Ponderings

Devotionals, prayer & insights from my Bible reading

This week’s devos

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Well, dear readers, I got as far as sending the devotionals to my church media team and completely forgot to post them here. Oops, sorry! I decided to use the great suggestion that one reader offered of revisiting some previous posts, at least for the summer months while I’m trying to move and prepare for a new job. In case you’ve been holding your breath 🙂 , here’s this week’s new-again devo and daily posts through today:

 

Gather ’round the table (Prayer Devotional for the week of June 1, 2014)

What do meal times look like at your house? Do you have formal place settings with stemware, cloth napkins, coordinating dinner plates and [real] silverware? Do you have to-go boxes with plastic utensils, paper napkins and soft drinks? Do you have mismatched, hand-me-down dishes and plastic tumblers? Does it matter? What is the purpose of meal times? Meal times boil down to two things: eating and togetherness.

We have to eat; that’s a given. Cooking a meal can be a fun adventure in trying out new recipes. Figuring out what to make with what’s left in the pantry two days before payday can be a good exercise for the imagination! Even Leftovers Night can be enjoyable if you give it a silly name like “Buffet Surprise.”

Meal time is also an opportunity to pause and thank God for his provision. If you have kids, why not invite them to take turns saying a blessing for the meal? Even if they thank God for a litany of everything except the food, then it’s still a good practice to get into. Meal time is more than just shoveling food in our faces; it’s the building block of community. It’s a chance to unwind from the stress of the day, reconnect as a family and refuel our bodies. What if you don’t have a family to gather around the table with each day? You might consider meal time as your chance to invite God to join you at your table; set it apart as a devotional time with the Lord. As you refuel your body with food, refuel your spirit with prayer or reading.

The Old Testament – especially the books of Kings, Samuel and Chronicles – has many references to the king’s table. It was a place of honor, to say the least. Your dinner table can also be a place of honor – for your family and for your unseen guest. This week, let’s invite the Lord to be our unseen guest – not only at our dinner table, but throughout our day.

Originally posted April 3, 2011

Sunday:  If you don’t have the habit of praying at mealtime, try it today. Thank him for his provision.    Already pray? Say it a different way today.

Monday:  Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. He is nourishing to our spirit. He is satisfying. He fulfills our every need. Thank him today.

Tuesday:  Try something new at mealtime today. Use the fancy dishes; sit in different seats; eat with your   non-dominant hand. Be joyful.

Wednesday:  Think about someone in your life who needs a sense of community. Invite them over for dinner … to your Life group … to church!

Thursday:  Open your pantry. Even if all you find is beans & rice, thank God for it. We are richly blessed! Thank him today for his abundance.

Outgrowing Habits (Prayer Devotional for the week of May 25, 2014)

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What are some of your habits? Brushing your teeth twice a day? Checking your smartphone at stop lights? Sitting in the same spot at the dinner table or church? Going to the gym after work? Kicking off your shoes when you get home? Watching certain TV shows? I reckon that most of our daily habits are simply routines that we’ve developed over time.

Other habits, though, can be detrimental to our health – not only physically, but also spiritually. We don’t care to admit such habits to ourselves, much less talk about them openly. These are the ones we go to when we’re upset, when we want to escape, when we feel down … the things we expose to our bodies, our eyes, our minds, under the guise of making us feel better, if only temporarily … or the things we say, do, and think when we feel threatened, hurt, or entitled.

God calls us to a better life than this, dear friends. As we grow closer to Christ, we need to break the habits that used to ensnare us. Check out what Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians (3:8-10, ERV): “But now put these things out of your life: anger, losing your temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and saying shameful things. Don’t lie to each other. You have taken off those old clothes—the person you once were and the bad things you did then. Now you are wearing a new life, a life that is new every day. You are growing in your understanding of the one who made you. You are becoming more and more like him.”

I would be lying through my teeth if I claimed to have mastered all of this. I have too many habits that I still struggle with, and I’ve been a believer for nearly 30 years. If eliminating poor choices was easy, then we’d all be fit, no one would struggle with addiction, gossip would be unheard of, husbands and wives would model Christ in their marriages, kids would obey their parents, and we’d all manage our tempers and finances.

If it sounds too good to be true, remember that the objective isn’t necessarily perfection. Reread the verse from Colossians above. We are growing; we are becoming more like Christ. Change doesn’t always happen overnight, but as the poet wrote in Psalm 119:55, we choose every day whether to follow God or revert back to our old ways: “Lord, in the night I remembered your name, and I obeyed your teachings.”