PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday

Scripture lesson: John14:15-21 We have the Holy Spirit

 

Time to reflect: We traditionally interpret “The Advocate” as being the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we stay in touch with God.

Moving through the day: Think about times when you felt God working within you. Give thanksgiving for the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

 

Scripture:

 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: 1 Peter 3:13-22 “Christ also suffered”

 

Time to reflect: Being a believer does not protect us from harm – in fact it sometimes brings us into harm's way. Even Christ suffered, as did Paul and all the Apostles and faithful people right up to today. Why should we expect protection beyond the Apostles?

Moving through the day: Think about whether you secretly or overtly believe that God should/does protect you from the harshness of life.

Scripture:

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 66:8-20 “I will tell...”

 

Time to reflect: Are we willing to tell others about what God has done for us?

Moving Throughout the day: Pray for opportunities to tell others about God and Christ.

Scripture:

Praise our God, O peoples,
       let the sound of his praise be heard;

  he has preserved our lives
       and kept our feet from slipping.

  For you, O God, tested us;
       you refined us like silver.

  You brought us into prison
       and laid burdens on our backs.

  You let men ride over our heads;
       we went through fire and water,
       but you brought us to a place of abundance.

 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
       and fulfill my vows to you-

  vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
       when I was in trouble.

  I will sacrifice fat animals to you
       and an offering of rams;
       I will offer bulls and goats.
       Selah

  Come and listen, all you who fear God;
       let me tell you what he has done for me.

  I cried out to him with my mouth;
       his praise was on my tongue.

  If I had cherished sin in my heart,
       the Lord would not have listened;

  but God has surely listened
       and heard my voice in prayer.

  Praise be to God,
       who has not rejected my prayer
       or withheld his love from me!

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Acts 17:22-31 The Unknown God

Time to reflect: Trying to make a connection between our faith and the surrounding culture goes all the way back to Paul.

Moving through the day: Meditate on verses 24 & 25. Do we try to limit, domesticate, reduce God to “shrines” of one sort or other.

Scripture:

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

 "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 hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: 1 Corinthians 3:1-15  Which minister was better

 

Time to reflect: The church in Corinth was having fights between those that thought Paul was the best pastor and those that thought Apollos was better. Neither faction liked the new guy. Paul was disgusted that people were saying “But Paul did it this way...”

Moving through the day:

Are there people/things/situations of the past that you find difficult letting go of? Try to ban from your vocabulary phrases like “We've never done it that way before,” “We USED to...” etc

 

Scripture:

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Habakkuk 3:17-19 Its never too bad to thank God

Time to reflect: A Psalm with a nice attitude: No matter how rotten things may be it is never so bad that we shouldn't be thanking God.

Moving through the day: Have a prayer of thanksgiving and praise.

Scripture:

Though the fig tree does not bud
       and there are no grapes on the vines,
       though the olive crop fails
       and the fields produce no food,
       though there are no sheep in the pen
       and no cattle in the stalls,

  yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
       I will be joyful in God my Savior.

 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
       he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
       he enables me to go on the heights.
       For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 139:14-18 God is involved in every part of the creation

 

Time to reflect: We are well educated in the mechanics of the universe and life. we understand HOW things happen. But do we often stop to think about WHY and WHO lies behind these mechanics? This Psalmist is saying that (regardless of the processes) God is behind it all and involved in it all.

 

Moving Through The Day: Think about what it means to you to say that “God created the heavens and the Earth” and God's eyes beheld your unformed substance.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

  My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

 your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!

  Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand.
       When I awake,
       I am still with you.