PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture lesson: Psalm 147 The Lord of all creation

Time to reflect: This is another Lord of Creation passage. We've had a bunch of them over the past few weeks. Some parts of this Psalm may be hard for us to relate to but it is poetry and imagery. We can translate into our own understanding of how the universe works, scientifically. Focusing on verses 19-20, however, as Christians, we do believe that we have special information. This does not need to condemn others who are not a part of our community, but should be taken as a special gift to be used well, and for which we should be grateful, as in this Psalm. Having or not having the Christian beliefs does not assure or make impossible God's salvation. However, it is good news that is comforting and supportive to our lives. Do we not want to share that information?

Moving Throughout the day: Since this is a tough issue for our generation, think through the idea that we can be right, in that we know some aspects of God's work that others do not have, without their being “wrong” or condemned.

 Scripture:

Praise the LORD.
       How good it is to sing praises to our God,
       how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
       he gathers the exiles of Israel.

  He heals the brokenhearted
       and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars
       and calls them each by name.

  Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
       his understanding has no limit.

  The LORD sustains the humble
       but casts the wicked to the ground.

  Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
       make music to our God on the harp.

  He covers the sky with clouds;
       he supplies the earth with rain
       and makes grass grow on the hills.

  He provides food for the cattle
       and for the young ravens when they call.

  His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
       nor his delight in the legs of a man;

  the LORD delights in those who fear him,
       who put their hope in his unfailing love.

  Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem;
       praise your God, O Zion,

  for he strengthens the bars of your gates
       and blesses your people within you.

  He grants peace to your borders
       and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

  He sends his command to the earth;
       his word runs swiftly.

  He spreads the snow like wool
       and scatters the frost like ashes.

  He hurls down his hail like pebbles.
       Who can withstand his icy blast?

  He sends his word and melts them;
       he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.

  He has revealed his word to Jacob,
       his laws and decrees to Israel.

  He has done this for no other nation;
       they do not know his laws.
       Praise the LORD.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Isaiah 40:21-31 “Have you not heard?”

Time to reflect: The key concept of this passage is to contrast what we all know, that God is the creator of all, with the fact that we live our lives as if we didn't know this. It gets forgotten in the details, stresses and concerns of daily life. Sometimes we feel we can do things that God is not aware of, other times we feel like God isn't paying attention to our concerns and problems. So this passage is a good reminder of the nature of God.

Moving through the day: Focusing on verses 28 to 31, what difference does this information make in our lives? How can we view life differently if this became a core value and belief of ours? Prayer a prayer of thanksgiving for the reality of these verses.

Scripture:

Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       Has it not been told you from the beginning?
       Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
       and its people are like grasshoppers.
       He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
       and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught
       and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

  No sooner are they planted,
       no sooner are they sown,
       no sooner do they take root in the ground,
       than he blows on them and they wither,
       and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

  "To whom will you compare me?
       Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
       Who created all these?
       He who brings out the starry host one by one,
       and calls them each by name.
       Because of his great power and mighty strength,
       not one of them is missing.

  Why do you say, O Jacob,
       and complain, O Israel,
       "My way is hidden from the LORD;
       my cause is disregarded by my God"?

  Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

  He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

 Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

  but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Deuteronomy 6:4-9 The Shema

Time to reflect: Besides being the primary creed of Judaism, the larger passage here is the Christian Educator's pledge. It is every Christian's duty to pass on the faith to subsequent generations.

Moving through the day: This charge never goes away – what have you done lately to pass on the faith? Children? Grandchildren? Nieces and Nephews? Neighborhood children? Sunday School children?

 Scripture:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Job 38:4-70 Who do you think you are?

Time to reflect: This is a part of a long speech by God putting Job in his place: Job, so self-righteous about disagreeing with God about how he had been treated had been second guessing God. God points out that the creator of the universe might have a different perspective and agenda than a mere mortal.

Moving through the day: How often do you second-guess God? How often is it based and particular and personal issues that might be at odds with the greater scheme of things?

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
       Tell me, if you understand.

 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
       Who stretched a measuring line across it?

  On what were its footings set,
       or who laid its cornerstone-

  while the morning stars sang together
       and all the angels shouted for joy?

 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
       when it burst forth from the womb,

  when I made the clouds its garment
       and wrapped it in thick darkness,

  when I fixed limits for it
       and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
       here is where your proud waves halt'?

  "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
       or shown the dawn its place,

  that it might take the earth by the edges
       and shake the wicked out of it?

 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
       its features stand out like those of a garment.

  The wicked are denied their light,
       and their upraised arm is broken.

  "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
       or walked in the recesses of the deep?

  Have the gates of death been shown to you?
       Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death ?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
       Tell me, if you know all this.

  "What is the way to the abode of light?
       And where does darkness reside?

 Can you take them to their places?
       Do you know the paths to their dwellings?

  Surely you know, for you were already born!
       You have lived so many years!

  "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
       or seen the storehouses of the hail,

  which I reserve for times of trouble,
       for days of war and battle?

 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
       or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?

  Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
       and a path for the thunderstorm,

  to water a land where no man lives,
       a desert with no one in it,

  to satisfy a desolate wasteland
       and make it sprout with grass?

  Does the rain have a father?
       Who fathers the drops of dew?

  From whose womb comes the ice?
       Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

  when the waters become hard as stone,
       when the surface of the deep is frozen?

  "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?
       Can you loose the cords of Orion?

  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
       or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
       Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

  "Can you raise your voice to the clouds
       and cover yourself with a flood of water?

  Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
       Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?

 Who endowed the heart with wisdom
       or gave understanding to the mind ?

 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
       Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens

when the dust becomes hard
       and the clods of earth stick together?

"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
       and satisfy the hunger of the lions

when they crouch in their dens
       or lie in wait in a thicket?

Who provides food for the raven
       when its young cry out to God
       and wander about for lack of food?