Prayer Practice
Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.
Daily Reading
REFLECTION
One More Time
by Judy Webb
"My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’” (Ezekiel 37:27-28)
Ezekiel was a prophet to the Jews in exile. Isn't that just like God to provide someone like Ezekiel for these people who were taken captive because of their behavior and their unwillingness to repent. Ezekiel told them prior to the Babylonian conquest, that there would be consequences if they did not change, and it wouldn't be pretty.
Ezekiel was gathered up right alongside the people he was preaching to. He was taken prisoner right along with them and I can only think that God provided for His people one more time. The year was 597 B.C. - and for 70 years the people lived imprisoned in a land not of their birth. In fact, by the time the 70 years were over, many (if not most) of those taken captive had died. Their children and grandchildren remained as they were finally released and led back to their homeland.
During their time of captivity, Ezekiel changed his message from one of harsh judgment of God to the promise of the future. Ezekiel's words of hope still ring in our ears today. We may be able to draw a parallel line between the Jews of that day, and the Christians of today. The year 597 B.C. may have been uttered with as much disdain as we spit out the year 2020. So much change, so very life changing and emotional.
They were forced to change everything about the lives they were comfortable with; and we experienced much the same. It might not seem as earth shattering to us today as it did to our ancestors of that year, but the repercussions to yet be discovered, could say otherwise. Faithfully, God has been with us, just as He was with them. The hope we feel and experience is from the same God who provided Ezekiel with the words of promise for a bright tomorrow. When we listen closely we can still hear God promising us today: My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Ezekiel 37:27)Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for your faithfulness to us even when we didn't reciprocate. Thank you for loving us when we are not very loveable. Thank you for your promise to be with us and for calling us your people. Amen.
by Judy Webb
"My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’” (Ezekiel 37:27-28)
Ezekiel was a prophet to the Jews in exile. Isn't that just like God to provide someone like Ezekiel for these people who were taken captive because of their behavior and their unwillingness to repent. Ezekiel told them prior to the Babylonian conquest, that there would be consequences if they did not change, and it wouldn't be pretty.
Ezekiel was gathered up right alongside the people he was preaching to. He was taken prisoner right along with them and I can only think that God provided for His people one more time. The year was 597 B.C. - and for 70 years the people lived imprisoned in a land not of their birth. In fact, by the time the 70 years were over, many (if not most) of those taken captive had died. Their children and grandchildren remained as they were finally released and led back to their homeland.
During their time of captivity, Ezekiel changed his message from one of harsh judgment of God to the promise of the future. Ezekiel's words of hope still ring in our ears today. We may be able to draw a parallel line between the Jews of that day, and the Christians of today. The year 597 B.C. may have been uttered with as much disdain as we spit out the year 2020. So much change, so very life changing and emotional.
They were forced to change everything about the lives they were comfortable with; and we experienced much the same. It might not seem as earth shattering to us today as it did to our ancestors of that year, but the repercussions to yet be discovered, could say otherwise. Faithfully, God has been with us, just as He was with them. The hope we feel and experience is from the same God who provided Ezekiel with the words of promise for a bright tomorrow.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for your faithfulness to us even when we didn't reciprocate. Thank you for loving us when we are not very loveable. Thank you for your promise to be with us and for calling us your people. Amen.
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