal. No matter what frustrations plague my temporary life, I will survive it all and finally stand on the precipice of history with you and look back over the landscape of my life as it fits into your grand universal scheme. I will see my place in time from my place in eternity and everything will make sense to me, especially the disappointments. Oh, Jesus, keep me safe in this faith.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
God enters our short life and reminds us that he won us for the long game.
Additional Reading: Psalm 131, Revelation 19
Acts 17:22-28
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.' - Acts 17:22-28
Dear Jesus,
So many things happen to me. I also make so many things happen both good and bad. Every era of my life has been marked by some kind of stress. It seems that looking back or looking forward is always more pleasant than looking at the present. Daily, I wonder what the meaning to my life is? I wonder who I am, why I am here and where I am going. By grace and in love for my soul you have given me the only answers that work for me. Who am I? I am your special creation, invented by you to hold this space and time. But I have fallen too. I'm not everything you hoped I would be. So, why am I here? I'm here at this place and time to find you and your mercy. I'm here in the present with all it's stresses to reach out for you and find you once again. Where am I going? I'm going through this short life to a day when I will stand before you the author of all of life and I will be welcomed into heaven by grace and grace alone. You have given me the meaning to my life! Thank you for choosing me of all people to be granted the insight that makes life truly meaningful.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Everyone is in search of meaning. We find no lasting meaning until we search for and find God himself.
Additional Reading: Psalm 139, John 4
Psalm 133
How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
2 It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore. - Psalm 133
Dear Jesus,
You gave Israel the high priesthood and his sacrifices to settle all matters of sin and dispute between them. When they took their problems to the temple they knew your heavenly Father had settled them. This brought them a unity from outside themselves. It was your great recovery plan. When David understood that, he wrote this little psalm to help his people always remember that they had your recovery plan for the maintenance of good relationships. He reminded them that the sacrifices that settled sin were as refreshing as mountain cool temps and dew that wet the grass. Today, we have you who replaced the high priestly office and it's grand recovery plan. Your gospel and the Lord's Supper are our recovery plan. They restore our relationships and help us let you settle our blame and shame that we create between us with our sins. Help all our people and me to understand and practice this great recovery plan that comes from outside ourselves from you, the Father and the Holy Spirit. I want the brotherly unity that you promise to give.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
If God has reconciled his holy justice through Christ, who are you to hold back forgiveness from someone?
Additional Reading: Leviticus 8 and 9, Hebrews 5-10
Revelation 3:20
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” - Revelation 3:20
Dear Jesus,
You spoke these words to the church of Laodicea because she had become worldly and self-absorbed. You reminded her that those whom you love, you discipline.
Here in this verse you are telling us that while we undergo suffering as discipline, you are standing nearby, ready to give comfort, grace, mercy and the promise of eternal rest. In my hour of suffering help me to hear you knocking at the door and give my heart ears to listen to your words. Don’t let the blessings you have granted me, jade my understanding of the meaning of life in this fleeting world. I am rich because of you and I get it that you will discipline me with suffering to make sure I retain this beautiful truth.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
God won’t let anyone escape his “wake up“ calls. He loves us too much to let our earthly comforts rob us of heaven.
Additional Reading : Luke 12, Hebrews 12
Hebrews 4:8-10
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:8-10
Dear Heavenly Father,
Who would have thought that the Sabbath Day commandment was connected not just to the rest you had on the seventh day after creation but also to the rest your Son gives us from work righteousness, denial, blame, projection and excuses that we make because of our sins. You rested from your work of creation because, in love, you had finished making us a perfect world. You rested from your anger over sin when your son said "It is Finished." Now we can rest from trying to make this a heaven on earth. We can rest from trying to earn your favor. We can rest from trying to fix every broken relationship. We can rest in the promise that now we are restored to you, we will also get to live in a restored world in the next life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, for the rest we have in grace. I have entered this rest.
Amen
Pastor Don Patterson
Augustine said it best, "We find no rest until we find our rest in God."
Additional Reading: Genesis 2:1-2, Exodus 20:8-11, Colossians 2:13-19