PrayerBits for Sunday

PrayerBits

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

Sunday

Scripture lesson: John 16:12-15 The Spirit

Time to Reflect: The Holy Spirit is sometimes the quiet one: that aspect or person of God that points away from itself to Jesus. But it is how God communicates with us today.

Moving through the day: Silently sit still for 5 minutes, devoid of agendas and wishes and prayers of words. Try to be in a receptive mode to ?hear? (intuit) God's spirit.

Scripture:

 John 16:12-15

¹²?I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

 

 

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Romans 5:1-5 The value of suffering

Time to reflect: With varying images, the teacher is trying to get students to not take these important lessons lightly but be thoroughly committed to them.

Moving through the day: Think through the sequence in verses 3-5. Do you agree? Has this been your experience? Where has it broken down for you? Do you know what you should be hoping for?

Scripture:

Romans 5:1-5

5Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God?s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 

 

PrayerBits for Saturday

PrayerBits

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

Saturday

Scripture lesson: Romans 5:1-5 The value of suffering

Time to reflect: With varying images, the teacher is trying to get students to not take these important lessons lightly but be thoroughly committed to them.

Moving through the day: Think through the sequence in verses 3-5. Do you agree? Has this been your experience? Where has it broken down for you? Do you know what you should be hoping for?

Scripture:

Romans 5:1-5

5Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God?s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 

 

PrayerBits for Friday

PrayerBits

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

Friday

Scripture Lesson: Psalm 47 Babylon's time is coming

Time to reflect: This Psalm has the same message as Genesis chapter 1: That humans are the culmination of the creation and God's finest creature.

Moving through the day: As the finest creature are behaving like a child with special gifts and responsibilities or like a spoiled only child making demands?

Scripture:

Psalm 8

¹O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

²Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;

⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

⁷all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

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

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Proverbs 8:1-4;22-31 Wisdom

Time to Reflect: How seriously to take this personification of wisdom can distract us from the message. Wisdom is not a demi-god but this passage is simply trying to make us to recognize the value of wisdom and rationality, and that the universe is rational. In our modern scientific world we're seeing how amazingly rational it is ? and the limits of our understanding and wisdom.

Moving Through the Day: Praise and thank God for a rational creation and ask for wisdom on our part.

Scripture:  

Proverbs 8:1-4;22-31

8Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
²On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
⁴?To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.

²²The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
²³Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth?
²⁶when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world?s first bits of soil.
²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

 

PrayerBits for Wednesday

PrayerBits

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

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 5:17-20?One of Jesus' hard sayings

Time to reflect: This sounds if Jesus expects us to live up to the Jewish Law, and to do it better than the Pharisees, who did it better than anyone. In fact in the following passages, verses 21-48 Jesus ramps up the requirements to the level of impossible. Someone might be able to live up to one or another of these requirements, but not all. The good news is that once we abandon the idea of earning our salvation we can rely on Jesus to save us in spite of our failings. Doing right and good, then becomes a matter of thanksgiving rather than an impossible standard to try to attain.

Moving through the Day: Confess some sin, then accept God's grace and salvation. Rejoice and commit yourself to doing something to improve your life.

Scripture:

Matthew 5:17-20

¹⁷?Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

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

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Deuteronomy 6:1-6 The Shema

Time to reflect: Verse 4 is considered to be the heart of and most basic creed of Judaism. It is certainly in the top 5 for Christianity. To live up to this whole passage would require a high level of devotion, yet this is what we are called to. [A technical issue in verse 5: ?heart? for the Biblical writers wasn't the seat of emotion as we use the word, but the seat of reason and intelligence. ?Soul? is actually one's ?total being? not just one's ?spiritual side.?]

Moving through the day: work up a plan for moving your life a little closer to the commands of this passage.

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 6:1-6

The Great Commandment

6Now this is the commandment?the statutes and the ordinances?that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, ²so that you and your children and your children?s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. ³Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^{* 5}You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

 

 

 

 

PrayerBits for Monday

PrayerBits

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

Monday

1 Samuel 16:1-13 Replacement

Scripture lesson:  King Saul was chosen by God to be King over Israel, but he couldn't handle the power and responsibility (he was a military man not a politician). He became increasingly violent and unpredictable and God needed to replace him. [As Prophet, it was Samuel's job to anoint into office all kings.]

Time to reflect: Where do you see power abused? Are there areas in your life where you have a little power? How well do you handle it?

 1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

 2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me."
      The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."

 4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"

 5 Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

 6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."

 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"
      "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."
      Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down [a] until he arrives."

 12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
      Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."

 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.