PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Romans 14 :1-12 “Let us no longer pass judgment on each other”

Time to reflect: The point of the first 6 verses is that we tend to fight over and pass judgment on each other over trivial details of the faith. Paul got really exasperated with the fights over whether “good” Christians should be Kosher or not. He suggests that those who want to be Kosher, let them be Kosher, and those that don't, that's their business (Paul himself apparently was Kosher). But this should be used to divide the community.

Moving through the day: Are there things we, individually or collectively, use to divide and separate that are actually small potatoes? (How much time does the Bible spend on the issue?) Pray for the ability to put things in perspective.

 

Scripture:

  Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written:
   " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
   'every knee will bow before me;
      every tongue will confess to God.' " So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.