PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 130 A Psalm of Lament

Time to reflect: I love the way so many Psalms of Lament end with absolute confidence in God's love, forgiveness and salvation.

Moving Throughout the day: Some people find it hard to confess. Other people find it hard to accept forgiveness. Other people find it hard to be hopeful. Where do you stand?

 Scripture:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

  O Lord, hear my voice.
       Let your ears be attentive
       to my cry for mercy.

  If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
       O Lord, who could stand?

  But with you there is forgiveness;
       therefore you are feared.

  I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
       and in his word I put my hope.

 My soul waits for the Lord
       more than watchmen wait for the morning,
       more than watchmen wait for the morning.

 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
       for with the LORD is unfailing love
       and with him is full redemption.

  He himself will redeem Israel
       from all their sins.

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson I Samuel 1:1,17-27 Love thy enemies

Time to reflect: Saul was David's enemy and kept trying to kill David. David passed up at least one easy chance at killing Saul, and in this passage, laments his death.

Moving through the day: Are there any people you need to respect and forgive in the same fashion as David for Saul?

Scripture:

1 Samuel 1

The Birth of Samuel

  There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."

  She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

  Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."

Hannah Dedicates Samuel

 When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always."

  "Do what seems best to you," Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

  After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Wednesday

Scripture lesson: Malachi 4:1-2 Which category are we

Time to reflect: There are many harsh passages in Scripture, Old and New Testament. Many of these passages are worded so harshly because they (including Jesus) were trying to get people's attention. If things are worded vaguely or gently they tend to be ignored. Even if some of the harsh passages (such as Matthew 25) are offensive to us, at least we get the point. We need to realize clearly that “the day is coming.” We don't know when that day is but we don't want to have it catch us unaware or unprepared. So... are we going to be stubble or skipping like calves?

Moving through the day: Pray about how to be in the right category when that day comes.

 Scripture:

"Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Isaiah 58:6-8 This is the fast I choose...

Time to reflect: The OT prophets were often concerned that people were substituting ritual for faithfulness. In our day and age, “personal piety” is probably the current danger. The prophets were not opposed to ritual, only that people felt that that was enough. There is nothing wrong with “personal piety” as long as we don't stop there.

Moving through the day: Try to list any spiritual practices you might have and then list matching acts of service to others to go with each spiritual practice.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
       to loose the chains of injustice
       and untie the cords of the yoke,
       to set the oppressed free
       and break every yoke?

  Is it not to share your food with the hungry
       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
       when you see the naked, to clothe him,
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
       and your healing will quickly appear;
       then your righteousness will go before you,
       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

Scripture lesson: Isaiah 40:3-5 The coming of God

Time to reflect: Isaiah knew God was coming, he just didn't know the details (like Jesus' name). He didn't even know how this understanding of his would be played out. So there is a difference between this grand set of figures and its actuation in Jesus (no valleys were actually raised).

Moving Through The Day: Thinking metaphorically, rather than literally, how was the coming of Jesus equivalent to these figures in this passage?

My son, pay attention to what I say;
       listen closely to my words.

  Do not let them out of your sight,
       keep them within your heart;

  for they are life to those who find them
       and health to a man's whole body.

 Above all else, guard your heart,
       for it is the wellspring of life.