Prayer Practice
Prayer Journal – To begin
your daily worship today, grab a pen and paper and write out a prayer to God.
Not sure what to write? Try using ACTS to frame your prayer. Begin with
adoration for who God is. Then move on to confession – being real about where
you have fallen short in the last day or two. Give thanks to God for all that
He gives (including forgiveness for the sin you just confessed!). And then
finish with supplication – with your prayer requests to God. When you are done,
tuck this away somewhere (so you can read it later and see how God has answered
your prayers) and then move into hearing from God through His Word.
DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Dual Identities
by Mary McGinnis
When I went to interview for my first “big girl” job, I was living in Missouri. I had an older cousin, whom I had not seen since I was a small child, who was a Vice President at a Community Savings and Loan in the Saint Louis area.
The one thing I remember from that day is that my cousin assured me that I would not be granted this job as a favor, but I would have to prove I was qualified. Next, he asked me a very strange question.
This probing question seemed odd to me at the time, but now in hindsight, he was seeking to find out whose character and personality I most identified with, whose nature naturally radiated through me.
In today’s reading, the gospel writer, Luke, is helping us see Jesus true identity. After Jesus is baptized, the voice of His Father bellows from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” He is undeniably His Father’s Son!
When the Lord appeared before Moses in Exodus, He says, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
Jesus embodied this identity,
the full nature of God, the LORD.
Yet, as we continue today’s reading, we see the lineage of Jesus humanness. Luke painstakingly researches and records the genealogy of Jesus, but Luke’s account differs from that found in Matthew. Luke begins with “being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph.” Scholars have found that this account in Luke is Jesus’ lineage through His mother, Mary.
What is the significance of Jesus, being the son of Mary (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son Heli, the
son of . . . . . . the son of Adam, the son of God? Why do we need to know this truth?
Jesus had a human mother. He was a real person, not just a fable or fairytale. God came in the flesh!
Philippians 2:7-8 says: “(Jesus) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time. He took on the identity of both His Heavenly Father and His earthly mother. He did this for YOU!
How does this truth speak to your heart today?
Take time to journal some of your thoughts as part of your prayer practice today.
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