PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday

Scripture lesson: John 15:9-17 Love one another

Time to reflect: vs 12 is an important one because we are encouraged to love others at the same level as Christ – which is extremely sacrificial. This is not intended to be an abstract, good feeling kind of love, but a practical, concrete form of caring.

Moving through the day: Who do you need to make some sacrifice to help. Pray for strength to be the caring person you are called to be.

Scripture:

 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: 1 John 5:1-6 Grace leads to the Law

Time to reflect: First John's take on the Grace vx Law debate is much like the Book of Jame's: If we truly love God and accept Christ as Lord and Savior, then we will WANT to do what is right and will use the commandments of God that we find in the Bible as guides for our behavior. In this case the doing of the law flows from grace.

Moving through the day: Pray a prayer of thanksgiving for God's love and grace and pledge to God to work even harder at being a “good Christian.”

Scripture:

 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 98 Sing to the Lord a New Song

Time to reflect: It is hard to imagine that at one time the Psalms were all “new songs” – fresh, original, exciting. Responding to God's goodness, we can either/both use these classics like Psalm 98 or write new ones.

Moving Throughout the day: If you were to write a “new song” to praise the Lord, what would it be about? What would it be like?

 Scripture:

Sing to the LORD a new song,
       for he has done marvelous things;
       his right hand and his holy arm
       have worked salvation for him.

 The LORD has made his salvation known
       and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

  He has remembered his love
       and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
       all the ends of the earth have seen
       the salvation of our God.

  Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,
       burst into jubilant song with music;

  make music to the LORD with the harp,
       with the harp and the sound of singing,

 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn—
       shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

  Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
       the world, and all who live in it.

  Let the rivers clap their hands,
      Let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the LORD,
       for he comes to judge the earth.
       He will judge the world in righteousness
       and the peoples with equity.

 

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson Acts 10:44-48 The boundaries fall

Time to reflect: The early church struggled with its identity. Was God's Spirit limited to only the (old) Chosen People, Israel? Or did the Christ event open the promises to all people? In this story, Peter demonstrated clearly that it was the latter. Everything else is history...

Moving through the day: What boundaries do we set up to limit God? How do we try to keep God for ourselves? These boundaries may not be obvious (race, politics, etc) but can be subtle divisions. If the Church could break down such a basic division as Jew vs Gentile, what other boundary can stand?

Scripture:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

   Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Deuteronomy 4:31-39 A chosen people

Time to reflect: It was not unusual for a nation to feel they had a pet god to take care of them. Such gods were viewed as being limited to a particular geographical area. It was unusual if not unique for Israel to think that their god was the God of all people and all territories. They didn't just happen to live in a god's territory, but The God, had specifically chosen them for special attention. The implications of this they always struggled with. Some took it as a right of birth, others a privilege, others a responsibility. Isaiah and other felt it was so they would be a “light unto the nations” that this was a method for God to reach all humans everywhere by putting “agents” on the ground. Sometimes Israel were good agents and sometimes they weren't.

In Christian theology, we view the Church as God's new Chosen People (not supplanting, but in addition to) and new agents.

Moving through the day: What kind of agents of God is the Church of today? Pray that today you may be a good agent, representing God in the world.

 Scripture:

For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

The Lord Is God

  Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 3Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

  You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

  Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Judges 7:1-21 True Holy War

Time to reflect: The point of this passage is that God didn't want to leave any room for Gideon or the Israelites to claim any credit in the impending battle. The “army” is pared down to a small number of the most incompetent soldiers (those who stick their head in the water to drink rather than alertly keeping the head up to watch for enemies). There was no possible way for them to win anything – by earthly logic. It took a LOT of trust to accept God's plan here.

Moving through the day: How much do you trust God? Do you set things up so you get to claim credit even when the outcome is not entirely a result of your ability? As you go through the day think about these issues in relation to your real life situations.

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The LORD said to Gideon, "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

  But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."

 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

  The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
      Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the LORD said to Gideon, "Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

  Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed."

 His friend responded, "This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands."

  When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands." Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.

 "Watch me," he told them. "Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, 'For the LORD and for Gideon.' "

  Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!" While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: Jeremiah 7:7-8 Trust

Time to reflect: When we are assured that God is with us and that we need to trust God, it doesn't mean that everything is going to be hunky-dory. The only reason we need to know that we can trust God is that we sometimes will have terrible, overwhelming times in our lives. The Psalmists speak of trust when things are going badly for them. It is what gets them through the bad times.

Moving Through The Day: What does it mean to you to “trust” God? Do you expect something miraculous to change everything for the better? Or do you find it to be a comfort for surviving the crisis?

then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.