Paul preaches at Rome under guard

  Prayer Practice

Breath Prayer – Take 2-3 minutes today to pray a simple breath prayer. Get somewhere quiet and relaxing. Breathe in deeply, and then breathe out fully. As you breathe in, ask God to fill you with His presence, grace, love, peace, etc. Consider using the list of spiritual fruit in Galatians 5:22-23. As you breathe out, offer to God the things you need Him to take from you – sin, doubt, shame, anxiety, fear, etc. Pray this way for just a few minutes, trusting God to work, and then begin reading today’s Scripture.

DAILY READING

Acts 28:17-31

REFLECTION

If You Would Only

 by Kelsey Bacon

One of my (many) flaws as a human being is my desire to be right. Maybe some of you can relate to this desire--or maybe all of you can relate to this desire. I think it's an inherent part of sinful human nature, our need to show that we are good enough or smart enough or clever enough by our rightness. And when we're wrong, it can be difficult to face. Sometimes it's as small as being absolutely POSITIVE that a certain actress is in a movie, only to find out through a quick Google search that she isn't. But sometimes, our wrongness is bigger. And when we realize it, we are faced with decisions on how to deal with it. Or we don't realize it at all; we are so stuck in our own rightness that we can't even come to terms with the fact that we could be wrong.

This is the kind of human nature problem that I forget about when I read about the Jewish leaders in the New Testament. I think about Paul preaching to them, I think about Jesus dying on that cross and coming back to life. How could they possibly not believe after all that? Were they really that ignorant? So stuck in their own legalistic ways, so obsessed with their own version of righteousness that they couldn't even fathom that they might be wrong. I think, "If you would only just listen, you would know the truth and be saved!" 

And then I read verses 26 and 27. This beautiful piece of poetry from Isaiah 6. And as I read, I feel a conviction from the Holy Spirit. Where in my life is God saying to me, "If you would only see with your eyes, hear with your ears, understand with your heart, and turn to me, I would heal you!"

It is so easy for us to get wrapped up in our own rightness, especially when that rightness is disguised as righteousness--when we think we are doing exactly what God wants, but we haven't stopped to ask him. We can build up an illusion in our own mind of what we think God wants, of who we think God is, even. But really, it's our own thoughts, opinions, and actions behind that illusion. Our desire to be right can sometimes permeate deeper than we realize.

But God desires something different for us. He desires us to so completely abandon our own selves that we rely solely to him and nothing else, because everything else is unreliable. On God alone can we rely for unending truth and love. It's terrifying and uncomfortable and so hard. But when we give ourselves up to him, we step deeper into who God truly made us to be.

Reflect today and pray: Ask God to reveal in your heart when you have been blinded by your own desire to be right. Seek forgiveness for the times when you have desired your own rightness over God's desires for you, for those around you, and for the world. Ask God to soften your heart to listen to his voice first and foremost, and to help you give your whole self to him.