Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:16-17
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalms 119:105
In a recent blog post (HERE) I encouraged the people of Peace to tell others about the Bible verses they have been reading lately. This of course raises the frequent question of how we can make the Bible a more important part of our daily lives.
One of the more popular ways of reading the Scriptures is based on Martin Luther’s letter to his barber entitled A Simple Way to Pray. The folks at Mount Caramel Ministries in Minnesota have a nice website that explains this method using the acronym T.R.I.P. (Thanks, Regret, Intercession, and Purpose). You can read about this approach and how it can be used with the very brief Moravian Daily Texts by clicking HERE. Another popular approach to reading the Bible as part of devotions is Lectio Divina which you can read about HERE.
The approach I generally use in my daily devotions goes something like this:
- I pray for wisdom and humility.
- I read the Bible passage over and over — at least four or five times.
- As I read the passage several times I notice that certain words and phrases tend to jump out at me and I make note of them.
- I meditate on the text and ask myself several questions including:
- Where is the Law? What does this passage reveal about our sin and our need for the Savior?
- Where is the Gospel? How does this scripture passage point us to Jesus Christ and the mercy he brings to us?
- Where is the Service? How is this scripture passage challenging us to glorify God by serving others? - I pray again – this time including some of the themes I picked up during my reflection on the passage.
Here is an example.
Pick a Bible Passage: I try to read several Psalms each day and I have found the list of daily Psalm readings in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to be very helpful — by following this schedule you can read through the entire book of Psalms every month (to see it click HERE). I know a lot of people who read just a few verses of scripture a day..but they tend to meditate on them deeply. If would like to begin with smaller portions of the Bible for your daily devotions then you might want to check out the Moravian Daily Texts (HERE).
(NB. God willing I will soon be able to provide a review of the Treasury of Daily Prayer that will be published early next month..this looks like it will be a fantastic resource for daily devotions that includes OT and NT reading, the Small Catechism, a service of morning and evening prayer, readings from the saints and the Lutheran Confessions, the Psalter, and much much more….. To check it out click HERE and HERE)
According the Book of Common Prayer the Psalms for the 23rd day of the month are as follows:
Morning prayer — Psalms 110, Psalms 111, Psalms 112, Psalms 113.
Evening prayer — Psalms 114, Psalms 115, Psalms 116.
Begin with prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you given me the privilege of studying your word — open my heart and mind to your will and use it to conform me to Christ..I pray this in Jesus’ name — Amen
Read and Notice: Today I spent time meditating on Psalm 112:1-10. It find it helpful to read out loud- as I did the following words and phrases jumped out at me:
Psalms 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!
It’s interesting that there is such a close connection between the fear of God and things like blessing and delight – and yet I am like a lot of people who seem to have a phobia about speaking up about the fear of God. I was reminded of Ps. 111:10 where it says that" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".
(2) His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. (3) Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. (4) Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
I was reminded of Jesus is the light of the world and the only perfectly upright – gracious, merciful, and righteous – person who ever existed. I was also struck by what a blessing it is to have God sending people into my life who are being lead to be gracious, merciful, and righteous — and then I wondered why I haven’t spent more time thanking God for this blessing.
(5) It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice.
What stood out in this verse was how generosity and lending — not giving –are associated with justice in this particular psalm. I might want to look at this connection a little closer some time.
(6) For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. (7) He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. (8) His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
At this point I was struck by how easy it is to be moved — agitated — overwhelmed by bad news — and how this is a sign of unrighteousness — how many times in the last week have I listened to people who are worried about the economy and let their anxiety infect me..and all of us really need to hear the good news of God’s sovereignty in all things -especially in these times. What does this say about the idols of my heart? Is there a part of me that still wants to trust the once Almighty 401(k)? Again and again I must come back to the truth..Trust in the Lord!
(9) He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor. (10) The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!
Once again I was reminded of how God connects true righteousness to generosity to the poor.
Conclude with prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you that you have opened my head and heart to your holy word — forgive me for my fear of circumstances..when I should only be fearing you …and drive me away from the false idol of financial security — keep me looking at Jesus Christ and his perfect goodness, mercy, and generosity that allows me to come to you today– and help me be more generous to the poor . I pray this in Jesus’ name — amen.
You will notice that there is nothing magic about this process. My goal is to be open to what God might be saying to me today. The "insights" are not particularly deep. Sometimes I notice a lot of things- sometimes I notice very little. You will probably notice different things in this text than I did. If I were to read this same Psalm tomorrow or next week a different set of words and phrases might jump out at me and I would be led to pray for something different. The same goes for you. What would remain the same is that God will be at work in every situation to lead us to focus our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ-and to share what we have learned with others.
